Apple announced their iAd network today, the next step in Quattro Wireless’ evolution since its acquisition by Apple. And what they announced was just fantastic: an ad network that focuses on rich media interactions inside of iPhone apps. Apple is sending a loud message to the advertising community that mobile ads are different from online display – and even online rich media – and that they can be far more valuable to a brand. We couldn’t agree more.
We built the first rich media ads for mobile apps and now work with a large number of the top apps and publishers to help them monetize and sell their own inventory. We provide publishers the tools and the infrastructure they need to be successful selling ads. That’s very different from the iAd network, which like all ad networks sells ad inventory on a publisher’s behalf and takes a meaningful percentage of the revenue.
Not only are we the most widely deployed rich media platform for mobile, we’re also a cross-platform solution, meaning we work on iPhone and Android devices with other platforms to follow soon. That means that advertisers can create one set of interactive ads and run them across all of our publishers and ad network partners regardless of what kind of device they use, with a consistent set of metrics to measure their campaign’s performance. We are also a cross-network solution, and will shortly be announcing a number of ad network partnerships where advertisers will be able to buy Medialets rich media ads in addition to our direct, publisher partners.
Apple’s done more to move the needle in the brand community for mobile advertising than anyone else, and that was before they owned an ad network. Now that they’re promoting rich media units on a grand scale, we’re convinced that the flow of dollars into mobile ads - across all platforms - will only increase. That’s great for Medialets and for all of our partners.
This is an exciting day for mobile advertising.