On the weekend it launched, Apple sold one million iPhone 3Gs—and not just to early adopters and hipsters: stats from ChangeWave suggest iPhone's moving in on the smartphone (read: ENTERPRISE!) market, currently dominated by BlackBerry. Already, iPhone's a fertile ad medium. From MySpace to Stella McCartney to the Associated Press, all industries want in.
Now, here's more good news: There's no need to build an app to join the iPhone ad-mania, even if the iPhone SDK does make it ludicrously easy. Firms like AdMob and Greystripe are on-call to make your creative handheld-friendly. The latter even boasts technology for iPhone-ready Flash ads. Wrap 'em around apps already on the market; devs are always happy to take some extra funding.
To get a sense of where you can ease your brand in, check out all the free apps and games getting snapped up on the App Store, just begging for sponsorship!
Creative's nothing without quantifiers, and new ways to track iPhone campaigns are cropping up all the time, too. Omniture measures iPhone apps via SiteCatalyst, making it easy to track clicks, purchases and pageviews in real time. Kenshoo tracks geography, cost vs. revenue, and conversions by day or month. And after helping you build an ad execution, AdMob can report on downloads and conversions.
The Po!nt: It's time to test your App aptitude. Exploration is key to mastering this great new revenue stream. Jump on in!
by Christina "CK" Kerley
