Adidas say Steve Jobs – “Too much of a control freak”

Adidas have recently been working with Apple on a $10 million deal to place mobile advertisements on Apples iAd service. Latest reports show that Adidas have pulled out of the deal because Apple have been to controlling during the process.

Silicon Valley Insider has claimed that Adidas pulled their campaign because “Apple CEO Steve Jobs was being too much of a control freak.” Adidas apparently have had a creative concept idea rejected three times which triggered the bust up.

The report said “In addition to Apple's unusual control over the ad creation process, advertisers complain about the lack of control over visibility into where their ads appear, lack of third-party ad serving tools, and other issues, Apple plans to open up the process once its' more comfortable with the program, but it appears some advertisers have lost their patience.”

While this sounds like it could be the makings of a media editorial, the report does confirm what the Wall Street Journal said in August. They published an article saying that advertisers have been frustrated over Apple's ‘tight control over the creative process for iAds”. These mobile advertisements take between eight and ten weeks to deliver because Apple are creating the ads themselves.

Launch partner Chanel also pulled their ad campaign with iAd, which means that this could be the second huge deal Apple have lost due to ‘control issues'.

The concept for iAds makes sense, the highly interactive concept ideas are built into developers applications, giving them a 60 percent cut of the revenue stream. Making advertisements more involving in theory should mean more people click them due to increased interest. They don't need a browser to view them either.

KitGuru says: Apple too controlling? If they keep losing $10 million contracts this service is doomed to fail.

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