Apple’s iAd team is beginning to make the rounds to prominent agencies around the US to discuss details about its system that haven’t been made public as of yet. Things such as pricing, how they’ll target consumers and the development of ads was left out of the initial announcement, and details are finally starting to leak out.
Ilya Vedrashko of the Hill Holliday ad-agency wrote a rather interesting blog post yesterday in reference to a visit from Apple’s iAd team recently where details of Apple’s plans for mobile advertising were discussed in detail. Among the items discussed in the meeting were Apple’s philosophy and approach to targeting consumers, ad pricing, and the user experience.
Not surprisingly, Apple touted the fact that iAd will have unmatched targeting capabilities because of its unique position within the iPhone OS. The system has the unique opportunity to build thorough profiles of its users and use behavioral targeting to efficiently connect advertisers and consumers. Advertisers will have access to deep profiles compiling user data from iTunes, app purchases, usage and much more.
In terms of development, it was said that Apple will develop all ad-units in-house in the beginning, and will subsequently release an iAd SDK at some point to allow creative developers to take over. Since the ads more or less act as apps, each ad-unit can incorporate all aspects of the iPhone OS- such as multi-touch, accelerometer and more.
In terms of pricing, no details were mentioned in the blog post, though Vedrashko did have this to say; “to answer the burning question — yes, we did talk about the price. Unfortunately, we can’t share much on this either. The pricing isn’t that of remnant inventory, obviously — it is what you would expect from a premier online property. The pricing scheme struck me as very straightforward and elegant.”
