“Madison Avenue is plowing more resources into a new marketing medium: Apple Inc.’s iPhone,” Yukari Iwatani Kane reports for The Wall Street Journal. “In the past several months, companies such as Burger King Holdings Inc., Zippo Manufacturing Co. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. have experimented with promotional software applications that can be downloaded onto the iPhone, or they have created ads that are placed within other popular applications for the device.”
“At the most basic, marketers are taking advantage of the iPhone’s advanced video and screen capabilities by creating streaming video ads. But some are taking things further by offering ads disguised as apps. The latter allow users to do such things as play games or manipulate images by touching the phone’s screen,” Kane reports. “‘A lot of the [ad] agencies and advertisers who were on the sidelines last year are excited about the iPhone realizing the promise of mobile phones,’ says Jason Spero, vice president of the mobile-advertising network AdMob Inc. The San Mateo, Calif., company predicts mobile advertising will jump this year, driven mostly by ads on the iPhone.”
“Many marketers find advertising on the iPhone attractive because the device’s audience has grown so quickly since it was introduced two years ago. The iPhone now has more than 20 million users, and more are likely to buy in because Apple is widely expected to unveil a new model in coming months. Analysts estimate that Apple’s iPod touch, which can also run downloaded apps, adds at least 15 million more users to the market,” Kane reports.
“In addition, many iPhone users are young, have high incomes and spend more time with their device than users of other types of smartphones. According to Mobclix Inc., which analyzes iPhone usage, iPhones generate more than half the total Web traffic from smartphones. The average iPhone user has installed five to 10 applications on the device, compared with fewer than two apps for the overall smartphone market,” Kane reports.
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