(eyeball time: 45 seconds but you might read evelyn woods wicked faster…but if you eyeball the funny great video add 2.2 minutes…)
full disclosure: we have no business or commercial interests with the new yorker magazine or conde nast. wish we did though! this is an independent assessment.
the dea skinny on what’s happening:
when we think of trans-media we tend to overlook the amazing traditional magazine space moving onto tablets like the iPad and others. it is exploding. this is the quintessential new wild west for trans-media coming together with text, image, video and games. but the navigation user experience metaphor is up for grabs. many think that wired magazine made the first best new effort at designing the new tablet magazine. we find it as confusing as a rubik’s cube to navigate and read. and that tends to get average readers hostile to content and drives advertisers crazy as well. the iPad navigation experience design metaphor in wired is just too cool for school, convoluted as a table of periodic elements and well, a pain in the ass, although their web site is fine. on the iPad or other tablets, wired is tired in trans-media or at least, tiring and exhausting to experience.
comes the new yorker magazine iPad app. they get it. well, why wouldn’t they? they have managed to port their content perfectly, giving it that classic new yorker magazine look and feel. it is easy to navigate and the ads and the editorial content all work together. just check out their “department of explanations” video when you download your subscription. you will see what we mean.
the stakes:
one of the newest biggest spaces and places in trans-media for traditional magazine advertisers to place ads is on tablets. duh. we know you know that. the adoption rate is exploding and the venue is tailor made for a new style of “reader” experience. the wall street journal has gotten the user experience navigation mostly right (yes, it is also worth paying for!). so has the washington post. the new york times is a rich site in terms of content and media assets, but still has a few miles to go in improving navigation, but they are close. and check out all your fav magazines. martha stewart living has totally nailed it, as usual. but we expected that. she is the queen of trans-media and was before anyone else. it is no accident her holding company is named martha stewart living omnimedia and was named that before anyone got trans-media.
the dea takeaway:
for content/tablet development people: get the navigation metaphor right. make it simple. the rules are similar when a traditional print reader transitions to your new tablet version. be gentle with them. don’t go crazy with vertical/horizontal sideways layouts just because you can. the conventional metaphor which seems to be winning now seems to be a simple left-to-right scrub pan with in-depth reading top-down scroll. ads should be nested throughout…and not left as an “add-on.” imitate the new yorker magazine if you want to keep life simple.
for advertisers: in seeking advertising venues with traditional print-going-to-tablet publisher offerings don’t rush into any magazine or newspaper ad space if you don’t feel the navigation makes sense. ask their team about views, placement and your fav metric, CPM. do what works best for your brand. also consider doing video for your ads. the view rates for video dwarf everything else.
for more information, please contact us at 512.825.6866 to discuss the issues more fully and the specific impact & implications to your business. it’s free!
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