Will the iPad herald a renaissance of digital advertising?
The new Apple iPad is the latest information vehicle to cause interactive designers to rethink how they can deliver different types of content and how different types of content can play against each other in the same space, creating new experiences for users.
The iPad is of particular interest because it is a hybrid medium. Like some kind of Dr. Dolittle Pushmi-pullyu mash up, Steve Jobs and company have created something that is part laptop, part mobile device and part old fashioned book — all with the intent of making it the must-have gadget for digital content.
Whether or not the iPad will be a success remains to be seen, but it will surely inspire some interesting new content delivery strategies to play out across its 10-inch hand-held screen.
The size, shape and overall ergonomics of the iPad, as well as the increasing acceptance of similarly designed e-book readers such as the Kindle, are ushering in a new digital era for content delivery strategies. This is not to say that the existing hypertextual structure of interactive Web-based content won’t continue to be the primary form of content delivery. It just means that the iPad will enable more options for providing content.
Some in the print media world see the iPad as a clarion call to save their business models, simply because it will be much easier for them to control their content on the iPad than it is on the Web. As the Kindle created an environment where the traditional narrative form of a book can be presented with its integrity more-or-less intact, the iPad will offer something of the same for magazines and newspapers, albeit with options and opportunities to embrace the functional aspects of the digital format where it makes sense.
We may start to see hybrids that utilize the key benefits of the long-form linear narrative (a magazine that finally reads like a magazine instead of a website) but still offer the benefits of digital media (easily updated, live, hypertext content). All of which can increase viewer engagement.
As newspapers and magazines figure out how best to present editorial content via the iPad, they will also need to figure out how best to monetize it through advertising. Given that custom applications open up the possibility for new, unprecedented ways of delivering ad content, some in the marketing and advertising industry are buzzing. But not everyone is so thrilled.
Upon initial release, and to the chagrin of many in the marketing and ad business, the iPad does not support Flash content, which, of course, has become the universal ad delivery application online.
We don’t know how popular the iPad will ultimately become, but as a large percentage of online interactions take place on mobile devices that don’t have Flash capability, some mobile content providers will need to make critical decisions about the best form to present advertising. Instead of seeing the “missing plug-in” icon, would it be better to see something else, even if that something is just an image? The iPad may not herald the return of the animated GIF banner, but it will be something to consider, especially as HTML 5 begins to spread across the Web and potentially offer an alternative for displaying ads on mobile devices.
So at first glance, the iPad may look like a step back in terms of dynamic digital content delivery. Nonetheless, this “step back” could actually be positive — if, by stepping back, advertising that works in traditional print-based long-form narratives, such as the magazine, embraces the benefits of being served digitally.
Pentagram’s Luke Hayman sees the iPad as an opportunity to reset online advertising. “The mean little conventions of online advertising — banner ads, pop ups and so forth — aren’t popular with readers, with advertisers and certainly not with designers. Once people start exploiting what the iPad can do, we may see the kind of creative renaissance that will deliver the next George Lois or Lee Clow. People will start subscribing to certain i-mags just for the ads alone.”
This is an exciting possibility that content providers embrace. It’s going to be a new frontier for a while, but standards will emerge and whoever masters them first will lead a new era in advertising.
