Apple’s long-awaited advertising platform is looking to do for mobile marketing what Google’s AdWords did for the websites.

Set to dominate mobile advertising, iAd is launching with pre-launch bookings worth a reported $60m featuring brands such as AT&T, Campbell Soup Company, Chanel, Nissan, Unilever and The Walt Disney Studios.

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs is naturally over the moon about the new platform saying it “offers advertisers the emotion of TV with the interactivity of the web”.

“This platform is going to help our developers make money so that they can continue to write free and low-cost apps for consumers,” Jobs said.

Promising pre-launch buzz

iAd will be made available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices as part of the iOS4 software update. The user experience of the new platform is said to be smooth with no delays when an ad is clicked.

The pre-launch buzz among advertisers has been promising. According to Rob Master, a media director with Unilever, iAd is going to revolutionise mobile advertising.

“With iAd, we’ve been able to create some of our most powerful and compelling ads ever. It’s the perfect mobile format to reach and engage with our customers”, he said.

One of iAd’s advantages is said to be its first-party nature which enables marketers to access specific customer preferences, such as consumer’s locations to compliment the targeting practices.

Sources: Marketing Week, The Telegraph