1. EFFECTIVE TABLET ADVERTISING

THE TAKEAWAY

It is a slow start for advertising in the tablet, but we are beginning to see the development of ads that adapt to this new medium and its tremendous opportunities for storytelling.

While tablet users are swiping and scrolling through editorial content, they are also engaging with advertising. Note that I am not saying “looking” at advertising, but engaging with it. On the iPad, it is all about active interaction and engagement.

Advertising and tablets are, however, in the early stages of having a satisfactory relationship. When ads are intrusive, many users will tap within seconds on that “home” or “cancel” button to get the ads out of sight and out of mind.

Or, as Zephrin Lasker, contributor to Forbes, put it:

If interacting with the iPad is like a dream, then interacting with a lot of the advertising on the iPad is like walking off a ledge in the middle of the dream.

And the AdWeek article “Do mobile ads still suck?” by Ki Mae Heussner describes the depressing state of mobile advertising:

As marketers focus on data targeting and the tactical aspects of mobile advertising, they continue to give short shrift to creative. For all the potential of always-on, Internet-enabled, multimedia devices, mobile ads—both on smartphones and, often, tablets—are still seen as too difficult to make out, bland or just plain ugly. Banners designed for desktop browsers do double duty on mini mobile screens, ads teasing free games drive users to pages that take forever to load, and some ads trick consumers into clicking graphics that mimic message-notification bars.

Advertisers are very aware of the numbers attached to the tablet story, specifically Apple’s iPad. Apple reported in September 2012 that it had sold 84 million iPads through June 2012 and that 250,000 apps have been designed for the iPad. In June 2012, Apple revealed that its users have 400 million App Store accounts, from which they have downloaded 30 billion copies of apps.

Mobile ads—those for tablets and smartphones—are on the rise. According to eMarketer, mobile ad expenditures will be $2.61 billion in 2012. But even more established news websites are struggling with advertising. According to a new study of advertising in news by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, currently

“... even the top news websites in the country have had little success getting advertisers from traditional platforms to move online. The digital advertising they do get appears to be standard ads that are available across many websites.”

The potential rewards of tapping into the tablet platform’s rapid growth make these industry-wide challenges worth addressing.

ADS THAT TELL A STORY

The tablet, along with other digital platforms, offers a grand opportunity for advertising to engage users. Users engage with tablet advertising opportunities in two main forms: through the Internet browser and through apps. According to a study by Forrester Research cited in the IAB Tablet Buyer’s Guide, browsing accounts for the majority of tablet usage to date. Opportunities are plenty for advertising to weave itself more cohesively with the editorial content that surrounds it in a news app.

Advertisers, like editors and designers in the newsroom, are trying to perfect their own storytelling. They are trying to figure out how they can use multiple platforms to tell their stories more efficiently and powerfully. Notice the emphasis on the word storytelling, since tablet advertising will be more story driven than ads we may previously have seen in print and even on television.

I foresee the rise of the short, but complete, story in ads for the tablet. This will require the involvement of extremely creative people. Think of the talented people we might find in a movie studio or on the set of a documentary film.

The difference will be that the stories they tell with ads on the tablet will be brief, but with long-lasting messages, and will point in the direction of purchasing a product or service.It is here that one of the major revolutions is likely to take place as tablet advertising matures to its full potential.

Advertisers who have always considered television as the ultimate, effective destination for their products are now looking at the tablet and the role that the finger plays. We do not touch our television screens to engage with the ads, but we do that with our tablets. It makes a world of difference in redefining our relationship with products and services, and, as is the case already with automobile advertising, our ability to customize the ad: How would that car model look in green or gray, or with different tire rims?

Television ads sometimes give us the excuse to get up and go to the bathroom. No such thing with those tablet ads that may seduce us and drag us along for a fun ride.

It is a matter of users saying “no” to static ads that approximate the print experience on the tablet. They will say “yes” instead to interactive ads that explore the unique characteristics of tablets. When it comes to advertising on the tablet, a happy finger will point to the wallet. It is also about abandoning the common practice of click-based ads, which offer more distraction than attraction. Media research firm Affinity has found a high level of reported engagement with digital ads featuring videos, photo galleries and 3-D product views. Here is how Affinity’s Tom Robinson describes the impact of advertising on the tablet:

The ads that appear in iPads and digital tablets seem to be outpacing and outperforming the traditional printed versions of the ads. The recall is higher but the action scores—to make a purchase, go to a link, click to download an app—are much higher due to the interactivity of the tablet environment. Digital obviously offers more opportunities to respond with the interactivity, the links built in, the videos, and that is directly reflected in the fact that we’re getting higher reader ad effectiveness scores on the digital side.

Advertising agencies need to pay attention. Just like editors cannot migrate the entire contents of what they have in their printed publications into a tablet app, advertisers need to look at this new platform and explore its potential.

A QUESTION FOR ANDREW GRILL, CEO, KRED

WHAT ARE THE TARGETING OPPORTUNITIES FOR IPAD ADVERTISING?

I will go out on a limb here and say that iPad owners are more likely to accept “iPadvertising” than standard mobile advertising that exists today in iPhones and other devices. I noticed that Toyota will be running a campaign across iPad versions of seven magazines: Autocar, Evo, iGizmo, Project, Stuff, T3 and Wired. Viewers of the ads will be able to rotate the car through 360 degrees by touching the screen, to reveal all its specifications. It will be very interesting to see the reaction, not only from the readers but also the industry as a whole.

The final thing that lends itself to the iPad as a credible ad format is that creatives finally have a suitable canvas to extend the brand message and idea beyond the TV spot or press ad onto a tablet device. I have actually seen the ad mentioned above in a full-color press ad, and it really does take on a life of its own on the iPad.

TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE TABLET ADS

Two tips come to mind immediately:

1. Create ads that tell stories, which is the fastest route to engage the user.
2. Create an “advertising suite,” a small but self-contained mini website that does not require users to exit the app to get the message.

Change has come slowly in this area, with many advertising agencies still not ready to create “for tablet only” ads. As everything else with the tablet, new progress comes daily, and we are seeing more experimental utilization of advertising space and fewer traditional positions such as the static full screen, the strip banner or the single column ads that sit there waiting for the user to click on them.

Advertising agencies and planners today include more mobile components in most campaigns, and the amount of mobile spending will continue to increase. Sponsorship may become a dominant strategy to an extent not yet realized by the display ads of many websites. Mark Challinor of The Daily Telegraph wrote in the INMA blog devoted to mobile and tablets for news media,

The winners will be those media houses with consistent and growing traffic and with the most compelling ad experiences (suitable to the market they serve).