iAd-- The new advertising buzz word

Although it lacked a new iPhone, the Apple iPhone OS 4 announcement this afternoon will leave users, developers and advertisers anything short of disappointed.  Steve Jobs unveiled iAd, Apples advertising platform that will enable advertisers to create ads that will run within applications, instead of connecting users to Safari and out of the app. This process has discouraged users from clicking on in-App ads. 

iAd opens the doors for mobile advertising to become relevant.  Steve Jobs exaplained, "We have a lot of free or reasonably priced apps... we like that, but our devs have to find ways to make money. So our devs are putting ads into apps, and for lack of a better way to say it, we think most of this kind of advertising sucks."  Consumers seek out interaction online, and ad's need more than a little bit of motion  to pull people in, especially on the small screen real estate of an iPhone. 

There are five key features of iAd:
1) Emotion and Interaction
2) Ads keep you in the app
3) Built into iPhone OS
4) Apple sells AND hosts the ads
5) 60% of revenues --> developers

It's going to be interesting to see how advertisers and clients will adapt to this new mobile platform.  Job's demoed an ad for the new Toy Story 3 movie on the iAd platform, and it included embedded videos, posters and even games.  It's almost like an sub-app within an app.  But here is the kicker: it's all built using HTML5. 

HTML5 is a major hot topic for mobile advertising and rich media, in general.  The question will become, are agencies going to be will to develop content for iAd since it will only reach about 40% of the US population of phone users.  It has potential, but we must wait and see what developers can do with it.

The iAd: Another "i" from Apple

As chatter builds around the iPad as April 3rd quickly approached, another "i" has been announced by Steve Jobs -- The iAd.  The iAd, to be unleashed upon advertisers on April 7th, will be a personalized, mobile advertising system and his been described as "extraordinary"and "our next big thing" by head of Apple's Jobs.

No really details have been released, but it is speculated to utilize Apple's new acquired mobile ad unit, Quattro.  It will be another battlefield for Google and Apple to wage war, since Google recently agreed to buy AdMob.  They are taking the war to Madison Advertisers, and who ever makes the most ad dollars wins.

Mobile advertising is seen as the new vehicle through which advertisers can create innovative and engaging advertisements to recapture an audience that is constantly on the go.  Apple has captivated advertisers with the App Store and ability to build branded apps that consumers actively seek out, and is presenting them with a new opportunity for limitless interactive and immersive ad spaces within e-publications, such as those to be released by The Wall Street Journal and Sports Illustrated, to be offered on the new "tablet" device.  

It is believed advertisers will be able to "hypertarget" consumers "based on their geographic proximity", which will open up new opportunities to location-based advertising.  The media world will be sitting by eagerly waiting to witness the unveiling of Apple's mobile ad platform.  It has a great deal of potential, but will advertisers, as well as consumers, take the bait.  As of last week, only 200,000 iPad's were pre-ordered, higher than initial iPhone purchases, but is this audience size worth the high price of ad space?