Apple’s iAd: iTold You We Could Do Better

Marketers have been trumpeting the promise of “ads as content” for years, but most consumers haven’t really bought into the notion, in large part because it has remained unfulfilled. Ads, whether on the desktop or mobile devices, have been about and for the benefit of the advertiser, not the consumer. With Apple’s introduction today of its iAd mobile ad platform, which promises, in the words of Steve Jobs, to deliver “interaction and emotion,” the balance may shift more in favor the consumer and help the industry move closer to turning that promise into reality.

Steve Jobs’ opinion on the current state of mobile ads is by now well known, so it’s not surprising advertising was the capstone of an event focused on new features and functionality that will facilitate deeper interaction with, among many other things, ads. Today’s introduction of OS 4.0 (check out Mashable for the highlights; go to Apple for the video from the event), which will come to the iPhone/iPod touch this summer and the iPad in the fall, checks most of the boxes on the upgrade wish list, including (in order of introduction):

• Multitasking and app-switching
• Folders for grouping applications
• Unified inbox
• iBooks for the iPhone/iPod touch
• Better enterprise support
• Social gaming
• iAd

But more importantly, today’s announcement revealed an Apple determined to take on all of its competitors simultaneously. Multitasking, folders and a unified inbox are and have been available on other mobile operating systems for some time, but combining them in a single upgrade with stronger e-mail encryption and device management tools clearly indicates a desire to take on the enterprise space, historically the province of BlackBerry and Microsoft.

Adding the ability to synchronize book purchases across Apple devices, a rejoinder to the “three-screen” functionality Amazon introduced last year, again reinforces Apple’s intention to use the iPad to become a major player in the e-book/e-reader market. With gaming, the iPhone and iPod touch have already emerged as a phenomenally successful platform, and the addition of the iPad will only further cement Apple as a gaming leader. (According to Distimo, for example, games dominate the initial wave of iPad-only apps and have proven more popular than on the iPhone.) By adding the socially-oriented Game Center, with leaderboards, matchmaking and friend invites, to its rich catalog of game titles, Apple likewise has demonstrated how seriously it intends to do battle with the likes of Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft’s Xbox.

The farthest-reaching of the seven so-called “tent poles” unveiled by Apple is iAd mobile ad platform. Ads will continue to be a part of the mobile experience for the foreseeable future (if anything, we will see the introduction of more ad-supported applications), so making ads more involving and less annoying will benefit all parties involved. That’s what iAd aims to do. Rather than taking the user who clicks on a banner outside of the application, iAd will launch a far more interactive experience within the application, almost an application within the application. Apple’s demo included an ad for the upcoming Toy Story 3 film that featured an immersive experience, complete with a theater locator, a game, videos and wallpaper downloads.

There’s a small but growing body of research, borne out by the success of last year’s shakable Levi’s Docker ad, which demonstrates that click-through rates on animated mobile ads index far higher than standard banners. With iAd, consumers look as if they will get more in return for their time and attention. That could pay major dividends for brand marketers, and, in the process, make mobile in general and the Apple platform specifically a far more desirable place to advertise. No need to name the competitor here.