Apple’s heavy involvement with iADs is starting to irk some

What started off as a godsend for some companies has quickly turned into a nitpicking affair. iADs seem to be off to a slow start according to the Wall Street Journal, and according to their sources, they don’t seem too enthusiastic about it.  Chanel has already shelved their campaign, and others have indicated that they’re taking a measured approach to creating their advertisements.  Rumours on the street says that it’s taking upwards of 10 weeks from creation to completion, and that it’s making it difficult to plan an iAD around a promotion.

Take for instance JC Penny, an initial launch partner, who were trying to create an iAD for the back to school season—it seems like time’s running out for them—September is just around the corner.

Some people have made a lot of money from iADs

The early success of the iAD network saw Apple eat up the lion’s share of online advertising money, they announced 17 launch partners including both Walt Disney and Nissan, and the enterance fees for iAD campaign was steep. Big money from advertisers means big money for publishers, and the first developer who was lucky enough to get iADs into his application took home a staggering $1,372.20 in a ridiculously short time. His calculated eCPM is coming in at $51.49, which is well over the sub $1.00 mark most companies are used to these days. It’s been claimed by Apple that they’re going to be charging 10.00 CPM and a 2.00 CPC for the advertisements, of which 60% will find its way into the developers pockets.

Where have all the iADs gone?

There’s clearly a market for iADs, but if there’s no ads to serve up, no one’s going to be making money. To date, only 2 iAds have been pushed out to the public, Nissan and Unilever PLC, and the Wall Street Journal is telling us that companies are starting to get skiddish over Apple’s involvement. So, what do we have to say about this? How about, LOL. Anyone willing to drop money on an iAD, considering the costs up front, should have done some research about Apple Inc. before they poneyed up the money. Apple’s clearly perfectionists, and they clearly control every minute detail in and out of the company. It’s not really surprising that they’ve had a heavy hand in dealing with iADs, and that they’re not willing to let crappy advertisements find their way onto our mobile devices. If they don’t like what they see, they’re not going to publish the advertisement. The whole point of the iADs exercise was to create a better advertisement for the iPhone, and in doing so, changing up how these ads are being created and displayed is objective number one.

It could be an Achilles heal for Apple, but taking a slow measured approach to these advertisements is something that consumers should be thankful for. Apple’s trying to change the way we see ads on digital devices, and if longer development time means more accurate advertisements that are immersive, then I’m all for it. If it looks like spam, we’re not going to click anyway.

Article Via Wall Street Journal

Image Credit: myuibe

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive.