Now that
SXSW is over and my Twitter feed and I have
recovered, I can settle back into my routine of checking back in with the rest of Twitter. For example, you may have missed a
bit from my trusty pals
@womensweardaily talking about Self Magazine’s “Digital Blitz”. My first thought was nothing new here, another story about a magazine on the iPad trying not to be obsolete in all of it’s printy-ness.
There is the usual integration of Facebook, taken further here by releasing bonus content with every “Like”, which is interesting sure, but is it enough? Probably not. The app version of the magazine also has lots of interactive elements in it, the food slot concept is a little strange, in name at least, but I’d play around with it moving food around on my iPad plate.
But wait! There’s more
The thing that stood out the most to me was this promise: “Fashion is shown on models in motion and everything can be purchased”.
Hello excuse to shop, I headed straight to the app store to spend my $3.99 in the name of research (and fashion…and shopping).
And then what?
And then I swiped through the pages, looking in every ad, then at all of the editorial for something, anything that hinted at being able to tap my hot little finger on those cute shoes and buy them right there. That’s what this sounded like, that’s what I was PROMISED. It’s not there, the lack of creativity in the ads is just a let down, the only non-print functionality they take advantage of is playing a video, nothing about this is groundbreaking. More could be done here, a lot more. I am on an iPad, I am trained that tapping the screen once should bring up a menu where I can do something with this image. Nothing. Then I finally see a “tap for shopping information” in an editorial piece, and think here it is, I’ll buy these shoes instead. No. It just shows me the same information a boring old magazine would and WORSE, the URLs listed don’t even take me to the site, let alone to the specific item. What gives? What is the point of this? I came to spend money and you won’t let me?! Blasphemy in the shopping world.
So what?
This idea is something we’ve been experimenting with for the better part of the last year here at TBG, specifically in helping brands figure out how to be smart about jumping into the app game, avoid the do it just to say we did it mentality, and make something smart and useful. There is an opportunity here, and it’s worth spending a few bucks to figure it out.
We get it, if you’re a brand and you’re investing in putting an app out there, you want to know you’ll get some kind of return on it. The good news is, you can, there is access to so much more information than is being taken advantage of right now. The market is ripe to give you that information, it’s there for the taking. We need to go beyond measuring how many Likes on Facebook a brand has as the ultimate win—you can win harder people! Give your readers immediate access and instant gratification to see something and buy it right there. _You don’t have to be restricted to the print model and hope for impressions to last long enough for readers to remember your product next time they need that thing. _
Moral of the Story
Make the magazine and the advertiser work harder together to craft the story around the ad with a more integrated experience and cohesive story. This also (obviously) makes it much easier for advertisers to measure success through purchase rate rather than the more nebulous metrics based on distribution and subscription numbers. Not to mention distribution prices to keep your magazine on the shelves of major retailers isn’t exactly a bargain either. Is it free to build an app that does this? No. But the benefits from this cost of doing business are palpable. Did I mention I love instant gratification? Those shoes could be in the mail by now.
