The IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence announced today, at the IAB MIXX Conference & Expo in New York City, two initiatives designed to take the emerging tablet advertising marketplace to a new level.
1. First Tablet Buyer’s Guide for the U.S. Mobile Marketplace, which provides a roadmap for marketers and agencies to help them navigate the burgeoning growth in consumers’ time spent with tablets.
2. Call for Submissions for the IAB Tablet Creative Advertising Showcase, an interactive creative gallery slated to launch later this month which will highlight the best in tablet advertising in order to educate mobile marketers and inspire even more innovation in the field.
“As the role of tablets in consumers’ lives continues to grow, advertisers are quickly moving to incorporate tablet advertising into their marketing plans,” said Anna Bager, Vice President and General Manager, IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence. “Tablets today combine the best of both worlds of interactive media devices—the large screen, hardware power and flexibility of PCs, and the intimacy, always-availability and simplicity of smartphones. With the introduction of the Tablet Buyer’s Guide and our upcoming Tablet Creative Advertising Showcase, the IAB aims to provide actionable resources that advance tablet advertising, as well as the mobile advertising arena as a whole.”
Not surprisingly, in the unique and relatively new medium of mobile, many questions and challenges remain. The IAB’s new Tablet Buyer’s Guide aims to clarify issues on planning, design, execution and measurement of three specific forms of tablet display advertising:
— In-App Ads – Ads delivered in apps downloaded to and resident on the tablet
— Tablet Web Ads in PC-Optimized Websites – Ads served to consumers using tablet web browsers, but browsing websites designed with the PC audience in mind
— Tablet Web Ads in Tablet-Optimized Websites – Ads served to consumers using tablet web browsers, in web pages designed specifically for tablet-based browsers
“From a user experience and user mindset perspective, tablets are emerging as a unique category,” said Sharon Knitter, Senior Director, Mobile, Cars.com, and Co-chair of the IAB Mobile Advertising Committee. “Advertisers will need to take the unique features of tablets into account and find ways to leverage them in concert with print, TV, radio, and PC interactive buys to realize and reap the rewards of adding tablets to a media plan. These efforts by the IAB help advertisers understand and capitalize on the tablet opportunity.”
Two of the bigger obstacles facing marketers interested in tablets are the lack of standard ad units and the lack of Flash support on Apple’s iPad, which currently dominates the market. The Tablet Buyer’s Guide addresses potential solutions, including leveraging prevailing ad formats (that is, nonstandard but common sizes like full-screen ads and certain IAB web ad units), exploring sponsorships rather than ad-unit buys and working closely with media company partners.
“The tablet audience is already there, and is only going to grow,” said Ulla McGee, Vice President, Mobile Products, IDG, and member of the IAB Mobile Advertising Committee. “As an industry we need to define and address the challenges that come with such a rapid development of a medium. The IAB is taking concrete steps to begin to answer the tough questions and to inspire marketers to incorporate tablets into their marketing plans.”
To download the entire Tablet Buyer’s Guide, please visit: <a href="www.iab.net.tabletbuyersguide”>www.iab.net.tabletbuyersguide
In tandem, the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence’s Tablet Creative Advertising Showcase, set to launch in late October, will share industry-wide examples of creative, inspirational and unique tablet executions on the IAB website (www.iab.net., demonstrating the potential of tablet advertising. Marketers and agencies as well as publishers are encouraged to submit their tablet campaigns for consideration to tabletshowcase@iab.net.
About the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence
The IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, an independently funded and staffed unit inside the IAB, is charged with driving the growth of the mobile marketing, advertising and media marketplace.
The Mobile Center devotes resources to market and consumer research, mobile advertising case studies, executive training and education, supply chain standardization, creative showcases and best practice identification in the burgeoning field of mobile media and marketing. Our agenda will focus on building profitable revenue growth for companies engaged in mobile marketing, communications and advertising, and helping publishers, marketers and agency professionals understand and leverage interactive tools and technologies in order to reach and influence the consumer. For more information or to find out how to join, please visit <a href="www.iab.net.mmcoe”>www.iab.net.mmcoe.
About the IAB
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.
