Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has a warning for Apple: That iAds doo-hickey? Well, that dog just isn’t going to hunt. Bartz told Reuters the ad platform launched in July will ‘fall apart’ due to Apple’s obsession with control.
“Advertisers are not going to have that type of control over them. Apple wants total control over those ads,” she said. However, iAds is “ok for experimentation,” Bartz opined.
This isn’t the first objection we’ve heard about iAds. In August, the Wall Street Journal reported advertisers felt the Apple ad system was off to a ‘bumpy start.’ Although Apple named 17 iAds partners in July, only Unilever and Nissan launched campaigns that month, with a few more advertisers started campaigns in August.
As Bartz noted Wednesday, the sticking point is Apple’s desire to control the entire process. The WSJ wrote Apple’s micro-management style tacks on two weeks to the usual time an ad campaign is launched. Some advertisers complain of being kept in the dark as Apple takes control of ad production while it fine-tunes the tools agencies can use to develop iAd spots.
But the payoff may be worth all the effort. Nissan said its iAd received five times as many clicks as its traditional advertising campaign.
Although Yahoo may have its doubts about iAd’s future, Google is happy with recent events. After first locking out AdMob, the Mountain View, Calif. Internet giant’s mobile ad firm, Apple earlier this month relaxed the restriction for in-app advertising.
