co&co UK

Apple iAd Advertising Example with Images, 3D Image, Video and Google Maps – How to Install, Create and Test

Warning: Since the release of iAds Producer the process has changed. The below method may no longer apply.

We at coANDco (UK) Ltd. have been experimenting with Apple iAds for the past few days and have come up with a simple example put together of various pieces of Apple’s examples. This demo should work on Mac as well as Windows. Of course, much more is possible with iAds. But the purpose of this demo is not to impress with special effects (we will post some special effects later) but to give a basic insight in the user experience and some hopefully useful instructions how to install a sample iAd on a device.

How to install the demo

Requirements: iOs 4.0 and the latest iTunes. Both of them can be obtained from Apple for free.

Step 1: Download the iAd Tester app. You need this to “emulate” the advertising. You can download it from here. Note: This App may expire. You will get a message saying “iAd Tester will expire in X days”. We have uploaded a new one as of the 20th of July 2010. Replacing it should fix the problem.

Step 2: Download the actual advertising bundle (a Zip file) from www.coandcouk.com/downloads/coANDco_sample_ad.zip. Note, this one is 25 megabytes in size, because it includes a local video. We put the video inside the Ad to save on bandwidth if the ad spreads but it is more than likely that Apple would expect the video to be streamed or at least less big.

Step 3: Open iTunes and connect your phone with iOS 4.0 to your computer via cable. Note: Apple disabled support for internal links as of iOS 4.1 and we are currently working on a solution.

Step 4:Unzip and drag the iAd Tester App to your iTunes to install it on your phone.

Step 5: Sync your iPhone with iTunes

Step 6: in iTunes, click on your iPhone and click on the “Apps” tab.

Step 7: Search for “iAd”

Step 8: Click on the iAd Tester App and scroll down:

Step 9: Select the iAd Tester in the left column again and drop the coANDco_sample.ad.zip file you have downloaded earlier to the iAd Tester Documents window (do NOT unzip the file):

Step 10: Open the iAd Tester App on your iPhone

You should be able to pick an Ad now from the bottom left. Pick the coANDco Ad and off you go.

I’ll publish here shortly, how we created the various views of this iAd. It is nowhere near as sophisticated as it could be yet, but this should just give a rough impression, how the process could look like.

Please do not hesitate to get in contact if you have any questions. We’re more than happy to help.

Troubleshooting

• The iAd does not appear in my iAd Tester App?
  - The iPhone has to unzip the package first. This can take a few seconds up to a minute.
  - If the App doesn’t appear in the window, restart your iAd Tester App
  - As soon as the .zip ending has disappeared from the iTunes Documents window, the iAd unit will be available in the iAd Tester App
  - the ZIP file must not be renamed
• The iPhone throws a message about an expired provisioning profile or a profile about to expire
  - You need the most recent iAd Tester App. This can be downloaded from here.
• The internal html links are not working
  - Since iOS 4.1 Apple has changed its internal specification of how to link between internal html files within the advertising unit. In order to link between files, you need to use the recommended JavaScript functions. As of end of September 2010, we are working on an updated version for this example.

Update: We have updated the sample files to work on iOS 4.1 (23.9.2010)

Update: We have updated the binary to as the Certificate expired. Please download the new application here. You can update it by deleting the old one on your device and re-installing by dragging it to your iTunes icon in the dock. (12.11.2010)