“Apple’s forthcoming smartwatch poses a conundrum for advertisers: How to tap the enticing possibilities of the tiny gadget without overwhelming consumers with messages,” Malathi Nayak and Christina Farr report for Reuters. “At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, mobile-marketing firm TapSense plans to release an Apple Watch ad-buying service. The service will provide a first glimpse of how businesses can serve up ads on the watch, even though the gadget will not be available until later this year.”
“At issue: the same qualities that render the watch exciting to Madison Avenue, such as the ability to detect customers approaching a store and to zap an ad directly to their wrists, also risk alienating those customers,” Nayak and Farr report. “Apple declined to comment on the use of its watch by advertisers, and will not attend CES officially. But many companies that make devices and services based around Apple products will be there, including several that are working with WatchKit, a software-development tool Apple released in November that allows developers to build watch-tailored applications.”
“Using that tool, developers are devising Apple Watch ad formats including interactive wallpapers on the watch dial with brand logos and personalized clock faces, said TapSense’s chief executive Ash Kumar. His product helps developers insert ads, bought and sold instantaneously, in those apps,” Nayak and Farr report. “Businesses could use those apps to notify customers of special deals, but only within already-opened apps, Kumar said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As always, if the marketing efforts deliver positive experiences (deals, important information, etc.), they will be embraced. If not, they will be resented.
MacDailyNews Take: As always, if the marketing efforts deliver positive experiences (deals, important information, etc.), they will be embraced. If not, they will be resented.
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I’m not into wearing watches or any jewelry but if the Apple Watch will be serving ads, the changes of me buying one goes from slim to absolute zero
I would imagine that the Watch will treat advertising delivery the same way as the iPhone – for example using apps that depend on advertising for revenue. So if you are happy with the way Apple controls advertising on the iPhone you will probably be happy with the Watch. I have to say that the article indicates that this is some new fangled way for advertisers to annoy us and get us enraged (as usual).
Like I’m going to give a rat’s about reading ads on my watch. HAHAHAHA! Desperate marketing. The day my watch *FLASHES* ads at me and plays audible jingles or shills is the day I crush my watch beneath my heel.
Then again, I fully expect Nike etc. watch faces. I want a Quik Bunny on mine! 😉
While I empathize with the previous comments, I can see this being possibly helpful.
A problem when shopping is discovery. Navigating large stores or malls can be difficult. What do you do at Home Depot? (or IKEA, Ace, etc.) Flag down an employee to ask where is the paint thinner, single edge razor blades, sump pumps or what have you. If there were an app for the watch/iPhone that could field those queries and answer with a map that would be good.
If I’m visiting the grocery store and I could opt in to getting ads or coupons as I strolled the aisles that would be fine. I’d opt out and my wife would opt in.
What we all don’t want is to be flooded with annoying ads for crap you don’t want and will never buy.
When will advertisers realize that less is more except at the very bottom of the market? Rampant overly disruptive advertising has ruined TV and is becoming a pain in the ass on the internet.
If I were to wear an Apple Watch, their most personal device, it would NOT be showing me ads . . . EVER!