On the heels of Steve Jobs publishing his harsh criticism of Adobe and its Flash technology in general this morning, Greystripe CEO Michael Chang issued a response firing back at Jobs saying “open or not, Apple’s Flash ban creates huge issues for advertisers.”
The underlying message in Chang’s response is clear; nearly all ad creative is built using Flash, and Apple needs to face it. “Apple’s choice not to support Flash on its mobile devices creates huge roadblocks for advertisers,” Chang said in his response. “Today, it cannot be understated that almost 100% of agencies and their brand advertisers develop ad creatives in Flash using Adobe tools.”
He also criticizes Apple’s emphasis on HTML5, based on the fact that few development tools exist for creative purposes. “Currently, there are no comparable tools to create ads in HTML5, open or not, he continued. “This is partially an explanation as to why Apple/Quattro has opted to create the initial iAds, because no one else can, at least not in HTML5.”
Chang previously expressed his concerns with Apple’s “anti-Flash” mantra earlier this month when iAds was first announced, and has a pretty good reason for keeping a close eye on the Apple/Flash debacle. Greystripe itself is known for its rich media “iFlash” ads which use transcoding methods to being a “Flash-like” experience to Apple’s Flash-less devices.
Chang concluded with a quote from Lars Bastholm, chief digital creative officer at Ogilvy, in his response today which seems to summarize the sentiment felt in many ad-agencies regarding Apple and Steve Jobs’ stance on Flash; “As a creative director, I can completely understand that they created this new baby and they want to make sure it gets born looking gorgeous. But as a creative director, I don’t feel completely comfortable letting Apple do the creative.”
