• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, September 8, 2010

Tiffany & Co. is no stranger as an advertiser to the print or online pages of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. But an ad the famed jeweler has run in the last couple of days on the home pages of the two newspapers' sites is unusual for the prominent placement it gives to promoting its iPhone app.

Released in June, Tiffany's free engagement ring finder app lets users browse the company's ring catalog, determine their correct ring size, learn about how to select a ring and even book a one-on-one consultation via email or phone, among other things. Mainly, it's a tool for driving customers who are preparing to make a major purchase in Tiffany stores.

The app has won mostly favorable reviews to date in the App Store and earned a rating of three and a half out of five stars based on 3,575 responses. The ad appearing on the NYTimes.com and WSJ.com home pages itself is straightforward -- a standard box unit on the right side of the page showing an image of the engagement ring app on the iPhone against its trademark eggshell blue background. When clicked, it links to the app's iTunes preview page.

While promotion has become an accepted part of launching a new app, even most big brands have not typically extended campaigns to the splash pages of top news sites or portals. A New York Times Company spokesperson said that Tiffany was the first advertiser to dedicate a major placement on NYTimes.com to promoting a mobile application. Tiffany itself did not respond to inquiries for this story.

But ad space on high-traffic sites reaching affluent audiences like the NYTimes.com and WSJ.com does not come cheap. CPMs for a standard display ad on the Times' home page can run from $25 to $50, and around $40 on WSJ.com, according to one estimate. That means only large brands are likely to even consider buying such high-priced real estate to tout their apps.

Advertising executives who are not connected to the Tiffany app ad, however, noted that the retailer actually focused more on connecting consumers with the app than its storied brand. Ben Winkler, senior vice president and digital media director at Initiative, pointed out that clicking the ad takes a user directly to the iTunes app preview page rather than to Tiffany.com.

He explained that clients often don't want any outside layer, like an iTunes page, coming between customers and their brands in campaigns. "I would think Tiffany would be one of the toughest to bring around on that, but obviously they have," he said.

Boris Fridman, CEO of mobile ad technology company Crisp Wireless, agreed. He said the Tiffany ad was "part of a larger trend to bring utility closer and closer to the ad unit and the point of interaction with the consumer." In that regard, he suggested the ad effectively combined direct marketing and brand-building.

"Tiffany is looking to 'engage' potential lifetime customers, so if they use brand dollars to get that first purchase they are potentially getting both immediate ROI and branding in one shot," he said. Fridman added that he expects more prominent brands to follow Tiffany's example in promoting mobile apps.