Publishers must rethink ad strategy for mobile
The launch of the iPad in the UK has major publishers salivating, but an in-house ad sales rethink is needed to maximise ad revenues. As with the birth of any new medium, specialist agencies spring up to sell ads for the innovators and to evangelise to everyone else – just look at the burgeoning smartphone market.
The problem for new ad formats, particularly on mobile, is campaigns tend to be either small-scale tests or tacked onto wider activity as an afterthought. If you’re a publishing salesperson your energies will be directed towards selling high-value campaigns, and the same is true for an agency planning and buying inventory. The current commission structure is a huge constraint for mobile advertising and will be on the iPad, after an initial goldrush.
Despite specialist agencies positioning themselves as iPad experts, the market is in its infancy. The concept of highly engaging in-app advertising is well understood, and a realisation that there’s more to ads than banners makes the case for an incentivised and integrated in-house mobile sales team clear.
For a publisher to integrate mobile and the iPad into their existing ad sales teams, incentives need to be sufficient to guarantee sales of prime inventory which will help grow the industry. However, this must be coupled with an ad network strategy that ensures their entire mobile and iPad real estate gets sold. Failing that, there’s always iAd.