San Jose, California-based Immersion has launched its Haptic Ad Service for the development, management, and tracking of mobile ads that provide physical feedback, like car engine vibration, thunder rumble, or horse hooves’ impacts.
VP of Marketing and Product Management Todd Whitaker told me that this is the first time for feel-based mobile advertising at scale, something that cannot be offered in, say, TV or laptop/desktop ads. He added that, while there are other, one-off haptic ads, “we’re not aware of any competitor” offering such a service.
Examples: shaking a martini in an ad for Stoli vodka, feeling the engine rumble in a Peugeot ad, or detecting a slight vibration when the lights flicker in a trailer for American Poltergeist.
You can check out Immersion’s free Content Portal app (Android only), that contains links to sample ads. The ads can be run in a mobile web browser, or in apps supporting HTML5, on any Android smartphone or on Android tablets with actuator motors. Whitaker said Apple’s iOS platform is currently too restrictive for the ads to work.
[Read the full article on MarTech Today.]