The Big Tablet Debate: Takeaways
Takeaways from The Big Tablet Debate – a Haymarket and News International event held at Altitude 360 this morning…
Chaired by Roger Parry of Media Square, the panel featured Alex Hole, digital commercial director at News international; Robert Horler, chief executive of Aegis Media Group; Nicholas Coleridge, managing director of Conde Nast; Andrew Morley, vice president international marketing at Motorola; Matthew Kershaw, content director at BBH; and Simon Andrews, founder of the full service mobile agency addictive!.
Value of the Tablet
“The tablet debate around e-commerce is very exciting, and in its use alongside TV. There is nothing yet revolutionary regarding the tablet and advertising.” Robert Horler.
“It’s a sub-set of mobile” – Horler and Andrews.
“The challenges are still there around metrics (no unified measurement) and creative limitations if you are working to a daily cycle… it’s about time we dealt with these.” Alex Hole.
NI will be conducting granular research on tablets shortly.
Advertising and Content Revenues
Advertising revenue on the tablet “is not going to be incremental… it will be fighting for the same pot of money as everything else.” Robert Horler.
“My concern is that the gateway to advertising on tablet computers could be blocked by Apple, who are very difficult to work with.” Robert Horler.
“Tablets are different to online – there are a limited number of advertisers and it is being bought like print, not like online.” Robert Horler.
“Branded content, which can be delivered cheaply, can work well with mobile and tablets.” Simon Andrews.
“We have seen no caniballisation of print circulations” – Nicholas Coleridge.
Conde Nast’s print advertisers get tablet advertising for free, with some possible upsells to video content. In one case Glamour increased sales at the time special issue apps were released – these sold around 25,000. There is an acceptance that content creation has a high cost currently.
“At least on the tablets we are seeing monetised content.” Robert Horler.
“We are seeing more income now from a smaller number of subscribers than in the old free online world (which was ad supported).” Alex Hole. Yesterday, News International reported that The Times paywall has reached 100,000 subscribers.
E-commerce
“We are being circumspect about e-commerce.” Nicholas Coleridge. Following a Net-A-Porter model could lead to a loss of editorial authority if selected brands were featured.
“Look at music, and kids attitude to not paying for music now. EMI failed because the vast majority of its customers stopped expecting to pay for music.” Robert Horler.
“E-commerce works if you make it easy. It is more about this than a decision to pay or not sometimes. Amazon and Apple thrive on one-click models for billing. Sky could too.” Simon Andrews.