I came across a brief post and excellent video over at Wired. I watched it, was excited and Twittered it. Now, as the day has drawn on, the video demonstration of what their magazine will look like and how it will behave on the iPad has stayed with me. A few times through my working day, I've paused and thought 'That is the magazine I want.' The type of rich content that magazine will be able to deliver will be fantastic. It will transcend the written word and begin to deliver a rich, robust experience.
Even the types of advertisements will have the potential to deliver value and not simply behave as a marketing tool. Rather than simply showing a product and building brand awareness or informing, ads will have the ability to provide value, to engage users and allow users to interact with the products/services they are advertising. In a sense, the ad will cease to be an add. It'll become content.
You might think I'm simply drinking the Koolaid on this one. You might think that if that type of transformation was going to happen, it would have happened on the web. I say no. It is something that could have happened on the web, but it didn't. Publishers simply took print versions of their products and moved it to the web - for free. Here, with the iPad, they have the chance to create new content-centric products that provide new value to the end consumer. You might think I'm right out to to lunch on this. I challenge you - watch the video and tell me you don't get goosebumps. Tell me you wouldn't pay for that product that you see there?
The iPad will transform consumption. It is a content-consumption-centric device and the publishing industry is poised to capitalize on it. Exciting times ahead!
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