Industry News: Advertising – Apple & Twitter

14 years ago view-show 674,487

industrynews.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Get your bars up!

What’s up people, it’s been a while since I’ve weighed in on industry news cuz I’ve been on my grind as usual but over the last two days, I’ve encountered some pretty interesting developments in the mobile/information/advertising world that seem too interrelated to pass up.  Recently, Twitter announced plans to begin monetizing their traffic.  They have millions and millions of users, who use their service all day long, but up until now, they have had no monetization model.  That’s all changing now.  Twitter essentially announced that they will begin offering “sponsored tweets” much in the same way that Facebook began doing a couple of years ago with “announcements.”  So in a couple of months, next to your friend’s meal update, and your favorite artist’s inspirational words of wisdom for the day, you’ll see “Frappucino’s now $1.99 @Starbucks – sponsored tweet” or something along those lines.  The idea to integrate advertising into the very fabric of the site is a good one, because although people will bitch and whine protest, they will be forced to accept it.  The only thing that doesn’t seem complete about this yet is the targeting potential, so I guess we’ll just have to see how that plays out.

Maybe even bigger / more important was the announcement of one of the new features on Apple’s new iPhone / iPad operating system, OS4:  iAd.  Sure, Apple has gotten formulaic in their naming of new gizmos, but, these guys are on the cutting edge when it comes to understanding how people interact with technology.  iAd, I think, is going to define an entirely new system of commerce and culture consumption.  Or at least it has the potential too.  Go to Apple.com and check out Steve Job’s keynote, @ 44:10 where he starts talking about iAd.  The brilliance is, all ad networks have been running on the google model, which is targeting based off of search.  But people don’t generically “search” on their mobile devices the way they do on a desktop.  They use an App and look for something directly, or at least I do.  So, iAd is going to target ads based on usage, not on search.  Then, within the ad itself, you can purchase, view, listen and watch or download content related to the ad.  The possibilities for music here are looking pretty good.  You buy an artists’ app, and then, in the midst of playing a game, or listening to one of the free tracks, you get an add for new music, video or content that is integrated into the very fabric of the app that you’re already in, that allows for micro-transactions within the advertisement.  Will it be expensive to develop these rich media ads at first?  Yes.  But, do they have the potential to change people’s relationship to advertised content?  I think so…

Till next time…

Peace.