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Apple CEO Steve Jobs is drawing on a treasure trove of data about consumers’ media habits to court Madison Avenue and build up his own mobile-ad business.
The tech giant is making a new push for its ad-sales business that includes pitching advertisers on new ways of targeting users. Through its iAd platform, Apple can insert interactive ads into apps for iPhones, iPads and other devices.
Thanks to the success of its iTunes and App stores, Apple is getting a wealth of information about users’ interests, ranging from movies and music to hobbies such as fitness and fishing.
The company is starting to use the information gleaned from apps and iTunes purchases to develop sophisticated user profiles that go beyond basic demographic information like age and gender.
Sources tell The Post that Apple is ramping up its iAds sales pitch under chief, Steven Rosenblatt, who is also trying other tactics to lure marketers.
Yesterday, Apple unveiled a new app called, iAds Gallery, to show advertisers what has been done through the platform.
Marketers are also being wooed with a price cut as most ad budgets are too small to accommodate Apple’s initial campaign commitment of $1 million. Apple is now pricing iAd campaigns at $500,000, according to Ad Age.
While Apple is rolling in proprietary data, agencies, advertisers and publishers have all expressed frustration that they don’t have transparency into which apps their clients’ ads appear.
As it stands, Nielsen, comScore and other plug third-party measuring systems haven’t been able to plug into iAds or come up with a solution of their own.
“The reality is Nielsen and comScore are so far behind measuring anything in the social and mobile space,” Chris Cunningham, CEO of Appssavvy, a firm that helps match app developers with marketers. “They just don’t have the tools or mechanics to understand the traffic.”
Meanwhile, tracking media consumption across mobile devices like Apple’s iPad is taking on added urgency as TV viewing shifts to the iPad. Time Warner Cable and Cablevision have both launched apps that allow viewers to stream TV networks on their iPads at home.
Executives from companies including Viacom and Discovery are already complaining that iPad viewers are not counted by Nielsen, the dominant provider of TV ratings.
One source said Nielsen is having a difficult time in its efforts to get Apple to cooperate on a third party-measurement service and is talking about trying to track iPad viewership through its existing TV panel of 20,000 households.
That’s a tough sell, given that iPad usage wouldn’t even register as a small cable network. Total sales were 15 million at the end of 2011 and are expected to hit 30 million in 2011.
“Face to face, Apple always says yes they’ll work with everyone,” one source familiar with discussions said. “When they get back to their office they won’t commit anything to paper.”
Nielsen said it’s working on a way to measure mobile viewers but hasn’t provided a timeline. Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment. catkinson@nypost.com