Amazon is pitching ads on their tiny screen Kindle Fire’s welcome screen, “according to an executive at an agency that Amazon has pitched,” Jason Del Rey reports for AdAge. “The company has been telling ad agency execs that they must spend about $600,000 for any package that includes such an ad.”
“The ad campaigns would run for two months and also include inventory from Amazon’s ‘Special Offers’ product,” Del Rey reports. “For $1 million, advertisers would get more ad inventory and be included in Amazon’s public-relations push, according to this executive and an exec at another ad agency… An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment. It’s unclear whether it is pitching the ad for the current best-selling Kindle Fire or a future ad-supported version of the device, though the price tag would seem high for an ad unit on a device that currently has no distribution.”
Del Rey reports, “Both agency executives have so far declined to participate, citing several concerns. For one, Amazon isn’t guaranteeing the number of devices that the welcome-screen ads will reach, telling agencies that it hasn’t decided whether the ads will start popping up on devices that have already been purchased or just on new devices. ‘It’s kind of an expensive buy to not get a guaranteed audience and measurement,’ one of these people said. ‘It doesn’t comply with a lot of our necessary planning rigor.’
Del Rey reports, “Both execs are also worried about the consumer experience, especially if the ads start showing up on already-sold devices whose welcome screens haven’t previously displayed advertising. ‘You’re already paying a premium for the product and then having that unexpected ad experience makes for a worse consumer experience,’ one of the execs said. ‘There needs to be a value exchange.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Not only did you pay too much for an unresponsive, sluggish, mobile Amazon storefront, but now you get ads on you’re “welcome” screen. Welcome, sucker!
One question: who’s going to buy ads on a device purchased by people who are either too poor to buy a real iPad or too stupid not to buy a real iPad? Bail bondsmen, check cashing outfits, pawn shops, beer helmet and beef jerky peddlers do not a successful advertising company make.
The demographics of “too poor and/or too stupid” aren’t worth anywhere close to what Amazon is asking.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “richbrazil” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Why have Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire shipments dropped off a cliff? – May 9, 2012
Amazon’s Kindle Fire shipments fizzle to anemic 4% market share – May 4, 2012
Apple cements tablet market dominance with new iPad – March 16, 2012
iSuppli estimates Amazon shipped 3.9 million tiny screen Kindle Fire units in Q411 – February 18, 2012
Why Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire can’t pierce Apple’s iPad sales – February 6, 2012
Amazon cuts tiny screen Kindle Fire orders in half, sources say – January 20, 2012
Tablet display shootout: Apple iPad ‘excellent,’ Amazon Kindle Fire ‘major flaws’ – December 20, 2011
If Amazon’s Kindle Fire is so hot, why is it still in stock? – December 19, 2011
‘Kindle Fire: The Missing Manual’ author to return Kindle Fire, keep his ‘years ahead’ Apple iPad 2 – December 15, 2011
Amazon touts Kindle e-reader sales with few details – December 15, 2011
Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire’s big security problem – December 14, 2011
Lack of parental controls on Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire lets kids charge up a storm – December 12, 2011
Disgruntled early adopters of Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire have slew of complaints – December 12, 2011
Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire estimated to play distant second fiddle to Apple’s market-dominating iPad – December 6, 2011
Usability expert Jakob Nielsen tests Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire: ‘A disappointingly poor user experience’ – December 5, 2011
Instapaper creator reviews Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire: Bad game player, bad app platform, bad web browser, bad video player and bad Kindle – November 18, 2011
PCWorld reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Flawed, unimpressive, subpar; can’t hold a candle to iPad – November 16, 2011
Mossberg reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Frustrating, clunky, much less capable and versatile than iPad – November 16, 2011
Apple iPad 2 vs. Amazon Kindle Fire: Bootup, browsing, and Netflix streaming (with video) – November 16, 2011
Wired reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Web browsing sucks, emotionally draining, makes reading a chore – November 14, 2011
NY Times’ Pogue reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Sluggish, ornery, unpolished – November 14, 2011
The Verge reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Uninspired, confusing, incredibly unoriginal – November 14, 2011
Engadget reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Sluggish, clunky, too limiting and restricted – November 14, 2011
And when Apple come out with a massive 7.85″ screen version of the iPad, you ballwashers will still be calling the Kindle screen tiny, right?
Exactly. They should go back and look at their “MacDailyNews Take” where they quote Job saying something along the lines of and tablet under 10″ is DOA. I guess it isn’t a tiny screen if apple does it. Maybe they will call it modest.
Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire only has a tiny 7-inch screen, so, yes, of course, one would imagine MDN will continue to call the screen size of Amazon’s flop “tiny.” Because it is.
If this, if that, if if if. How about waiting for something to actually happen before bitching about it?
Agreed. I doubt Apple will do a 7.5″ iPad or a TV. There’s a lot more evidence for the TV, though. I thought that maybe the 7.5″ screens are part of the new remote for the TV, if either exist…
“when Apple come out with a massive 7.85″ screen version of the iPad”
Which will be about half past never.
Seriously, how can you look at all the 7″ tablets failing and then think “Apple’s going to make a 7 inch iPad because obviously it’s a good idea!”
They’re failing because they have neither the quality of manufacture or the OS, or the entire ecosystem to back them up. You people amaze me, you bitch about an iPad with a 7.85″ screen, but are perfectly happy to row about the possibility of an iPhone/Touch with a 4″ screen!
For a great many people, a smaller Pad that will fit into a coat or jacket pocket, or a small bag, will be greatly appreciated, being more easily handled, especially by those with small hands, and being so much easier to read as an ebook than a Touch or iPhone. Don’t you understand that a 7.85″ screen’s the same size as a paperback book?
Imagine, for example, reading Neil Stevenson’s book REAMDE; it’s about the same size as an iPad Mini would be, except it’s nearly 2½” thick!
Which would you rather carry, a book that weighs probably as much as an iPad, or an iPad that’s about half the weight that can hold thousands of books and so much more?
Like a whole navigation system…
Damn, you people are so short-sighted and lacking in imagination; why don’t you all go and use Microsoft products?
@what Wins Today’s *DING* Factor Award!
Congratulations @what! You discovered reality!
Just wait and see kids!:
No ~7″ iPad mini.
No market.
No profit.
No Apple interest.
The end.
So there.
Yup they will. So those who don’t buy an iPad are poor? LOL!
They are 2 different devices that serve 2 different purposes. Some of us don’t NEED to blow $500 on an iPad. And yes, I AM an Apple fan BTW.
Amazon won’t tell perspective ad people how many Fire’s have been sold. Perhaps JPMorganChase will buy into this deal, they like risk.
So innovative! No wonder CEO Jeff is called next Jobs. No!
Would someone tell Madison Avenue that we (the human race) long ago exceeded the saturation point for advertising and it’s ever expanding desire to intrude into our lives just plain pisses us off?
I own a Kindle (a real one- not a Fandroid Fire) and the day an ad raises it’s FUGLY head will be the day I turn it off, wipe the memory and list it on eBay. Does that tell you how much I loathe intrusive advertising.
I own my Kindle for one reason and one reason only:
TO READ BOOKS on a non-gloss, eInk screen.
I have an iPad for the other stuff and do not even consider the glossy screened Fandroid Theftware device to be a real Kindle.
I absolutely love my Kindle Fire. The only negatives I ever hear about it are from Apple fanatics….I don’t mean that everyone who owns an Apple product is a fanatic…we’ve had several versions of ipods, and I’ve played with my cousin’s ipad (he won it from a college thing). I would never spend that much money on a tablet–I’ve got a mortgage to pay! But the Fire does everything I want it to, it’s user-friendly and shows Netflix beautifully (a plus for the three-year-old). My teenager liked it so much we gave him one for Christmas, and he’s on it all the time–to the best of my knowledge, he’s never read an actual book on it. My husband bought a refurbished one for $170 with a one-year warranty, and he likes it as well. I love the free books I can download–it’s saved me tons of money at used bookstores.
Wow, this sounds so well planned that it’s sure to BLOAT Amazon’s stock price even further!
Who the hell is running marketing over at Amazon?! First they squeeze out the excremental Fire, forced to subsidize its price because it is so craptastic. Then they pull this stunt on potential advertisers, forcing them to run away screaming in fear for their investment dollars.
What’s next Amazon? Top this BONER! I dare you! ;-P
Had a nine inch black white TV …..