Friday, November 2, 2012

Week 44 - The Future of Interactive Dynamic Advertising


WWhat did we do?
During this week we continued brainstorming ideas concerning the interactivity of ads in magazines, as the dynamic part of the project has reached a sufficient level for the mid-crit.
Even though the devices may become more complex in terms of technical diversity, we believe that at first sight, so when just passively acknowledging them, the ads should remain simple and not so distracting in order to keep the focus on the magazine. However when a reader wants to actively engage further in an advertisement, he can click on it and is able to interact with some features. As an example we could use a car advertisement where at first it looks like a simple ad where the car is slowly turning. If you however click on it you can access more features, such as zooming in, looking at the interior, listening to the engine sound, switching color etc.

Furthermore we identified three different types of advertising, namely news, branding and offer advertisements. News ads are those which introduce the viewer to new products. Branding ads focus more on the brand itself and finally offer ads concentrate on current sales. A combination of ad types is also possible. Currently offer ads appear much more common in newspapers than in magazines and with branding ads it is the other way round. This insight can help up us recognise how the different type of ads could evolve in the future in magazines. Will there be more offer ads in magazines? Will branding ads become more interactive than offer ads?

In addition we interviewed Anders Malmsten, the CEO of Bonnier International Magazines. During the almost 1.5 hour long interview Anders said a lot of things that support our idea without us telling him about it. After we had discussed our questions with Anders we presented our idea and Anders thought it was definitely possible according to his opinion of how digital magazines will evolve, i.e. ads are going to be dynamic (place, time, mood based as well as more customized for each individual). Furthermore he thinks that the readers appreciate ads that aren’t disturbing while reading but that they should be interactive when the reader chooses to engage with it. Moreover Anders pointed out that magazines might not be like they are today.
We are very happy with our interview with Anders and it feels good to have our ideas supported and “approved”.


WWhat will we do?
The mid-crit is in one week from now. So the upcoming week we will focus on how to present our idea at the mid-crit. We want to get the most out of the mid-crit to see if we are on the right track and if we maybe need to change the direction of our project. We hopefully have another upcoming interview with Prime or United Minds next week, which could give us further insights.

PProblems?
We are having a small problem deciding whether to include or exclude the idea of making it possible to bookmark ads. This feature would solve the problem that the same ad might not be in the same place the next time a magazine is read. Furthermore it would enable readers to remember offers, save entertaining ads and share them. However we might decide to ignore the idea due to the fact that it takes the focus away from the magazine.

Link to our update from week 43

1 comment:

  1. - Great picture, says it all!
    - "extreme targeting" sounds cool!
    - Good structure with the "areas of relevance"!
    - Each ad should be tagged with properties - won't that make advertising (ex. charging money, the effects of an ad) veery big-data-complicated?
    - A thought: won't your ideas fit certain magazines much better than others, i.e. what kind of magazines will we see more of in the future and what will we see less off (have a look at the US magazine covers from seminar 1 or walk into PressbyrÄn)
    - I like your Venn diagram, but do really all three criteria have to be fulfilled to get a "hit". Aren't (some) of the two-circle overlaps partially interesting? I'm not sure I understand what's in the non-existing ad category...
    - It's interesting that you think about privacy, but that is a secondary concern - don't let it stop you from having wild ideas, but filter them through a privacy-concern-filter (later) and think about possible implications (and possible "solutions" - e.g. "lack of privacy - get over it" and other strategies/solutions).
    - Interesting thoughts about the tree different types of ads and how the use and balance between them might shift when your idea comes true...
    - I think the bookmarking feature sounds useful both for readers and advertisers. Will publishers/editors then be able to resist it?

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