Thoughts on iAd

Came across some required reading from Battelle today on the iAd platform.

iAd was announced at the iPhone 4.0 SDK event and managed to serve as the undercard for such features as multitasking!!! folders!!! unified email inbox!!! – while managing to solicit a collective “huh?” from the marketplace.

The announcement came with all of the requisite buzzwords – revolutionize, magical, emotion, engagement.  But it was difficult not to ask “how?”

Battelle offers the first explanation that surprised me:

Apple is controlling all the creative for iAds (clients will have approvals and submit materials, but Apple alone is doing the actual development – to ensure quality control – and most likely, to maintain the mystery of iAds in general. Classic Jobs).

I hate to state the obvious, but this doesn’t scale.  Or maybe it does.  Maybe that’s the plan to making such a great mobile advertising experience – Apple is going to control the development from start to finish.  Hmm…that’s an interesting thought.  Instead of clients telling their agencies what they want, or agencies telling their clients what they’re going to create (like that’s exciting – more of the same old interactive advertising execution), the baton will be handed off to Steve Jobs & Co. – the wizard who steps out from behind the curtain every six months or so and dazzles us with his latest treasures of desire – to tell other companies how to covey the magic of their brand in ways that only he can.

I’ll be the first to agree that the biggest reason advertising tends to fail is that there’s no editorial control.  Playing the role of curator, publishers create content that attract an audience.  But publishers only fulfill half the role, and fill remnant inventory with ads from anyone who’s willing to be a buyer.  It’s like organizing a museum full of fine art work, then letting the local businesses stop by to slap flyers up on the wall for next to nothing.

So with iAd, Apple gets to be the gate keeper (at least in this first wave of advertisements).  This will probably lead to interesting and compelling execution.  But the major question will be “can creative agencies sustain the momentum?”  My guess is no.  As Battelle points out, there’s really nothing new about iAd, besides the fact that Apple will do the development, and they’ll only create rich media experiences, and only selected marketers will be allowed to run iAds.  All of these are temporary conditions.  Eventually, Apple is going to open up the floodgates, and the market will become saturated with what we’re already used to seeing – boring ads from marketers that still haven’t bought into the notion that they too need to curate their audience, not just force feed it the latest wares.

Battelle sums it up:

What Apple is selling with iAds is – Apple itself. As well they should. But they are also selling into a marketplace that, for the most part, doesn’t really understand mobile marketing….They don’t realize that most of what Apple is pitching them can be done already.

Which leads me to ask – if they can do it already, what is it about iAd that is going to make them start doing it?  A handful of pretty examples from Apple?  Please.  We’ve seen this narrative before.  The iPhone has been in the market for nearly three years, and most of the marketplace has yet to come up with a product that can compete.  History, I dare say, shall likely repeat itself.