The Sunday papers got me thinking

I enjoyed reading The Sunday Times this weekend, I sat in the sun with a glass of champagne and some strawberries, all sounds normal (maybe not the champagne bit, I was on holiday) but this week it was on my iPad. I really like the new format as I have talked about before and it works brilliantly on the iPad.

Worth noting that as a non paper buyer The Times have gained me as a new reader, certainly for now until they start charging me.

As I was browsing I was thinking the app and wondering that with such a strong web experience why would I bother paying another £9.99 for the app?  Surely the information is the same just presented in a different format.   I assume it can be accessed offline which is a bonus but potentially not one worth paying for in my opinion.  I think that apps developed for iPad will have to offer something very compelling for a user to not just use web based content that they know and love especially as increasingly websites will be updated and developed with mobile access in mind.  It is different on the iphone because of the screen size and apps make the content more digestible.

Context and Connections

I think these are the two most important factors that will determine the success of major developments in the media industry over the next few years. Much of digital media success has been about its ability to use context to get results.  The always on targeting and delivery systems allow us to ensure ads get into the most relevant places as often as possible.  Mobile developments are beginning to offer brands more context based opportunities to target with the rise of geo targeting and the increase of internet usage on the go.

The average iPhone owner uses his or her iPhone to make a phone call only about 45% of the time. The other 55% is used for Internet, games, music, email and SMS, Mary Meeker Report, April 2010

New platforms like iPad again increase the opportunity to target users in potentially a different context, one that might be more about leisure and entertainment.

The second pillar is connections.  We are all aware of the power of networks and of personal recommendations, we can see it in our own purchase behaviour and there are plenty of statistics that tell us it is the case e.g.:

More than 1 in 3 (33.6%) consumers agree that word of mouth is the number one influence for their apparel purchases.

Retail Advertising and Marketing Association/BIGresearch Study as cited by Bazaarvoice.com , December 2009

The new platforms and ad models that allow us to take advantage of this fact will be key drivers of media over the next few years.  Making it easy for consumers to share content and experiences that brands create will drive value beyond anything that can be bought.

When you combine context and connections you get something very powerful and game changing.  Judge new ideas against these two criteria.

iAd no idea where they got their prices from

There is no doubt in my mind that ads will look stunning on the iPad it will probably be the publishers that will take a lead on this platform. For the iphone which is comparatively mass the ad model will be closer to what we see on wap and web. It will work to some extent but at what cost. The iAd model is an interesting one charging for displaying a basic banner and then slapping on another charge for a click. Banner ads on mobile don’t look great, they are small and fairly intrusive albeit necessary to direct users to a better experience. However, digital buyers know what a banner is worth and it is no where close to the iAd proposed cpm. IAd will get initial take up but will struggle to scale with that model. Cool brands will want to be using these innovative new platforms and may pay the initial price but they will also then move on to the next cool thing, the ad model needs to cater for the advertisers with the money. Apple can be arrogant when it comes to their beautiful products and most of us will forgive them but they cannot afford the same attitude when it comes banner ads on apps.

my iPad

This my first blog post via my iPad, is it very sad that I am excited? Probably but I embrace the geek inside me. I have spent a few hours browsing the available apps working out what I want. So far I have big oven, FT, iBook and kindle. I am debating downloading the times app but 9.99 seems quite a lot so i am undecided. I thought I would just use it for browsing web and watching video or viewing pics but I can see why it is also good for presentations, I think pages will be my next download. Pictures look stunning on here, I have been looking at my wedding photos, the iPad is the perfect portable album. It is actually really nice to type on, you could definitely do long hand work on here that you can’t do on an iPhone. Now my next job is to choose a secret code to lock my iPad with to stop my husband taking over, i have only been home a few hours and he has already called it ‘our iPad’, I think not…

The Times have changed but is it enough?

I have spent a bit of time on The Times new subscription site today and first impressions are good.  It is clean, bright, visual, modern and easy to use.  Nothing like a newspaper really!  Typical newspaper formats I personally find cumbersome and hard to navigate and therefore spend very little time consuming them.  You could spend quite a long time on this new site browsing through the features, enjoying the content, it pulls you in and entertains.  Whether or not I would pay for this pleasure is still for debate.  I have had a sneak preview of the iPad app but have not had a good play with it yet, so I will hold my judgement until I get my iPad this week, I have high hopes.  As I was browsing I was thinking about what is missing and then it struck me, there are no share buttons, albeit for fairly obvious reasons it seems like a big whole in what we expect from market leading web experiences today.  Maybe they could give users a set number of ‘shares’ a day where a friend could benefit from reading one article or watching one video.  This would help promote more people to subscribe if they kept on getting shares from their friends.  Something else I noticed was that the font looks bigger than normal, maybe just my large screen but I like it, makes it easier to read and enjoy.