12/17, 7:19am
Video ads on Facebook will automatically play silently
Facebook will be rolling out video advertisements to the News Feed of its users this week. A statement from the social network about the new ads effectively confirms an earlier report from the Wall Street Journal, with both desktop users and mobile device owners expected to see the new advertising units with automatically-playing video on their screens in the coming days.
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12/10, 12:37pm
Hire hints at further push into streaming audio
Apple has reportedly poached an advertising executive, Michael Pallad, from Cumulus Media, unnamed sources have told Ad Age. After serving as executive VP of sales at the second-largest owner of FM radio stations, Pallad now is said to be tasked with overseeing international ad sales for Apple's iTunes Radio service.
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11/13, 3:00am
Lets developers create their own banners, offers more targets and stats
Apple's iAd Workbench, which debuted this past June, allows developers a simple way to promote their own apps through iAd with campaigns starting at just $50, and giving them tools to better target potential buyers and find out how effective the advertising is. The program, part of the developer portal iTunes Connect, has now been expanded to countries outside the US. The tool is now available in nine additional countries.
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11/03, 7:54pm
JetBlue, Delta allow passengers to use devices at takeoff
Airlines JetBlue and Delta have announced that they will be allowing passengers to use electronic devices between the departure and arrivals gates, including at takeoff, according to Bloomberg. Shortly after the FAA changed the rules governing the use of such devices in a plane, JetBlue corporate communications manager Morgan Johnson posted an image of passengers armed with smartphones to Facebook, claiming its first flight under the new policy has flown successfully.
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10/31, 11:37am
Company exercising tight controls on visual marketing
Apple is curiously deterring app developers from using images of the gold iPhone 5s in product marketing, reports note. "Feature only the most current Apple products in the following finishes or colors: iPhone 5s in silver or space gray, iPhone 5c in white or blue, iPad Air in silver or space gray, and iPad mini in silver or space gray," the company writes in a new addition to its marketing guidelines. Accordingly, official image templates -- into which people can insert screenshots -- exclude the gold 5s.
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10/30, 3:08pm
Company's physical footprint sprawls to 19.1 million square feet
More information has been gleaned from Apple's 10K filing with the SEC. In addition to research budgets, the document also reveals that Apple's workforce is now up to 80,300 full-time employees, a jump from 72,800 at the end of FY2012. Most of the growth came from outside Apple Stores, which added only 400 full-time jobs for a total of 42,800. Apple typically prefers cheaper part-time workers at retail.
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10/11, 10:37am
Search giant updates terms of service
Google appears to be preparing a new advertising program that will publish users' personal information in online endorsements. In its latest terms-of-service update, the company outlines how profile information can be used for Shared Endorsements based on the user's +1 clicks, ratings, reviews and comments posted to Google+ or YouTube.
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09/30, 6:29am
Advertising to reach Android app in future version 4.6 update
Google could be adding advertisements to its Gmail app for Android in the future, bringing it in line with the browser-based equivalent which already displays marketing messages. An examination of the APK for version 4.6 of the app appears to show lines of code relating to the display and storage of advertisements, among a number of other feature updates.
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09/24, 5:02pm
Deal to last at least through 2013
Nissan has signed a deal with Apple to be an exclusive automotive advertiser on iTunes Radio, according to an official announcement by the carmaker. The exclusivity will hold through the end of 2013. The company adds that it plans to treat iTunes Radio as a priority platform for advertising new vehicles, beginning with the latest Rogue, Leaf, and Versa Note models. Some form of agreement was rumored prior to iTunes Radio's September launch.
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09/12, 5:44am
App in testing could lead to pop-ups from advertisers in future
Owners of smart televisions may soon have to contend with interactive pop-up advertising, if one company succeeds. Software created by interactive advertising specialist Visible World for LG smart TVs displays selectable reminders on top of other content, reminding them of when TV shows are about to be broadcast, even if they are playing a game or streaming movies.
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09/09, 1:10pm
Team expected to work on web design, video tutorials
Apple is working on greatly increasing the size of its internal ad design team, sources say. For years the company has reportedly kept the team capped at about 300 people. An executive described as familiar with Apple, however, claims that the team could soon grow to as large as 500 or 600 people.
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09/04, 2:39pm
Some hires meant to help outside parties produce more effective ads
Apple has been searching for dozens of new people to boost its iAd team in preparation for iTunes Radio, according to Ad Age. The publication notes that in August, Apple posted just five iAd jobs on its own website, but another 35 on LinkedIn. The company is hunting for people such as account coordinators, ad design managers, and project managers and engineers.
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08/20, 3:31pm
Ads to eventually become device-specific
A number of major advertisers have lined up to advertise on Apple's upcoming iTunes Radio service. According to Ad Age, the list so far includes "McDonald’s, Nissan, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble and possibly one or two more brands," all of whom have reportedly signed 12-month contracts. Targeting will initially be device-agnostic, but in 2014 advertisers will get the option to direct spots at specific devices, with costs varying proportionately. An ad will be cheap on the iPhone, for instance, but more expensive on an iPad, and even more costly on an Apple TV.
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08/07, 9:51am
Adap.tv doubled revenues yearly prior to purchase
AOL has revealed it is acquiring video advertising marketplace Adap.tv, in what has been called its biggest purchase since Tim Armstrong became chief executive of the company. Said to be worth $405 million in combined cash and stock, the deal is higher than the $315 million paid out for the Huffington Post two years ago.
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08/06, 9:48am
Hammers home emotional themes of recent campaign
Apple has started airing a new TV spot for the iPhone (below), "FaceTime Every Day." The commercial continues the tone of its "Designed by Apple" and "Music Every Day" ads, trying to forge an emotional connection instead of concentrating on feature details or prices. The clip meshes together a series of vignettes of people using FaceTime in emotional circumstances, such as touring a new home or coping with the aftermath of a fight. At the end of the ad, Apple claims that more people do video calls on the iPhone than on any other phone.
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08/05, 2:29pm
Follows Android release last week
Google has posted a native iPhone version of its AdSense app. The release follows a week after the launch of the Android app, which was the first official client for AdSense users. On the iOS App Store, some third parties have already been offering their own clients, paid and free.
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07/30, 5:11pm
Would wedge TV-style spots into news feeds
Facebook is planning to start selling 15-second video ads to marketers, sources tell Bloomberg. The clips would be inserted directly into a person's news feed, and at least initially sold on a full-day day basis, with targeting based solely on a person's age and gender. A video would show no more than three times per person, per day, and cost marketers between $1 million and $2.5 million each day.
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06/27, 12:33pm
Continues trend started with recent iPhone ads
Apple's "Designed by Apple" TV ad isn't scoring well with test audiences, says consulting firm Ace Metrix. The spot scored just 489 on an Ace Metrix scale, the lowest among 26 Apple ads aired during the last year, and below even a 542-point industry average. In the past, some Apple campaigns have scored over 700. Each Ace Metrix survey is based on at least 500 TV viewers.
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06/25, 12:11pm
iPhone maker saturates different media
Apple is starting to run prints ads as part of its Designed by Apple in California marketing campaign. The company has taken out a two-page ad (below) in prominent Canadian newspaper the Toronto Star, using text echoing a TV ad that premiered earlier this month at WWDC 2013. Both spots are focused on corporate branding rather than selling any specific Apple product.
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06/12, 10:30am
Allows app developers to spend as little as $50 on iAd campaigns
Apple has added a new section to its iTunes Connect developer portal, iAd Workbench. The tool lets app developers promoting their titles via iAd to exercise more control over ads and campaign budgets. The minimum spend for such campaigns is now just $50, and developers can ask to pay on a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) or cost-per-click (CPC) basis. Apple provides estimates for the reach of a given campaign, including statistics for impressions, taps, and downloads.
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06/11, 12:33pm
Switch to pushing brand over products
Apple's "Designed by Apple/Our Signature" TV ad is just the start of a new marketing campaign in association with long-time partner TBWA\Chiat\Day, say sources. The people tell Bloomberg that the campaign will focus on the touted quality and reliability of Apple's products and hosted content, instead of just the products themselves. More such ads will reportedly follow in the next few months.
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06/10, 4:50pm
First solid glimpse at new iOS
Apple has posted several videos on its website in the wake of today's WWDC keynote. These include the keynote itself, designer Jonathan Ive's introduction to iOS 7, and the "Designed by Apple" corporate branding ad narrated by Ben Affleck. The keynote video is roughly two hours long.
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06/08, 12:02am
Talk includes insight on naming Apple, 'Think Different,' more
At a recent entrepreneurial summit known as the PTTOW! conference, TBWA Global Director and Chairman Lee Clow -- an advertising legend in part due to his long history behind many of the iconic ads for Apple -- gave a short talk on his memories of Steve Jobs and the 30-year relationship that they shared. In a video of the talk (seen below), Clow describes meeting Jobs in his mid-twenties; shares Jobs' passion for "democratizing" computer technology to consumers; adds his belief on how Jobs arrived at the "Apple" brand name, and more.
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06/06, 10:40pm
250 million global users view YouTube content on mobile apps
Advertising revenue generated specifically by YouTube has tripled on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets -- giving nearly $350 million to parent company Google's coffers. According to the search engine, about 250 million global users view content on handheld devices, forcing a shift in ad purchases to reach that audience.
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06/06, 12:36pm
Apple making connections with bigger advertisers
Apple is indeed planning to launch a streaming music service at WWDC next week, and carry audio ads on it, according to new sources. One of the people tells Reuters that Apple has contacted some of its bigger advertisers, but hasn't started selling the service extensively. The sources also back reports that the service - often nicknamed iRadio -- will resemble Pandora in its revenue scheme, and feature both audio and banner ads, sold through iAd.
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06/05, 3:23pm
Advertising deals to be handled via iAd network
Apple is planning to sell both audio and banner ads for its upcoming streaming music service, often nicknamed iRadio, claims Ad Age. The information is said to come from a former Apple executive familiar with the situation. Ad sales will reportedly stem through iAd, which so far has concentrated only on interactive banner ads in iOS apps. It's thought that iRadio could be announced at WWDC, which starts June 10th.
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05/31, 11:58am
Could be situated within iAd
Apple is planning to launch an ad exchange, a Business Insider source claims. The person is described as "an executive who is one of the biggest players in online advertising." Business Insider cautions, though, that it can't confirm the plans, and that two other sources say they haven't heard anything about an exchange.
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05/23, 4:06pm
MRC 'favorably impressed' by metrics available to advertisers
The Media Ratings Council has awarded full accreditation to Apple's iAd, the first mobile ad platform to achieve that status, says Advertising Age. The accreditation reflects iAd's compliance with standards set by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Mobile Marketing Association. That includes accurate reporting of data such as taps, visits, views, impressions, conversations, and average time spent.
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05/22, 9:42pm
Uses Siri-like voice for narration
Microsoft is airing a new TV ad for Windows 8 tablets targeting their main competition, the Apple iPad. The spot points out that the iPad is missing equivalents to Windows 8 features like Live Tiles and true multitasking, and that at $449, a 64GB ASUS VivoTab Smart tablet is far cheaper than a comparable 64GB iPad, which is $699. Narrating everything is a Siri-like voice trying to defend Apple.
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05/21, 9:20pm
Company's growth rate slips
Apple remains in first place on an annual BrandZ ranking of the world's most valuable brands, notes MarketingWeek. Apple's brand is estimated to be worth $185.071 billion, putting it well ahead of next-closest rivals Google ($113.669 billion) and IBM ($112.536 billion). Other companies in the top 10 include McDonald's, Coca-Cola, AT&T, Microsoft, Marlboro, Visa, and China Mobile.
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05/16, 9:30am
All makers and platforms enjoyed growth in ad impressions in Q1
A new study by mobile advertising analysts Millennial Media finds that Apple's iOS is again the dominant platform for ad impressions, a measure of the effectiveness and engagement with in-app advertising. The report found growth in ad impressions across platforms and manufacturers, apart from BlackBerry which continued to shed users. Apple again swept the hardware results, taking the top manufacturer, top smartphone, and top tablet. Google's Android platform, however, continues to make great strides in growth.
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04/25, 12:23am
New animation tools, page objects, per-page controls, more
Although it got off to a rocky start, Apple's iAd service is now the second-largest such service online, behind Google. The program has quietly but slowly improved over the years, and the improvements have now filtered through to a new major version of iAd Producer, the program that allows artist to create both typical iOS ads as well as the elaborate, beautifully-produced promotions that have become a signature showcase of Apple's approach to advertising. The new version, 4.0, improves nearly every aspect of the program.
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04/23, 5:49pm
Advertising campaign app connects CRM with social listening tools
Salesforce.com is increasing its involvement in social media advertising by launching a new self-service, cloud-based product. Social.com aims to simplify campaigns for advertisers and ad agencies, by connecting social media advertisements with customer relationship marketing (CRM) and monitoring social media itself, in order to optimally advertise to the public.
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04/19, 11:18am
Doctor Who, Top Gear named in Twitter video agreement
BBC America has signed a deal with Twitter to of the first "in-Tweet branded video synced to entertainment TV series." The announcement, made through Twitter itself, provides little detail in the way of what exactly the service entails, but does mention popular shows Doctor Who and Top Gear in the message, suggesting that video advertisements for upcoming episodes of BBC properties could soon appear on the microblogging service.
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04/16, 10:31am
New video ad spots could earn Facebook $4 million per day
Facebook may add video advertisements to the news feeds of its users, in order to supplement its income from its existing advertising system, according to a report. The social network is in talks with a number of agencies to fill as many as four ad-spots, and is planning to play as many as three video spots per day to its users.
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04/09, 12:52am
Update gives developers just three weeks to update their apps
Google has finally released an update for its AdMob advertising SDK for iOS developers that leaves those reliant on it just three weeks to update affected apps before Apple's hard deadline for rejecting apps that still use Unique Device Identification (UDIDs) to track app usage and advertising effectiveness. The new version, 6.4.0, retires the UDID scheme (which had emerged as a potential security and privacy risk that could compromise personal information) and adds support for test ads, along with some bug fixes.
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03/28, 12:04pm
Company tries to win back pro video editors
Apple is today launching a new marketing campaign aimed at winning editors over to Final Cut Pro X, says the LA Times. The campaign focuses on users praising features and differences in the video editing suite. Apple's efforts are reportedly being timed to coincide with the National Association of Broadcasters expo, which begins April 6th in Las Vegas.
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03/28, 10:47am
iAd network still coming in below expectations
Apple has hired Paul Wright -- formerly chief digital officer for the Omnicom Media Group -- as its new head of iAd operations for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, writes The Drum. Wright was with OMG for roughly a year. He has also worked for firms such as British broadcast/telecommunications firm BSkyB, where he handled various business development and sales tasks, and at Mobile Interactive Group, where he served on the Advisory Board.
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03/13, 10:46am
Company quintuples budget across TV, Internet, physical media
Samsung spent $401 million in US TV, Internet, print, and billboard advertising for phones during 2012, surpassing HTC and even Apple, according to Kantar Media data obtained by the Wall Street Journal. The figure represents a quintupling of its budget for 2011, which amounted to just $78 million. By contrast, Apple's budget went from $253 million to $333 million, and HTC's budget actually shrank from $124 million to $46 million.
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02/26, 2:00am
Alternative to UDID rejected, Ad Identifier now mandated
Developers who attempt to circumvent Apple's own Advertising Identifier with other methods to track users and ad impressions may now find their apps rejected by the App Store. The company is now -- nearly two years after announcing that it would be abandoning the former Universal Device Identification (UDID) method for ad tracking -- enforcing developer guidelines that mandate the use of Apple's Advertising Identifier (which can be turned off by the user) as the main allowable ad tracking standard for ad networks.
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02/25, 9:27am
'Searching for Sugar Man' takes Documentary prize
During last night's Academy Awards ceremony, Apple debuted a new TV ad, dubbed "Hollywood." The spot follows the same template as other recent ads, but simply uses a movie-connected theme, for instance showing iMovie, and a 3D-rendered Hollywood sign in Maps. Intermixed are clips from Back to the Future, Apollo 13, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
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01/11, 11:29am
East Carolina University claims trademark infringed by Cisco
Cisco is being sued for trademark infringement over one of its marketing campaigns. East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina has announced the start of legal proceedings in a federal court, over the use of the slogan 'Tomorrow Starts Here' in a Cisco campaign shown on television, print publications, augmented reality, and also online.
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01/10, 2:33am
Company had licensed image, but not for advertising use
Apple has settled a lawsuit brought by the photographer of the now-famous "Retina" eye image used to demonstrate the quality of the company's high-resolution displays. Swiss photographer Sabine Liewald argued that Apple had licensed the image from her US agency, Factory Downtown, for limited uses only and not for the promotional and advertising uses it was eventually put to. Settlement terms were not disclosed.
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01/04, 12:18pm
Best Buy singles out iPhone 5 sale
A number of retailers, including Best Buy and Toys R Us, have complained to attorney generals in several states about Walmart advertising practices, the Wall Street Journal reports. The complaints generally argue that Walmart is using inaccurate pricing or non-equivalent products to lay claim to the lowest prices. Best Buy, though, has specifically singled out problems with a Walmart iPhone 5 sale.
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12/18, 8:57pm
Facebook said to be pondering video ads in News Feeds
Next year, Facebook users may begin seeing video advertisements beginning to play automatically when they open up their news feeds. This according to several advertising industry executives, who say that the social network is preparing to integrate video ads into its format, allowing marketers to grab users' attention by expanding videos into the News Feed. Reportedly, the ads will play automatically, though Facebook is said to be still considering whether the audio component of any ad would be turned off by default.
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11/21, 2:54pm
User timelines to show upcoming events, albums
Facebook is said to be testing new features that would add recently released albums and upcoming events to user timelines. The social network is thought to have been testing the new features over the past month, though it's uncertain when exactly they will be rolled out. Facebook is also looking to add new features to its advertising operation, features that would allow advertisers to see which users clicked on which ads and how often.
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11/17, 5:43pm
Tool would allow vendors to track purchases from Facebook
Facebook this week began rolling out a tool that would allow e-retailers to track purchases made by Facebook users that have viewed their ads. The move comes as the world's largest social network continues in its efforts to demonstrate to investors that it is capable of monetizing its billion-strong user base. For e-retailers, the new feature could help to gauge the effectiveness of online marketing initiatives on a particularly granular level.
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11/14, 12:53am
Android, despite sales gains, still underused for web, streaming media
Mobile advertising analyst Freewheel has announced that the iPad and the iPhone are by far the most popular non-PC devices when it comes to streaming video. Together, the two devices make up more than 60 percent of all non-PC video viewing. The conclusion comes from analysis of more than 14 billion videos viewed through ad-supported apps (such as Hulu), which also found that viewing video on mobile devices has tripled since 2011 to a total of 1.3 billion videos streamed to users.
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10/26, 5:23pm
iOS grabs 46.37 percent of ad traffic share
Apple's iOS mobile platform remains the most effective at ad monetization among all mobile operating systems, responsible for nearly as much ad traffic as all other operating systems combined. This according to Opera, which published its Q3 report on the State of Mobile Advertising this week. Opera found that iOS devices account for more than half of all mobile ad revenue, with the iPhone alone accounting for more than a third. The study's findings illustrate the continuing importance of Apple's platform in the mobile web sector, as no competing platform even approaches Apple's figures in the sector according to Opera.
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10/18, 6:27pm
More than half a billion Android devices, 1.3M daily
In a conference call discussing its earnings report today, Google executives revealed that the company had achieved an $8 billion run rate on in mobile ads, including gross revenue from the mobile sales of Google Play content and consumer spending on Play apps. The new figure indicates that Google is making significant strides in the mobile sector, even as its earnings underperformed investor expectations in the face of a slumping global economy and a drop in advertising pricing. The search giant also announced that there are more than half a billion active Android devices in the world today, with 1.3 million more activated each day.
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