As advances in technology are rapidly changing, the way marketers connect to consumers have also evolved. Smartphone usage has significantly increased over the years due to a variety of applications that can be accessed. Marketers have recognized this shift in consumer behavior and have been utilizing it as a new distribution channel to gain consumers' attention. This also appealed to Apple Inc., and in response they developed iAd a platform for businesses to advertise their products and services through applications on iOS devices such as iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch. According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, LLC (CIRP), this past March the number of iPhone users in just the United States alone reached 94 million. In another article posted in February by Washington Times, it was reported that Americans spend 4.7 hours a day on their smartphones. Time spent on mobile devices has also boomed in the last couple of years while television has remained stable. A chart that was developed by Flurry, an analytic company, shows that since 2012 consumers have spent 168 minutes watching television, as opposed to mobile devices which started at 109 minutes in 2012 and surpassed television with 177 minutes in 2014. I do not believe TV's will become obsolete in our lifetime; time spent on mobile devices are increasing because they are more accessible. Advertising to consumers through their smartphones is a strategic move for marketers and if they did not do so they would be missing out on a huge segment.
In Campbell's five-week study that was conducted by Nielson, they found that consumers were more likely to remember the ad and be more inclined to purchasing their soup after being exposed to an iAd. However, according to AdAge.com, out of the 53 million ads only 1% of users clicked on the ad and spent an average of 1 minute looking through their website. This means that 99% of people who saw the ad dismissed it because it was a product that did not interest them.
