It Only Takes One…

Ads on the iPhone – For consumers, one of the little annoyances they are willing to deal with, for the sake of holding such a powerful, pretty gadget in their hands. For marketers, a potential boon, considering the growing reach of the iPhone and the "stickiness" of mobile ads. Ad recall on iPhones vs. other mobile users is higher (41% vs. 33%), and much more information is consumed, according to a 2009 study – no surprise there.

But it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch, as they say. This morning I'm checking out some tweets on the iPod touch, and what do I see across the bottom of the screen but an overlay ad that says (paraphrased) "See who is searching for you on Twitter." It looked like some sort of new Twitter app where you can monitor who is searching for your name or username. Being self-centered and vain, like most people are (admit it) of course I click on it. 

Unlike other iPhone app ads for services like Babelgum or Superpages, this innocent little click did not take me to the App Store where I could then proceed with my download. It didn't even take me to some sort of mobile-optimized landing page. Rather, it asked for access to my Twitter account, which I stupidly gave, being conditioned to allow other Twitter apps to integrate. It then guided me through a series of inane questions and statements that I could then choose to "Tweet This!" or skip. I skipped through about 10, then realized it was not going to stop, and gave up.

And that's the end of the story. I will never again click on a mobile ad. Done and done. In my case, because I'm the type to hold grudges (sort of), I really do mean it. But I wonder how many other naive ad-clickers – you know, the ones that we, as marketers, hold dear to our hearts – could hold the same resolve after this kind of experience. I guess that's just something we'll find out as mobile ads proliferate.

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