Rodrigo A. Sepúlveda Schulz

#istwitterdead : un débat avec Nicolas Bordas, TBWA et @rodrigo

Is Twitter Dead ? Le débat, avec Nicolas Bordas... par frenchweb

Page du débat chez Frenchweb.

iPad, my new magazine reader

I took me a long while until I finally went to buy an iPad last week. I spent the first few days trying to find proper iPad apps, and organize them into something useful. As I only got the wifi version, I don't really use it as a portable computer, but as a content reader, and I update the content when I get a wifi signal.

There are a few thoughts, in addition to the current comments on the iPad magazines being wall gardened and the new form of interactive CDROMs. I tested the device in various environments, including a couple of hours outdoors in the park, in my bed (20% of the time spent it seems), sitting in a couch at my club, etc.

• the iPad (with the Apple cover folded) is rather comfortable to read, at least for 2 hours. I lay it on my lap while reading, so I'm not holding it up high
• battery life is a non issue, it just lasts for the day no problem
• the screen is bright enough for reading outside, and colors are crisp; the size is slightly too small for a magazine, but the zooming is OK. However when you display 2 pages (as when you open a magazine), then the screen is too small.
• donwloading of a new issue of a magazine does take a while (300MB to 2GB !!!), and connecting it to iTunes should only be done at night as the backup takes forever; prices of magazines is about what you'd pay at a newstand, so I guess it's a non issue. However there seems to be subscription services to magazines that offer a whole year subscription price (and you get a PDF) for less than the single issue price for a magazine).

A few comments on the apps:

1. yes, it's a bore to have so many different apps, which means you have to learn how to use each app; actually each one of them has a tutorial at the beginning; there should be some standardization on movements such as
   
   1. double tap for zoom / unzoom
   2. swipe left or right to navigate between articles
   3. swipe up or down to navigate between pages of the article
   4. double swipe up for menu (not standard)
   5. pinch for zoom
   6. navigation between thumbnails at the bottom of the page
   7. smart apps even display an arrow on each page to tell you which way to swipe. it should be subtle but present.
2. nevertheless many of the apps bring different interactive experiences to the reader, and I'd hate a standardized app for all magazines; that would hinder innovation. I'd rather have standardized navigation with a few extras on other apps. Besides I like having an icon for each title; with folders coming up, I can even bundle them together. Or they could just go on the shelves of iBooks (or iMagazines ;)
3. I like the idea to get either a free issue or a preview with several pages for each magazine ; then in-app purchase is indeed the way to go. The smart apps even use notifications to tell you there's a new issue out. That might wear me off if I start tracking several titles. There should be a unification for that (iMagazines ?)
4. I really like the double layout (horizontal and vertical) for most magazines. Nevertheless it's a bit annoying when you get more content (larger picture) on oen direction without warning. I just don't want to be moving my iPad sideways all the time. There should be a notification somewhere.
5. Apps that are mere PDFs on the iPad represent little interest (OK, it's great to have them), but addition of interactive stuff makes them great: videos, choices, etc. Wired does a good job at that with multiple selections on one page (yes it feels a bit like interactive CD-ROMs). The New Yorker for example has a section called "this just in" that updates automatically like a twitter feed. Smart.
6. I couldn't find a way to annotate articles ; it should be synced with something else that unifies all magazines and books ? (maybe evernote ?)
7. social media: I have yet to see an app that adds a twitter / facebook / addthis button to EACH article, or even to Instapaper. This should not only make the app as social as a website today, but also drive sales up for people not reading that app.
8. web sites use technology to speak articles aloud. I have yet to see this on the iPad. Wired has some voice interviews (dull).
9. I don't like videos that open up separately and not in context within the page. Magazines that add video to their pages (excerpts of theatre, examples) are real winners. kudos. The Javier Bardem mini video intro is fun on Esquire
10. Gourmet is testing a reather interesting idea : you can unlock content (just like in games) by gaining "experience points" (just like in games) by reading more articles, and interacting with it. I like the idea, but I'm not sure it will hold, unless the issues is free or very cheap. Ad supported b-model is fine for this (watch an add, grab XP...).
11. Many of the ads I read, have little interactivity (a few extra pictures, a video). Some don't even include a link to their own website. There's a huge opportunity here to create "ad mini-sites", with videos, 3D models, a configurators (for cars), links to local retailers (based on GPS), best prices (in the neighborhood), etc. The iPad is a really very high engagement device, and advertisers are just plain dumb not to use it. Any product advertised or displayed should have a link to a whole range of ecommerce options such as what gdgt.com is trying to do for tech (price comparison, forums, reviews), including secondary transactions. For example, Food & Wine talk about recipes : it's a great way to sell a whole shopping basket in one go (a bit like what macperformanceguide.com does over and over again for spare parts on Mac).
12. I don't see any forum like interaction on articles. it should be a great way to discuss with readers, add new information on the article, create a community (like a blog post)
13. There's also an issue with DRM : when I buy a print magazine, I can share it with my family and friends at home, as it sits on the coffee table. Eventually my family will probably have several iPads. I need to be able to declare a group of "iPads" (up to 5 is probably fine) so that I can share an issue with a member of the family (OK if only one of us can read it at a time), and a mechanism to give the digital copy to someone as I would with a paper magazine.
14. finally, there's an issue with the file sizes of magazines : after a while, they'll fill up my iPad, so I'll have to start deleting them. At a minimum, I need to be able to redownload them for free if I ever want to read them again (since I've already paid for them). Maybe however the future is an HTML5 version that offers full interactivity in a browser (for online viewing) instead of downloading it (offline)
15. In terms of opportunities : it seems to me that most magazines are outsourced to creative agencies so far; why not. But with the advent of connected TVs (and the existance of web and mobile sites), there is definitively a need for a full suite of authoring tools including touch devices that will make an iPad just one of the screens of a digital strategy, from the same original content. I don't believe there's such a tool available yet, but it would definitively help keep the skills required for digital magazines inhouse.

Opportunities for e-commerce : buy a whole basket of products

 

Turning magazine reading into a game : the more you read, the more content you unlock and experience points you gain

Updating content after an issue has been published (just like the web ;)

 

More intuitive navigation between articles

interactive pages

Multimedia ads:

Opportunities for ecommerce (on this watch for example)

where do you watch video ?

Of course these numbers only reflect today's usage. As if Sony had looked at past habits before inventing the Walkman...
(via eMarketer)

Online Video Advertising market

eMarketer has published a new report on the size of online video ads. Take it with a pinch of salt, who knows what the future might be. These numbers were published almost a year ago, so I would look up updated numbers...

Interesting though to compare the size of Youtube's marketshare and revenue for this year, with the market of online video ads this year...

These numbers should also be correlated to the overall internet video ad market. Search this blog for those numbers ;)

10 years of US Online Ad market

Always interesting to check the reality of the market sizes (courtesy of eMarketer)

I'm still suspicious of ad-funded businesses: when you substract Google revenues, other search engines, the top 5-10 portals in the world, there's not much left for the gazillion other businesses who rely on ads to grow their business...

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Tags: ad, market, advertising, usa

latest numbers on broadband penetration in OECD countries

reposted from Om Malik's Gigaom:

"The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released its report on broadband usage and penetration with some interesting findings and observations."

then

" The number of broadband subscriber in the OECD reached  235 million by December 2007, an increase of 18% from 200 million subscribers in December 2006.  . This growth increased broadband penetration rates to 20.0 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants up from 16.9 in December 2006. 

*  Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, Korea and Sweden lead the OECD with  broadband penetration well above the OECD average, each surpassing the 30 subscribers per 100 inhabitants threshold."

You can all stats in Excel files on the OECD site.

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new stats on online video ads

extremely interesting and disparate numbers just published by eMarketer !

Online Video Viewing Still Rising

Reposting eMarketer + Comscore data:

"Internet users in the US watched 11.5 billion online videos in March 2008 , up 13% over February 2008 and 64% over March 2007, according to comScore Video Metrix. That is an average of 83 videos watched per viewer during March."

"Nearly 139 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 83 videos per viewer in March"

"Other notable findings from March 2008 include:

• 73.7 percent of the total U.S.      Internet audience viewed online video.
• 84.8 million viewers watched      4.3 billion videos on YouTube.com (50.4 videos per viewer).
• 47.7 million viewers watched      400 million videos on MySpace.com (8.4 videos per viewer).
• The average online video      duration was 2.8 minutes.
• The average online video      viewer watched 235 minutes of video."

"Nielsen Online also measured online video viewing in March 2008, with different results. Nielsen, which only measured streams, reported an average of 137.3 minutes of online video viewed for the month—nearly 100 minutes less than the comScore study."

"One explanation for the difference between the comScore and Nielsen data is that Nielsen did not include universities, which are home to some of the most active online video viewers.

Another possibility is that downloaded videos could include more full-length movies, which are longer than most videos, and would therefore increase the average amount of time spent watching online video in contrast to a streaming-only sample.

David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, said that online video viewing data indicated possibilities about ad-supported online video sites—but only possibilities. He noted that just because people were watching video online did not guarantee that advertising dollars would follow.

"In fact, even if downloaded longer-length videos such as movies were the missing element between comScore and Nielsen data, that video content would still be difficult to monetize through advertising," Mr. Hallerman said"

The Scoble effect on your traffic

Since I've moved to twitter for my main way of communicating online, the traffic on my blog had decreased quite significantly. In particular I hardly ever get a comment anymore.

So when I started getting 10 comments in a hour a few days ago, I knew something was wrong : Digg ? Slashdot ? engadget ? Techmeme ?

As a mater of fact, Robert Scoble wrote about my problems with Facebook, and that drained a LOT of traffic to the site.

Hey Robert, You should get some advertising on your blog (nice new design btw), one per post... Advertisers would surely love it :)
Thanks for the link love.

IAB releases updated recommendations for video ads : incomplete in my view

Reading through the just publisged (April 3rd) IAB Digital Video Ad Format Guidelines and Best Practices, I had to write down a few comments:

General comments :
1) this document only applies to the web, and does not take into account the emergence of convergent devices (IPTV, mobile, podcasts) in addition to the Web. In particular we should probably treat linear and non-linear video ads in the same way on those devices. This document lacks a proper approach to other devices.
2) no recommendation on how to measure ad performance and stats ? This is a key feature for accurate ad-serving & selling campaigns

Page 3 : good focus on the 3 types of ads I've been discussing for at least a year. Now they have names :
- In-stream video Linear video ads
- in-stream video non-linear video ads
- in-stream video companion ads

Page 6: some of the specifications do not make total sense:
- Video file technical specifications:
    . 2 Mbps bitrate is way too much with current videos. Try 400Kbps for video and 96 Kbps for audio for example as a minimum. We need to keep in mind the download link.
    . A key frame every second is not a proper way of doing this. Some content require a lot of keyframes, some other do not (newscast with a speaker for example). I would rephrase to be a recommendation only.
    . MPEG2 is a lousy codec that takes too much space for the Internet. It should be removed from the list. WMV, H.264 are great. What about divx or xvid ;) ?
    . ratio : 4:3 and 16:9 then totally ignore that some mobile phones, used in UGC to dot respect this ratio. playing a video + ad will then require to have a video play in 4:3 or 16:9 ratio ?
    . no maximum file size for the ad ?

Page 7: frequency capping
    . it should not only be a frequency capping for the campaign, but also for the creative file. Seeing the same ad over and over creates a problem with video. I would recommend creating several creative files for one campaign

Page 10:
    . no recommendation on when an ad should be displayed
    . no recommendation on how often a non)linear ad should be displayed within a video file or a playlist ?
    . this recommendation only takes into account banner overlays. what about LOGOS, Picture-in-Picture, rolling text ?

Finally, I see no recommendation on bundled ads (different than companion ads)
    . an intro bumper + post-roll
    . an overlay + post roll or ending bumper ?

Version 2 of this documents is definitively in beta phase still.