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While Apple's iPad has been the subject of a lot of attention ranging, from ridicule and mixed reviews. The spin suggested the iPad would usher in a new era for those in the publishing business by creating another medium for consumers to experience print.

However, the promise suggested by Apple's demos and a number of flashy publisher initiatives is that this new experience is going to be better than a web site, and more satisfying than reading a newspaper or a magazine.

The dream being sold is how our magazines are going to be turned into immersive multimedia experiences (see the Sports Illustrated demo below) where the user takes a joyride through a stream of beautifully designed content and can dig deeper on topics and experience multimedia to their hearts content. While all these seems technically feasible, the big question is who are the publishers who can afford to develop this content on a daily, weekly or even a monthly basis?



It's easy to imagine a scenario where excitement drives the creation of great first iPad editions that succeed in seducing new subscribers into magazine franchises at significant premiums to current subscription rates. However this will not be sustainable because the economics won't map out and the result will be falling quality standards and subscriber discontent. 

The other way of looking at this is through the application lens, where new entrants will come into the publishing space from a completely different direction.These new entrants might find better and more interesting ways of serving up content than the publishing incumbents.

It's likely magazines will never be able to afford to realize the "Sports Ilustrated" dream and instead be forced to fight it out in the App Store with hundreds of thousands of competitors.

The future for traditional publications on tablets has to be more "application like", than "issue like".

I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but I don't believe we are going to get the sizzle of the Sports Ilustrated demo, it's much more likely we will be looking at something like the latest GQ iPhone application.



Posted by Ed Cotton While the tablet frenzy is reaching epic proportions and everyone seems to be looking at Apple, HP does not want to let it's efforts slip by unnoticed because it does have something interesting to say...it has a tablet and it's very cheap!

However, the company has a fun way of going about things, it's almost as if the brief was "How can we be as un-Apple as possible?" and they went and produced a YouTube film that is a snoozefest.



One would think given the attention around tablet computing, that they could find a more dynamic and imaginative way to tell their very interesting story.


Posted by Ed Cotton Exciting and euphoric are not two words I would use to describe for Microsoft.



The fact that this clearly staged euphoria was manufactured for public consumption, note the presence of TV cameras, is a sign that Microsoft means business. I guess If you can't beat them you have no choice, but to join them.

Clearly, Microsoft understands that Apple is onto something and believes it can succeed if it provides a facsimile experience at retail.

I understand how excitement could be faked at the opening for the media, but finding people who can demonstrate passion, excitement and charisma is not going to be easy.

There's something deeper at work in the Apple store, something than can expressed in store design and that's the thing Microsoft's going to have such a hard job copying. 


Posted by Ed Cotton Tom Formeski's recent post about social media and brands is an interesting take on brands that don't really respond to negative responses on social media platforms.

Tom singles out Apple and Wells Fargo as examples of companies who don't really to respond to negative comments. He claims that because they face no repercussions for their inaction that this is a bad thing for the social media marketing mavens.

It's a  complex subject and involves understanding how people relate to brands. Certainly, there's an impact to bad news and some consumers react, communicate vocally and exit from the brand. However, it's all about brands having strong "mental balance sheets", if people feel that overall the brand is doing a good job they will give the benefit of the doubt and allow it a few indiscretions.

I would argue that all brands need to be aware of the balance of the conversation by monitoring and evaluating it.

There's no doubt that brands like Dell needed a response when the conversation turned against them and they turned things around rapidly. Interestingly, Dell is a brand heavily invested in social media, but one that's yet to reap the rewards. This is because a turnaround is a long uphill battle involving product and category evolution.

Starbucks is another brand in the same postion. In a recent report by The Altimeter Group, Starbucks ranked as the no1 brand in social media, but as we all know, the brand is in something of a crisis.

Incidently, Dell ranks as No2 in the Altimeter study, suggesting that the most troubled brands are currently the most invested in social media.

Then there's Zappos who used social media probably to enhance its value, who recently sold to Amazon for for close to $900 million.

Social media engagement is no guarantee of instantaneous success and it doesn't replace the need for product and service excellence. At present, it's return on investment story seems undeveloped at best. We are the early stages of learning about this world, but within the next 24 months, companies will become much more strategic about goals and objectives setting for social media across divisions.

At present, as Tom suggests there's no penalty for brands with strong "mental balance sheets" not engaging in social media, as the field becomes more crowded and brands get to understand it better, this is not likely to remain a "truth" for much longer.


Posted by Ed Cotton Apple's "Wall of Applications" developed for its recent developer conference did more to demonstrate the breadth and scale of its applications than any single static ad ever could. It's a great example of the power of data as a compelling form of communication. In Apple's case, it's all about the scale of the information to signify the size of the ecosystem.



While most experts are thinking of data visualization as a tool to explain data internally to diverse audiences and to help them better understand what's going on, data could easily be a pure communication tool.

If used correctly, data visualization could help audiences to better understand brands, either in the representation of large scale global interactions or focused on a more local level.

For Coca-Cola, imagine data revealing the scale of consumption on a real time basis examined globally or down to a local level where you could connect with others in a community like way.

Taking it further, complex interactions could be highlighted and data meaning could be presented from detailed analysis.

When you think of brands as media companies, data is now one of the valuable assets in the arsenal of communication tools.



Posted by Ed Cotton We are delighted to add Alan Dye to our Influx Curated (June 11th- San Francisco) speaker list. Alan is currently a Creative Director over at Apple and will be one of Chris Riley's guest speakers.

Alan's experience includes stints at Kate Spade, Ogilvy's B.I.G. and Landor.

Here's Debbie Millman interviewing Alan for Design Matters in January 2008.



Tickets for the event are $99 and can be found here along with more details about the event.


Posted by Ed Cotton