iAds and iPads: App-Based Ad Targeting

NO MATTER HOW YOU GRAB HOLD OF IT, iPhone 4 was good for Apple's revenues. And the iPad hasn't hurt either. The company posted a 61% year-over-year gain in Q3 largely because of its new devices. Out only three months, the iPad is already bringing in more revenue than the iPod.

Now come the ads and apps designed to let marketers make the most of these leading-edge gizmos. On the iPhone, some apps have started including iAds, highly interactive marketing that can be opened by clicking on the ad within the app. The program is a closed test right now, with participation from selected brands: Walt Disney, Nissan, Unilever, Campbell Soup, Best Buy and Target among them. These pioneers have reportedly agreed to spend a collective $60 million on iAds in the first year.

The Dove ad, produced by Ryan Partnership for the Men+Care grooming line, opens with a click on the banner at the bottom of selected apps (offered in the App Store in both paid and ad-supported versions). It offers short video clips of ballplayer spokesmen Albert Pujols and Andy Pettite, a Dove for Men TV spot, an entry form to win an autographed baseball and an interactive scratch-off instant-win game for more baseballs or product coupons.

App-based ad targeting: Unilever is using non-personal data culled from iTunes to get its ad in front of the right target iPhone demographic. “Apple combined our insights and usage data pulled from iTunes to identify apps that our consumers interact with frequently,” says Stacie Bright, senior communications marketing manager at Unilever. “The content will be found on applications that offer both information and utilities that are relevant to men, such as news, sports and music.”

While some of the ad content is also used in Dove+Men's social campaigns and Web site, the iAd will be the only place to play the instant win game or take a 360-degree tour of Pujols' and Pettite's dens. Plus, the app offers a map of stores near the iPhone user that sell Dove+Men products.

In time, iAds will appear for the iPad too. But what's making noise right now is that tablet's apps themselves — including a big July rollout by Kraft Foods, “Big Fork, Little Fork,” conveying ways to teach kids about nutrition. The app, developed with Meredith Integrated Marketing and mobile agency the Hyperfactory, offers meal tips, videos and shopping utilities for parents and interactive food games and lessons for their children.

The iPad's 10-by-8 inch screen offers a user experience much different from Kraft's highly popular iFood Assistant smartphone app, launched in late 2008. “Letting a parent navigate around a virtual tabletop using the touchscreen is just something you couldn't do on another device,” says Ed Kaczmarek, Kraft's director of innovation in consumer experience.

Kraft branding on the app is purposely light, and nonexistent in the games section. “This is a utility more than branding,” Kaczmarek says. “We want to drive maximum consumer lifetime value, and this is an opportunity to develop long-lasting relationships.”

If Kraft's iPhone experience is any guide, those brand relations may be long indeed. Kaczmarek says the iFood Assitant, which just rolled its 2.0 version, continues to engage 85% of the consumers who have downloaded it.

DID YOU KNOW

• 27% of U.S. mobile users who have signed up for location-based alerts — sent automatically when they enter a specific area, as detected by GPS, WiFi or cell towers — say they have been influenced by the alerts to make in-store purchases. (Harris Interactive/ Placecast survey, May 2010)

Got a mobile marketing tip to share? Contact Brian Quinton at [email protected]