Visa, Siemens running interstitial ads in New York Times iPhone app

Siemens courts New York Times readers who have an iPhone

Financial services giant Visa and European engineering conglomerate Siemens AG are among the first brands running interactive interstitial advertising within the New York Times iPhone application.

Medialets created the expandable ad units, which encourage users to interact with the brands by taking advantage of functionality such as tilting, which is unique to the iPhone. Both Visa and Siemens were looking to drive brand awareness with the New York Times’ desirable mobile demographics.

“Right now these interstitial ads from Visa and Siemens are running in our iPhone apps, which represents the only mobile platform on which we’re capable of running rich-media units right now,” said Robert Samuels, director of mobile products at the New York Times, New York.