iAds: Pretty, Fun, Sometimes Cool - but Still Ads

Apple has released a new app for viewing ads -- that's right, an app with the sole purpose of delivering ads. The app is iAd Gallery, and it's designed to show off innovative ads created by Apple advertising customers who invested large stacks of money to be part of Apple's iAd program.

"The iAd Gallery is a celebration of advertising, featuring iAd campaigns from some of the world's best brands and their advertising agencies," Apple notes, adding, "The iAd Gallery gives you easy access to a selection of the fun and informative ads that have run in some of your favorite apps. Use the Browse feature to discover ads you haven't seen, or to find those you want to see again. Even lets you tag your favorites to a Loved section that's all your own."

The top feature, it should be no surprise, is timeliness: iAd Gallery is regularly updated to include a selection of the latest ads running on the iAd Network. So who cares?

John Paul O'Loughlin, a reviewer of the app on Apple's App Store, put it pretty well, actually: "Tired of apps getting in the way of your ads? There's an app for that!"

So anyone who wants to see ads without the clutter of an app. Nice. Really, though, the app clearly has two main points: 1) to show off the potential of iAds to potential advertisers and advertising agencies, and 2) to help drive consumer recognition of iAds.

Back in February, TechCrunch reported that Apple's iAd Network had started facing some hurdles after a strong launch, citing lowered fill rates for available ad placements and the reported US$1 million minimum investment hurdle from advertising customers. The $1 million minimum spend has reportedly been dropped to $500,000, but Apple doesn't exactly broadcast its rates. Either way, clearly this ad program is a far cry from the chump change programs available to advertisers with Google -- if you're creating an iAd, there's real money on the line.

Ads in Action

When I first heard about iAd Gallery, I was actually pretty excited about it, and I downloaded it for iPad 2. I was shocked to see the ads were only created in iPhone sizes, but that's not entirely surprising since the iPad was just getting started last summer when Apple CEO Steve Jobs first introduced the iAd Network. (Apple has since opened up the iPad to iAds, with the first ad hitting last month.)

So how are the ads? If you stare at them for too long, will the shiny awesomeness temporarily blind you?

The iAds are good, and for the most part, they are leaps and bounds better than other types of mobile ads I've seen. For example, there's an ad featuring the GEICO green gecko lizard, "Gecko's Wheel of Wisdom." If you spin a wheel with the flick of your finger, the gecko will offer some pithy bit of advice about money, romance, health, or style and such.

I was hoping for something laugh-out-loud, but I didn't even get a chuckle. The best bit of advice I saw was about the gecko on travel, with text that read: When your kids want to learn how to drive, don't stand in their way. As you read it, the recognizable gecko voice pipes up, "Yeah, trust me, mate." There's similarly items that I found utterly uninteresting, like GEICO gecko wallpaper for my iPhone. (Sorry, mate, the lizard isn't that fantastic.)

But, there was a link to a GEICO app called SnapQuote, which lets you take a photo of your driver's license to get a quick and easy insurance quote. I didn't try it personally because I'm quite happy with my insurance, but that is an interesting mobile ad feature, I must admit.

In another iAd for GE's "ecomagination" campaign, you can explore the app to learn how GE is working to make the world a more environmentally friendly place to live through electric vehicle technology, water reclamation, wind power, converting cow poop into energy -- you know, that sort of thing.

It's a colorful horizontal iAd with a cheesy soundtrack and bright animation. Like the GEICO gecko iAd, the GE iAd tries to engage you by action. You get to charge an electric car, for example, or feed a cow some wheat so the cow can make a cow pie that can be turned into energy. In another segment, you shake your iPhone to clean a big vat of water, which sparks a frog to sing about water reclamation. And GE, by the way, reclaims 2 billion gallons of industrial waste water every day.

There's more of this sort of thing in the iAd.

In another iAd, this time for Klondike, which makes the frozen Klondike ice-cream bar treats, iAd viewers have to wipe their iPhone screens to clear off the virtual ice from the screen that covers your view after a Klondike freezer door opens, spilling cold air onto the inside of your iPhone.

There's also an in-app feature that describes all the kinds of Klondike bars, some videos that seem to have been intended to have been TV commercials but never actually aired, and some video games that I couldn't bear to actually download and test. (Sorry, Klondike, I know your heart is in the right place, but I can't imagine when I'll have the time for this . . . or be sufficiently bored to try.)

There's many more big-brand iAds, of course, for products like the all-new Nissan Quest, the McDonald's McRIB, Campbell's ("Tap to see something steamy"), BMW, and even an app from the cosmetic company Maybelline that will help me find my shade of lipcolor -- 58 choices!

For the right girl, this iAd looks to be quite handy.

Of course, I'm not a girl, and I don't color my lips.

Which Brings Me to the Point

When Jobs first announced iAds last year, he seemed to want to reinvent the mobile advertising industry. What these iAds show me is that he's helped some major brands make some progress -- the iAds are far better than most other mobile ads, and in some cases, maybe even more interesting and immersive than many online ads and campaigns. That's cool.

Unfortunately, there's still one little challenge: relevance. If I'm not interested in the topic of the iAd, it doesn't matter how slick and shiny and smooth it is. Not only do the iAds have to be about something I care about, they also have to catch me at the right time.

On the upside, iAd Gallery has accomplished something with me as a consumer: I know that when I see the little iAd logo text at the bottom right of an iAd within an iPhone or iPad application, I have a new baseline set of expectations. If the iAd has a promising topic, I know that when I touch it, I'll likely get a more interesting experience than a 10 percent off coupon with a buy now button.

MacNewsWorld columnist Chris Maxcer has been writing about the tech industry since the birth of the email newsletter, and he still remembers the clacking Mac keyboards from high school -- Apple's seed-planting strategy at work. While he enjoys elegant gear and sublime tech, there's something to be said for turning it all off -- or most of it -- to go outside. To catch him, take a "firstnamelastname" guess at Gmail.com.