The Brand Strategy Musings of Steve Poppe » magazine publishers of america

Apple Tablet + RE (Reader Experience)

Steve Poppe — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:16:53 +0000

The Apple Table launches today and it makes me think about its transformational nature. If the tablet is a combination of reader and iTouch as most report, with a few extra wireless bells and whistles, it should be quite so.

Some articles appeared yesterday that suggested print media companies will be developing reader experiences (RE – just make that up) to make reading digital content more enjoyable. Think the printed word with sound, video and geo-linking. But here’s my prediction — rather than embedding links in situ in a story, they will be organized at the end of the story or chapter, like a bibliography. The written word needs a flow and pacing. A thought stream. In both magazines and book form. Clicking out to videos, communities, maps, audio files, etc. while reading is a very ADD and though something we’ve become accustomed to in the digital world, a behavior that good publishers will want to minimize.

There will be great attention paid to Reader Experience over the next couple of years. It should be interested to see who establishes leadership. I’m thinking the MPA (Magazine Publishers of America) should step up. Tablet ho. Peace!

Photomontage: Robert Galbraith/Reuters

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Intel vs. McDonald’s

Steve Poppe — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:55:00 +0000

The new Intel campaign by Venables Bell and Partners sounds a bit unfocused. The idea behind the campaign “Sponsors of Tomorrow” sounds good enough, though a couple of years ago the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) did something similar through Toy-NY which was a bit trite. Intel’s campaign, according to reports, has three different executional ideas which makes it messy: Portraying Intel R&D people as rock stars, comparing the Intel culture to popular culture ("our clean room isn’t like your clean room"), and showing what the future will be like thanks to Intel (a digital campaign). That’s three ideas, one tagline.

The new McDonald’s McCafé advertising from DDB, Chicago, on the other hand, is based on a very tight idea. And a powerful idea. When you buy a McCafé beverage, it transforms wherever you are into a café, highlighted by a visual accent popping up on the “e” of the location name. (A commute turns into a commuté, for instance.) Pairing this graphic idea with amazingly lush film of the coffee takes the viewer out of greasy burger heaven and into – in the mind at least — an aromatic French café. Simple. Focused. Evocative. About the product. Peace.

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MPA Needs to Trade Up Its Strategy

Steve Poppe — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:28:00 +0000

The Magazine Publishers of America is once again running an ad campaign to reverse ad page declines. The Fallon-NY work for the MPA run in 2005 was goofy and strategically off the mark creating futuristic portraits of how magazines will still be around when our dogs are robots. Mullen had the account for a bit and it, too, missed the strategic mark.

Anne Bologna and Ari Merkin, previously of Fallon-NY and now at their nice shop Toy, are taking another crack at it. Using that humorous sensibility that works so well for their client Oxygen Network, Toy has created an MPA campaign called “under the influence.” Unfortunately, it feels to me like just another trade campaign targeting media buyers with an efficacy message. It’s a campaign that jumps right to the end game: print ads work. It is a new twist on the advertising that the radio association, newspaper association, outdoor association, etc., have been doing for years.

The problem is people aren’t reading magazines; they are too busy, with too many other choices. The MPA campaign needs to get people to change their behavior — to make an appointment to spend time with magazines. And what are magazines? They are colorful, in-depth, analyses by brilliant writers who enrich and enlighten. Magazines make us smart, current, and provide stimulating thoughts. This is what the campaign needs to convey. I know Toy gets this. Sadly, the MPA’s paying constituents want a trade campaign that tells media buyers that magazines get results.

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