First wave of iAds use precise, personalized Apple data
updated 01:45 pm EDT, Tue July 6, 2010
Early advertisers identified
Apple and its partners have access to a broad array of information in targeting iAd content, note people involved in the company's first mobile advertising efforts. Official "standard targeting options" are said to include not only locations, demographics and app preferences, but also book, music, movie and TV tastes harvested from iTunes. Unilever, which is running an iAd campaign for Dove Men+Care soap, is said to be employing the data to "quite surgically" concentrate on married men in their late 30s with children.
A marketing director at Unilever, Rob Candelino, explains that companies have the option of advertising in "buckets" of apps -- such as news titles -- based on the characteristics of Apple's anonymized user pool. Although not working on any present iAd campaigns, the director of mobile marketing at iCrossing, Rachel Pasqua, remarks that Apple interweaves very specific usage info into iAd. "Apple knows what you've downloaded, how much time you spend interacting with applications and knows even what you've downloaded, don't like and deleted," she says.
Past Unilever, some early iAd clients are known to include AT&T, Best Buy, Nissan and JC Penney. Apple spokeswoman Trudy Miller mentions that while the corporation has already sold more than $60 million in iAd placements, the network is still in its early stages. "The leading global brands we're working with are developing iAds timed with their seasonal marketing campaigns, such as back to school and the holiday shopping season. We're just taking our first few steps. We'll work our way up to walking and running as this year progresses," says Miller.
Some parties, including the US and German governments, have expressed worries about Apple's new terms for iTunes, which grant the company and its partners the right to track "real-time geographic location" of devices in order to "provide and improve location-based products and services." While essential for apps like Find My iPhone, the data is also likely being used for iAd, and could represent a privacy risk if leaked or otherwise turned to identifying individuals. There is no alternative but to agree to location sharing if a person wants to use iTunes.
Professional Poster
Joined: Sep 1999
Wrong.
The last statement is just plain wrong. You can opt out of iAds (oo.apple.com), and turn off location sharing. You can still use iTunes.