OS4 Will Make the iPad Truly “Magical and Revolutionary”

Chris Paradysz:  OS4 will have multi-tasking capabilities.  Now, I love the iPad.  I can be excited about any great technology, but it should fulfill the hope I had back when I blogged about it earlier in the year that it will create an intimacy bond between content and users.

Music, video, words, pictures should no longer be disconnected from touch and feel.  The iPod and iPhone didn’t transform this connection with people (consumers).  With the portability, size and weight of the iPad well-suited to most people’s hands and laps, it can easily move from one position to another and from one person to another.

From a marketing pov, this creates a new experience sensation and viral ability that prior e-readers have failed to deliver.  Within an app or the internet, an advertiser can deliver a rich brand or offer experience, not just ink on “paper”.   With the iAd and technology infrastructure to support it, I have two questions:  1) how soon will it be before Apple starts up an advertising agency; 2) will a new SNL Apple skit be on this Saturday night?

A Must-Have Device You Didn’t Know You Needed

Suzy Sandberg: Just to get this out of the way, YES, the iPad does look like a giant iPod Touch. (iPad owners, I feel your pain on this relentless comment).  And since I can’t strap the iPad to my arm when I go running, I do still need my iPod Touch. And I still need my laptop since the iPad has limitations (no USB for one). I also have/need a cell phone until/unless Verizon ever actually does get the iPhone.

So with four devices (ok, I actually just lied about that…I have a Blackberry, too), where does this newest one, the iPad, fit in my life?

First is that it gets me online quickly, and the speed is lightning fast. Research has shown that the majority of time spent on the mobile web is done in the home, on the couch. I am one of those. The experience of being online on an iPad can’t compare to that of an iPhone or iPod Touch, particularly if you are consuming media. Just because you CAN download a movie or book on an iPhone, does that mean you should?

If you have an iPad you should do your downloads on that device. Some media is so breathtakingly beautiful and awe inspiring that even though I’ve had the iPad just for one week, I couldn’t go back to the small screen for certain things.

In the app department, the current choice is somewhat limited, but I’m optimistic that here is where the iPad is going to hit a home run. There are many apps to be enamored with for the iPhone, though many were developed as workarounds for a clunky web experience on a tiny screen. Since that is definitely not a factor with the iPad, I predict incredible creativity coming out of the app store to serve entertainment needs and many other things I can’t yet visualize.

The iPad fits in my life, so far, because it’s a highly enjoyable experience and perfectly meets the needs of my digital life. Especially when paired with my other four devices.

You and Your Customers Just Got a Whole Lot Closer

Tim Kilroy:  I am a big Apple fan. I use an iPhone. I am writing this on a MacBook Air.  I have never purchased a PC in my life, and I have bought 7 Macs.  And I wasn’t first in line for an iPad!  So what gives?

For me, it was just a failure of imagination.  I didn’t, frankly, understand why I would want an iPad.  It was an iPhone that I could use without my glasses.  Great.  It is a laptop that I can’t do real work on.  Super…that is exactly what I need.  And then, I used it…the magic hit me.

This is truly personal computing that allows for immersive engagement.  Web, mail, video are all at the tip of a finger.  So why is it magic?  Because the computer disappears.  It is just you and whatever you are doing.

What does this mean for marketers?  It means that your presentation layer just got cooler, and more transparent.  The opportunity to create impact and engagement just increased.  Imagine that your interaction with consumers on a computer is like you yelling across 6^th Avenue at your target audience.  They can hear you, and some will even listen closely.  But few will ignore everything else happening in NY to follow you.  With the iPad, you have the opportunity to walk across 6^th Avenue, and sit down with your customer at a Starbucks. It is still noisy, but you can sit across the table from each other and listen.

And that is magic.

More Touch, More Emotion, More Measurement Challenges

 Anthony Avolio: Based on my experience with the iPad thus far, I have three key impact areas for marketers to consider moving forward.

Touch usability.  Marketers must actively consider touch interfaces when planning their designs. Designs with small click targets, extensive use of hovers/rollovers or requiring browser plug-ins don’t create a positive user experience on the iPad. This applies to all online media, including websites, banners and emails. While the iPad is just one device, it’s likely the start of a new mainstream push for touch interfaces. Marketers must insist that their creations function and resonate with consumers on as many screens as possible.

More emotion.  The iPad’s touch interface and minimal design can create a more immersive experience for consumers.  Upon launching an app, the iPad disappears and becomes that app.  Upon opening an email, the iPad becomes that email message. Keyboard and mouse peripherals that typically separate the consumer from content are absent on the iPad, allowing the experience to be more direct, more one-on-one.  Skilled marketers will use this more direct opportunity to delight, enthrall and connect.

Increased splintering of online browsing will continue to create challenges for measurement. In the old days, consumers’ online activity was typically split between two web browsers — one at home and one at work.  Smart phones and now iPads add to the number of devices that a single consumer actively uses to access the Internet, making measurement more challenging. Consumers can now learn about a new product on their work computers, research further on their phones before purchasing it on their tablets while at home.  With online browsing spread across devices and apps, conversion measurement and campaign attribution become increasingly more complicated.

Suitable for Framing

Glenn Lalich:  My first few days of playing around with the iPad were largely app-focused, as I figured that was where the biggest wow factor would be.  And the few retail apps available did not disappoint.  The Gilt for iPad app is elegant, and I found my fingers naturally tapping up beautiful super-sized product photos.  The Gap 1969 Stream app is even more revolutionary, with the iPad acting as a window on some infinite universe of Gap photos, merchandise, stories, videos and social media links. Pretty amazing stuff.

But from a retail perspective, my favorite iPad surprise didn’t come from a download.  It came when I stopped playing around with my apps for a second to check my email.  That’s when I noticed that the retail emails in my inbox looked gorgeous. The size of the iPad display, the hand-held proximity and the glossy screen made many emails akin to high-quality print ads or catalog pages.  Freed from a traditional computer, they were vibrant and alive in my hand.

Not every email I saw was a winner, mind you.  Product grids with a lot of white space can look like meagerly stocked store shelves.  In portrait mode, top-heavy layouts designed for standard preview windows do not fill the entire iPad screen, allowing below-the-fold disclaimers and legalese to move up and steal a bit of the spotlight.  But these are relatively modest adjustments to make, and relatively inexpensive as well.

The iPad just gave email creative a dazzling shot in the arm.  And it didn’t cost marketers a cent.  As much as I hope to see killer retail apps and touch-centric websites in the near future, it’s exciting that the iPad’s “magical” display and interactivity already offers fresh advantages to retailers as is, right out of the box.

I watched the unveiling of the Apple iPad with some genuine excitement the other day. At the end of the presentation, I can honestly say that I was underwhelmed. The iPad is just a big iPhone…so what?!?

And then I thought…wait a minute…the thing is a big iPhone…that changes everything! (Well, not really, but it does have some interesting implications.)  What has really resonated with me is the concept of intimacy. With Steve Jobs demonstrating the iPad from a cushy looking chair, engaging the internet with his finger, it dawned on me what has just happened. The internet became a much less cerebral place. No longer is your interactivity with content tempered by mouse navigation, the internet reacts to your finger. It is instinctual, organic and perhaps even a little impulsive.

So, what exactly happened when Steve Jobs gave us the finger? Well, he just made the internet more visual. What makes you want to reach out and touch something more? A gorgeous picture, or a line of text? A blue link or a well-crafted image? Me, I think it is all about pictures when it comes to slate based computing (like the iPad). I think that the physical connection between user and screen meets at the image.

What does this mean for search? I believe that we are at the very beginning stages of a shift to a world of hybrid search engagement. Depending on your device, you may get a more visual search interface (iPad, iPhone, Android Phone…anything touch based) or a more text based interface (laptop, desktop, anything keyboard driven).

Google and Bing are all over this stuff. Google is ingratiating images into SERPs and AdWords. Bing has an interface that presents images really nicely. I predict that image based search and interactivity is going to skyrocket this year.

I am thrilled that Steve Jobs just gave me the finger.

Tim Kilroy is Vice President of Natural Search at PM Digital.

Tomorrow is a huge day in our lives as marketers.  I’m taking a not-so-wild shot at this not because I love Apple products (I don’t) but because their ability to transform entire industries by re-thinking how people want to live their lives is stunning.  Apple’s new tablet product will be launched and, with it, the typical hype and expectations are at a fever pitch.  And, they should be.  Although the Kindle from Amazon was a game-changer for the content industry, it hasn’t really changed the lives of marketers as Apple’s launch will.

The new Apple product will be far more than a device.  It will integrate multiple forms of content into a single destination and do what all of us have wished for since we started buying cellphones and computers for personal use. Voice, music, video, print, data, calendars and phone are all going to be experienced through this technology.

What does this mean for PM Digital clients and marketers overall?  It most definitely is going to accelerate the opportunities and challenges for the content business, and not just the printed word.  Communicating and consuming and shopping are going to change as well.  Paying for a “subscription” or content in any form will be far easier to actually do and to understand its benefits.  I anticipate the role of the search engines is going to be significantly altered as well, especially if Bing becomes the primary search partner, not Google.

But it also means that marketers’ direct relationship with consumers is changing.  Who collects the money is one thing.  Who is responsible for the cultivation and nurturing of customers – and how marketers will leverage new and existing media to reach those customers — is changing as well.

There’s much more to speculate about, but let’s see what happens tomorrow.  We’ll have lots to figure out once this gets released and marketed. More to come.

Chris Paradysz is CEO of PM Digital.

1.  Mobile Matters – I have actually been beating the mobile drum since I worked on mobile search in 1997, but this year, mobile really matters. (Google and Apple have spent almost $1 billion in the last quarter to buy mobile ad networks…that should tell you something!) The growth of mobile is torrid and with the rise of the smartphone and ubiquitous 3G, mobile search is working. In 2010, you will see an appreciable amount of traffic from mobile browsers. Are you thinking of how you can present yourself to the mobile user? If you aren’t now, you should be.

2. Images Matter – Visual search is hot. There have been dozens and dozens of early stage visual search engines that have been no better than demo-ware. But Google Image search has exploded, and we see that our clients are driving traffic through images searches. (If you are looking for a red dress, doesn’t it make sense to look for the red dress in pictures?) And with the advent of Google Goggles, image search will continue to explode. Are you optimizing your images to be relevant and available for image search?

3. Not Being a Dog Matters – Do you remember this incredible cartoon which touted the invisibility of who you are online? Well, the world has changed dramatically since then, and your reputation as a marketer is now well known on the internet. In 2009, I suggested that reputation was about to become an important part of the online world, and 2010 that will become even more valuable. How you behave as a marketer, how you share information with customers, and how you engage with customers will have an impact on your search visibility in 2010.

4. Social Media Matters Even More – I am a bit of a broken record these days. With customers and prospects and colleagues, I am constantly singing the praises of social media. Social media is important from a marketing, customer experience and search perspective. And with its integration into search engines, it has become a hot search opportunity. But in 2010, these results will be more than novelty updates; they will become a core part of the way that we discover new content.

5. Speed Matters: Speed is crucial to search visibility. And by speed I mean speed in the old fashioned way. How long does it take your page to load? How responsive is your site? In 2010, this will matter. Google loves speed and they love a quality user experience. The sites that have the fastest response times will enjoy better visibility in 2010.

6. Content Matters – With the rise in social media outbursts and the fact that there are hundreds of pages published globally every second, search engines have become very selective about what they index. Duplicate content filters are set to high! Marketers must create quality content in order to be found and indexed. Simplistic variation won’t cut it (for instance, if you sell one shirt in 35 colors and each of them has its own page, expect that 34 of them will be filtered out.). In order to capture a spot in the search indexes, you need to have unique content. This is hard. It means more work for the marketer, but in 2010, content remains king.

7. Code Matters – Back when I started on the Internet in 1997, website code was pretty big. Lots of complex commands to achieve simple things. HTML has come a long way, and code has become less verbose (and HTML 5 looks terrific as a standard, BTW). But I see web pages everyday that have lots of bloated code. Believe it or not, search engines read your code. Too much code and your content gets lost. Less code on the page means that your content has a higher percentage of the search engine’s attention. And that is a good thing. In 2010, code matters.

8. Personalization Matters – In 2009, Google started personalizing everyone’s search results (regardless of whether you have a Google account or not). What this means is that you are likely to see more results from sites that you’ve already been to or links similar to the kinds of links that you’ve clicked on before. In 2010, this will increase. And for marketers that already get a lot of traffic, this is a good thing. You will still have great visibility to your existing searchers and to new searchers. This may make it harder in the future to steal a searcher who has been loyal to another marketer in the past. Fun stuff to be sure, but search personalization will be a BIG theme in 2010.

9. Customer Experience Matters: Already, bounce rate lives inside of the Google algorithm as a ranking factor (the higher your bounce rate, the lower you will rank for a term). I can see that bounce rate could be coupled with conversion rates to become a customer experience index. This index (lower bounce rate + higher conversion = better customer experience) could be one of those hidden factors in rankings…one that is hard to see, but makes a difference. My advice for 2010? Conversion optimization.

10. Bing Matters: Google owns a huge share of the search market. That is terrific. But in 2010, look for Bing to really matter. Are they going to capture the majority of the market? No way. BUT, Bing matters because it will have a 20%+ marketshare in 2010, which means that you will need to understand Bing and its users. In 2010, 2 out of every 10 visitors will come from Bing. You’ll want to treat them well.

And Finally, You Matter: When I talk to marketers, they feel like the world has turned against them a bit. The economy was after them throughout 2008 and 2009.  2010 looks better, but nowhere near easy. Google is throwing all kinds of changes at marketers, Bing is kicking up some dust, everyone tells you that you need to turn yourself into a social media mobile web 2.0 juggernaut or you will fall off the face of the earth. In 2010, we believe that you matter. The marketer is the lynchpin in this online ecosystem. Without the marketer, search engines have no way to make money. You matter. In 2010, look for opportunities in search and advertising to make you more efficient, to increase your return on investments, to help you acquire new customers. With the right focus, I predict that 2010 will be good for you.

Tim Kilroy is Vice President of Natural Search at PM Digital.

Take it as a given that most apps are faddish and have a short shelf life (think cowbells, lighters, “1,001 Pick Up Lines”). There are also apps that have expanded our perception of what is possible, like identifying a song almost anywhere using Shazam, or distinguishing a color on-the-fly using Benjamin Moore’s ben Color Capture. These are potent, uniquely mobile experiences. Apps in one form or another are here to stay.

So what are retailers doing on the app front? Not a lot, actually. There are so few retail apps that our R&A group can still track the major ones easily. Those that do exist – even the most basic ones – often attract attention. Apple’s top download lists regularly show that free apps tied to recognizable brand names are popular. That’s good news for marketers who have already built trusted recognizable brands.

There are many reasons why there aren’t more retail apps. The app phenom is still new, and some retailers don’t even have mobile-friendly ecommerce sites yet. Companies don’t want missteps to be blogged and tweeted across the universe. There are perception issues between app and website experiences, as customers expect to see wish lists, purchase history, etc. move seamlessly from one platform to another (still a rarity). And there are, of course, very real ROI considerations.

Will Retail Apps Really Matter?

Any retailer needs to consider goals, product mix and audience demographics when deciding to app or not to app, but yes, apps will matter — as a branding tool, as a way to build a richer customer relationship (check out the REI Bike Your Drive app) and as a way to sell goods in an increasingly mobile society.

I can provide the simplest example on app branding –- both the opportunities and challenges — from real life experience. I downloaded Target’s gift selector app late last year. Since then, I’ve had the Target logo in my hand for over 200 consecutive days. While TV commercials, circulars and emails are more likely to introduce me to new product lines and upcoming sales, that Target app remains part of my daily life. I wish the app was a bit more compelling, and I wish it thought a bit harder about how to make my life easier or more interesting. But Target’s logo will still be there the next time I pick up my iPhone. That’s a tremendous amount of untapped opportunity just waiting to be…well…tapped.

Glenn Lalich is VP of Research & Analysis at PM Digital.