New Leadership for Apple's iAd?
Adobe exec reportedly hired to run mobile ad program
Apple reportedly has hired Adobe exec Todd Teresi to lead its mobile iAd program.
Teresi led the advertising and publishing teams at Adobe, according to his LinkedIn profile. Previous jobs include chief revenue officer at Quantcast and senior vp at Yahoo, where he ran the company's publisher network.
The hire was first reported by Bloomberg, which said the news came from "three people with knowledge of the matter." An Apple spokesperson did not respond to Adweek's request for comment, but AllThingsD reported it has confirmed the news as well.
Apple first launched the iAd program in June 2010, with then-CEO Steve Jobs disparaging existing mobile advertising and pointing to iAds as a way to help iPhone developers make money. While the quality of the ads was mostly praised, the program has attracted a fair amount of negative buzz—first over Apple's insistence on controlling the creative process, then on its decision to lower the minimum ad buy.
The iAd program was built around Apple's acquisition of mobile advertising startup Quattro. Andy Miller, a Quattro co-founder who served as Apple's vp of mobile advertising, left in August to become a partner at Highland Capital. Before that, another co-founder Lars Albright left to create a new startup called Session M.
It may not have much relevance to Teresi's hire, but it's worth noting that Apple and Adobe are at the tail end of a mobile battle, specifically over Apple's decision not to support Adobe's Flash technology on iPhones and iPads. The ultimate result? Adobe has abandoned development of Flash for mobile browsers.
