I guess it’s true there’s two sides to every story. On the heels of advertisers coming out in praise of iAd just last week, there’s now a report that iAd is “off to a bumpy start,” indicating long delays and Apple’s “tight creative control” as contributing factors.
The Wall Street Journal ran a story over the weekend citing ad executives familiar with the process saying ad campaigns are experiencing major delays while agencies struggle to learn a new system. Most blame Apple’s tight control over the creative process as a roadblock as well. “It’s a huge issue having Apple in the creative mix,” said Patrick Moorhead, director of mobile platforms at DraftFCB, an ad agency owned by Interpublic Group of Cos.
The article said that of the 17 launch partners Apple named for iAd, only Unilever and Nissan had iAd campaigns for much of July. Agency say they aren’t used to having a company like Apple have so much control over the processes, and its contributing to campaigns taking about eight to 10 weeks from brainstorm to completion — much longer than necessary for most mobile ads. The building of the actual ad, handled by Apple, in some cases is taking two weeks longer than expected, the article said.
It was even reported that at least one company appears to have dropped their iAd efforts altogether for now. Luxury marketer Chanel SA, one of Apple’s iAd launch partners, said it “no longer had a campaign planned at this time.” Whatever the case may be, Apple is still definitely working the kinks out of the concept.
