Ad:tech SF – iPad Therefore I Am

Trawling the exhibit hall at ad:tech ^[1] is rather like surfing the internet – enough pleasant distractions that stop you from doing any meaningful work, supplemented with the odd glimmer of inspiration.

^[2]What was I doing attending a conference specifically geared to the on-line advertising industry?

Well, the fact it was twenty minutes from my door and only USD 50 to enter the exhibit hall was bonus BUT I was intrigued to see if the on-line community was embracing, or ignoring digital out of home – sorry surely you mean Digital Placed Based Advertising, Ed

Unfortunately, it appeared to be the latter, which makes for a very short column and not such an interesting blog!

Amidst the myriad of purely web-based, mobile and social networking offerings, digital out of home was largely ignored except for Adcentricity’s Rob Gorrie, admirably holding down the fort in the curiously named ‘Innovation Alley’ – sounds like something out of Harry Potter- “Innovation Alley? Turn right at Wizard’s Walk and you can’t miss it” Ed

However, the glimmer of inspiration came in the Keynote speech from Chris Anderson, managing editor of Wired and author of ‘The Long Tail’.

With iPad in hand, he preached on why he believes tablets will revolutionize the publishing industry and finally allow publishers to start charging for rich, compelling media experiences.

Wired is already working with Adobe to develop an iPad specific publication that should see the light of day this summer – alas no examples yet as it’s still in development.

He took the example of his  parent company, Conde Nast, to explain the different approaches between creating for print and the web, and how it falls to two separate teams to execute the content.

With an iPad like device, you can begin to create these rich media experiences at the start – when you commission the writer, photographer and art director you also commission the iPad version (video content, audio content, panoramic photographs, etc) to make it one seamless publication AND because the content will be so engaging and rich, publishers can start charging consumers again (he says).

A simple enough premise, that seemed to make sense, although I don’t think this is going to happen over-night, and the tablet content better be light-years ahead compared to the free browser content.

I’m no expert in this field, but I saw some immediate parallels to DOOH. I’ve always thought the best creative for Digital Out Of Home comes from integrating at the very start of the creative process – easier said than done of course BUT some of the most on-strategy, compelling work I’ve done came from working with Gillette and their Agency BBDO at the launch of their new product and crafting the DOOH creative to be fully in sync with the national campaign.

If more advertising agencies and marketers were smart enough to figure this out, I guarantee our out of home screens would be filled with far more engaging content.