Apple CEO Steve Jobs has made it clear that he thinks today’s mobile ads aren’t up to par. However, his company’s solution to it –- iAds –- will come with a hefty price tag; up to $10 million for advertisers that want to be on board for the product’s launch in June.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple is currently courting big brand advertisers for the platform, with minimum buys of upwards of $1 million. The model is a mix of views and performance –- according to WSJ’s report, advertisers will be charged a penny for each view, and $2 for each time a user interacts with the ad using their device.
While the high minimums are obviously cost prohibitive to smaller companies, Apple isn’t rolling out anything AdWords-like at launch either. Instead, the company is working directly with big advertisers, requiring all ads to go through an approval process, and actually building the ads themselves. The features of the ads, from WSJ’s account, are robust, essentially serving as mini-apps within the mobile applications where they’re served.
Certainly, this approach seems in-line with the comments Jobs made about iAds and the current state of mobile advertising when the platform was revealed earlier this month. It’s also very Apple-like in terms of control, with the result likely being aesthetics and interactivity that we haven’t yet seen from mobile ads. Are advertisers going to be willing to pay a big premium for it? That’s what Apple seems to be betting on as they prepare for launch.
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Tags: advertising, apple, iads, MARKETING, Mobile 2.0, mobile advertising, steve jobs
