So apple released details of the new iPhone OS 4.0 today in a keynote speech by Apple CEO Steve Jobs to considerably less fanfare than usual across the web than we normally see.
As an avid twitter user, I sat like most apple fans and twittered the keynote as it happened direct from the excellent coverage provided by gdgt.com. I’ve seen some giddy tweets about some of the new features, I’ve also seen some incorrect statements being twittered and some negative comments, the usual mixed bag that any new announcement from apple produces.
Most are excited and talking heavily about the added multi-tasking feature, the fact that you will be able to keep listening to Pandora while surfing the web or checking your mail from the newly unified mailboxes or even while you organize your apps in to the new folders feature – all good, all great improvements regardless to wether you are an Apple fan or not – everyone can clearly see these are features that will improve the iPhone and it’s family of electronic cousins.
However, I wanted to talk about something that most people are not over excited about, one that really isn’t being heralded as a new user feature – iAds. Apart from the fact that Apple are now becoming a parody of their own jaded naming convention, iAds will feed, direct in to an application, via Apples servers, interactive advertisements in to the bottom of all those free apps we love.
It’s a good thing for developers, a really good thing, and it’s an excellent thing for end users because it encourages and maintains the extent of these free applications, games and widgets we love to download, try and either remove or fall in love with. So what is so revolutionary about this new advertising platform? Let me paint some scenarios for you and explain how this will become a whole new industry – thanks to Apple.
Obviously Apple are gunning for advertising dollars here, they are also attempting to create their own advertising model, platform and, most importantly, they are squeezing out Google before they even get started. They quite simply did what any good company does, they looked at what they have and asked how they can produce more revenue from the same products and still retain ownership and control over their platforms and what people digest.
Some will say it’s the “Microsoft” in Apple coming out again, to be the Big Brother of everything they produce, and to some extent this is correct, but we forget why Apple do things the way they do, and have done for decades now – they like to control everything that an Apple device user has contact with for a very simple reason, if you know what goes in, you know what comes out. Apple produce all the hardware, the OS and offer robust API’s to developers to ensure we get a seamless experience, one Apple have built their empire on.
So why are iAds so groundbreaking? I’ve been a graphic designer, web developer and produced onscreen advertising for movie theaters now for a decade, and in that time I have never seen such a promising method of advertising that is not a one way street. Let me explain.
iAd is a breakthrough mobile advertising platform from Apple. With it, apps can feature rich media ads that combine the emotion of TV with the interactivity of the web. For developers, it means a new, easy-to-implement source of revenue. For advertisers, it creates a new media outlet that offers consumers highly targeted information — Copyright © 2010 Apple Inc.
Traditional advertising such as tv, movie theater, billboards, newspaper and so much more is a single stream, a one way consumption that relies solely on someone being interested and remembering what they saw and acting upon it. An example being that on your drive home you see a billboard for a movie, you then have to remember that movie, remember to go online and remember to order tickets – not the best method and one that relies far too much on the consumer in an era full of distractions.
iAds provides us an opportunity to digest an ad and act upon it instantly, and when we do we can get rewarded for doing so. In his keynote, Jobs showed a simple ad at the bottom of an app for Toy Story 3. Because the ads are presented inside the app and open in the app and “pause” your position in your original application you are using – it’s a safe click and a good start. Once open we are presented with a microsite for Toy Story 3, and what’s this, a free mini game – you just got rewarded for clicking the ad. Fantastic.
So let’s look at some really cool ideas for these iAds (man I really do think the name sucks) – imagine you using the ESPN app, watching the latest score results for your favorite sport, let’s pick soccer (as it’s the World’s largest and most popular sport before anyone gets on my case) when at the bottom of the app we get a joint promotional advertisement from Nike and LA Galaxy soccer team. You click the link and instantly you are presented with a full screen video advertisement of David Beckham kicking a ball, some fancy camera work and cool sounding music, at the end we get a close up of his new soccer shoes – Nike of course. It then fades out to a microsite to view all the latest Nike soccer products, you can click to view, spin them around 360 degrees, check your size and click “Buy Now” – it uses your iTunes information for one click purchase – no address needed, no credit card, nothing. Don’t want the shoes? No matter, maybe you want a ticket to the next LA Galaxy game, there’s a link right there for you to view the stadium, choose your seat and a single click buy ticket now button. OK so maybe not revolutionary at this point, but still cool and rewarding but very similar to web based advertising, with the exception of the included iTunes account information.
Let’s take another example, one that uses some more unconventional path. You are browsing the IMDB application, and you are viewing the profile of your favorite actor, you get fed an advertisement for the actors new movie – you click to view an exclusive 5 minute trailer available no where else. You finish watching it and are presented with a menu that enables you to download some size specific wallpaper for your iPhone, iPod or iPad directly, nice, free stuff! They have your attention now, and you want to see the movie, so they display a buy tickets button and because you are getting this on a device that can detect your location it can feed you showtimes and prices for the local theaters based on your current location – you click the time you want – set the number of seats and single click purchases everything through your iTunes account details – now we can even show you turn by turn directions on how to get there, right from where you are.
Now I defy anyone to tell me how this is not the single most interactive, rewarding and most progressive advertising model we have ever seen. Trust me, the creative brains behind some of the advertising agencies will come up with some incredibly useful ways of using this technology, and hopefully in the near future Apple will enable advertisers to offer iTunes account integration for purchases and at that point Apple will be holding some serious cards in their hand.
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