Will Apple’s control-fetish impact the success of iAd?

OK, it‘ s a bit of  a strong title. Yet – the latest rumour states that Adidas cancelled their $10 Million contract – due to the harsh „quality“ controls by Apple.

The reason according to businessinsider:

Adidas supposedly pulled its $10+ million ad campaign from the iAd program because Apple CEO Steve Jobs was being too much of a control freak. According to one industry exec, Adidas decided to cancel its iAds after Apple rejected its creative concept for the third time.

The fact that there are such high standards for quality should generally be regarded as a good thing. Once users acknoledge the fact that iAd adverts are of good quality, acceptance – and hence clickrates – of these ads should increase. Leading to higher revenues for Apple and for the App publishers.

But what good is such a quality control mechanism if you upset all the advertisers? Adidas is apparently not the first company – Chanel already stopped their iAd ambitions, too, according to some sources.

Apple is a company with extremely high standards, which is the reason for their success (heck, I am writing this on a MacBook). But if they want to pull in other companies into their iAd System, they should consider, that they are dealing with clients – not suppliers (or employees). Especially, because there are also some other issues advertisers dislike:

In addition to Apple’s unusual control over the ad creation process, advertisers complain about the lack of control over and visibility into where their ads appear, lack of third-party ad serving tools, and other issues. Apple plans to open up the process once it’s more comfortable with the program, but it appears some advertisers have lost their patience.

Mobile advertising is one of the next (if not current) big things. With many strong competitors and antitrust investigations pending (what’s the latest status on that, by the way?), can Apple really afford to be this drastic?

Tipp-Ex Bear hunter viral video

We all enjoyed the subservient chicken for Burger King. We also enjoyed the Samsung „follow your instinct“ interactive Video story where you can choose how to proceed with the story by clicking on one of several button to continue different paths:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoOCiaxIZF4

And we also like youtube advertising, that plays with the layout of the page, as in the movie promo for the Expendables.

Now, Tipp-Ex has combined those three and came up with a nice advertising Campaign:

You can choose – or shall I say it looks like you can choose – one of two endings. Warning, here is a spoiler:

You don’t have a choice. The bear won’t be shot, in both options the ad changes, the youtube special ad format kicks in and the guy grabs the Tipp-Ex from the box on the righthand side, deletes the word „shoots“ and tells you to tell him, what to do with the bear instead. From then on, it feels like the subservient chicken. You can tell him, for example, to dance with the bear:

Of course, many people tried other commands with the subservient chicken, so I had to try this, too:

Nice combination of stuff that has been seen before… Of course, you can share it on Facebook and Twitter…

Creatives on a walk for a job

What the heck is going on in ad land? How come, that several creatives are touring from one end of the nation to another? (While documenting their pilgrimmage online on Facebook).

Santiago Cosme and Victor Blanco, two advertising students, are travelling from NY, where they landed, to the HQ of CPB in Colorado.

In Germany, there are two projects like this currently going on:

Philipp Bertisch und Marcel Günthel, again two Students, are walking across Germany taking up the tradition of craftsmen who travel the country to assist and learn different masters throughout the country. They have been travelling since July already.

And Marcus Brown, who walks for Dr. Peter Figge, with the objective to have a chat with Peter Figge, who recently became CEO of Jung von Matt. Why? Because he wants to work for him. On his way, he hopes to meet interesting people.

What is going on here? Why do these three cases all appear almost at once?

The case study of „the man your man could smell like“ (old spice)

The „Old Spice“ Campaign of „the man your man could smell like“ has certainly caused a lot of buzz within the social media community lately, and I have bookmarked a fair share of links on my delicious account lately.
Now there is an official case study video by Wieden+Kennedy with the story of the  campaign, as well as some interesting facts and figures.

Fascinating stats, of course the sales figures all relative numbers, not actual figures:

  • More people watched its videos in 24 hours than those who watched Obama’s presidential victory speech
  • Total video views reached 40 million in a week.
  • Campaign impressions: 1.4 billion.
  • Since the campaign launched, Old Spice Bodywash sales are up 27%; in the last three months up 55%; and in the last month up 107%

(found here)