Apple iAds – The future of Marketing?

While everyone is excited about the new  ipad,  Apple have also just announced a new mobile advertising platform that is going to accelerate the phenomenal growth of mobile marketing. This new platform is the iAd, that delivers interactive and video content while staying in the app. Apple will sell and host the ads, with a split that gives the app developer 60% and Apple 40% of revenue.

Take a look at this video of  Steve Jobs demonstrating the iAd in action, as he promotes the  new Toy Story 3 movie. When I watched it, I realized that this might well be one of the most disruptive technologies in the history of marketing. Indeed, I believe that every business needs to consider how they are going to utilize mobile marketing in their own campaigns. I have lived through the introduction of email, banner ads, adwords and many other platforms that have presented incredible opportunities. Like many others, I have often “missed the boat” and not benefited from the huge benefits of being an early adopter.

This time around, I am certain that mobile marketing is going to be a phenomenon that savvy early adopters will make a fortune from. Just look at the numbers and you will see that the potential  is simply staggering. Whereas there are 850 million PCs in the world, there are over 4 billion cell phones. It is quite possible that many emerging economies and younger generations will skip PC technology and go straight to the iPhone,  iPAd or similar smart phones.

Even the mighty Google is on board. In February 2010 CEO Eric Schmidt spoke at the mobile world congress in Barcelona, and made this claim about mobile technology “Now is the time for all of us to get behind it. What I would suggest to you here, right now, at Mobile World Congress is to understand that the new rule is ‘mobile first’; mobile first in everything.. it’s time for us to make mobile first the right answer.”  Google has recently launched the Droid, and has been actively trying to acquire Admob the leading mobile advertising firm, despite FDA objections.

If Apple and Google are planing their strategy around mobile,  we need to act quickly. We all need to plan how we are going to use this new platform, and in the next few weeks I will  be writing posts about some applications and best practices to help you.