Apple has had a slow start with its new iAd platform, the WSJ reports.
Only two of the 17 launch partners announced on 1 July started campaigns in that first month and only three more used it in August. Apple's tight grip over the creative process is cited as one of the reasons advertisers are being hesitant.
Photo by Jorge Quinteros on Flickr. Some rights reserved
Giving a delightful insight into Apple's own painstaking production process, creating the platform's mobile ads is taking between eight to 10 weeks – and the building part, which is done by Apple, is taking two weeks longer than it should.
Patrick Moorhead, director of mobile at the agency DraftFCB, said it is "a huge issue having Apple in the creative mix", while Chanel, one of the launch partners, doesn't have any iAd campaign planned.
Campaigns packages start at a cost of $1m but one brand, Nissan, claim the click-through rate for its interactive ad is five times higher than the conventional online campaign.
While working efficiently with agencies seems Apple's biggest challenge, it has claimed $60m in commitments this year from iAd's advertisers. It is also poised to take advantage of the continued growth in mobile advertising, despite increasing competition from Google's AdMob and Millennial Media, which eMarketer predicts will rise by 43% this year in the US alone – to $593m.
iAd is due to debut in the UK this autumn.
