iLounge

By Jesse Hollington

Applications Editor, iLounge (Google+)
Published: Thursday, April 15, 2010
News Category: Apple

Apple has begun visiting advertising agencies to promote its new iAd platform. In a posting on his company’s blog, Hill Holliday advertising executive Ilya Vedrashko shares some details on his meeting with the Apple iAd team. Vedrashko indicated that each published advertisement will carry the iAd logo to differentiate it from other advertising content, that there will be only one advertising banner per screen and that the ads “look and behave a lot like apps” comparing ads to the Zippo lighter app. He also notes that iAds can tap into OS features of the iPhone such as the compass, accelerometer and multitouch interface, and that while all ads will initially be built by Apple’s own iAd team in HTML5, Apple does plan to release an iAd SDK at some point in the future.

Apple also emphasized during this meeting that it is selling advertisers on the iPhone and iPod demographic in general, and not users of any specific app, and that it is lining up “charter” advertisers to be online for the June launch that will produce “high-quality creative” ads. Apple also discussed targeting and pricing during this meeting, and while Vedrashko indicated that he is unable to share any details, he described the targeting as “impressive in its granularity” and the pricing scheme as “straightforward and elegant.” In discussing the targeting, Vedrashko made reference to comments in a January blog post from his colleague Adam Cahill, suggesting that “Adam got more than a few things right” with regard to Apple using consumer metrics from iTunes and the App Store for targeted behavioural advertising.

Apple’s iAd features are part of iPhone OS 4, expected to be released for the iPhone and iPod touch this summer. The iPad will get iAd support later this fall when the iPhone OS 4 update is released for that device. [via Mac Rumors]