Apple Cuts Starting Price of iAds [REPORT]

Apple has cut the entry-level price of an iAd from $1 million to $500,000, according to a report.

The price cut is reportedly a done deal. “This new minimum buy is a great step forward and a necessary one, I think,” Mark Read, CEO of WPP Digital, told All Things D. “Lowering the minimum buy to $500,000 from $1 million will certainly make the platform more appealing.”

Apple rolled out iAd in April and charged advertisers a minimum of $1 million to use the platform. Since then, the demand for iAds hasn’t kept pace. According to the report, fill rates — the portion of advertising inventory being used — fell earlier this year.

In another move to broaden the availability of iAds, the company in December opened iAd development to third parties with iAd Producer, a tool available on Apple’s Developer Page.

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Shocker! Apple product placements dominate Hollywood

Something you already knew to be true has just been confirmed by Omnicom's Interbrand brand consultancy division: Apple reigns supreme in Hollywood films. Interbrand's Brandchannel website dug deep into the fetid bowels of product placement to reveal Hollywood's preferences (paid or personal) in the 33 films that hit the US box office number one slot in 2010. Brandchannel identified 591 total brand or product appearances for an average of 17.9 placements per film, with Apple appearing in ten of the top films for a 30 percent share -- Nike, Chevrolet, and Ford each appeared in eight. Incidentally, Iron Man 2 won the dubious distinction of being cluttered with the most identifiable brands (64) in 2010. Apple is actually off from its peak of 50 percent of number one films in 2008 and 44 percent in 2009 as demonstrated in the chart after the break. But it's not for a lack of trying. Brandchannel contends that the competition for brand placement has simply intensified resulting in fewer appearances of Janoff's U+F8FF.

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