Gregg Hano and Ads on the iPad

At Bonnier's Tab Day, you gave five examples of advertisements you've had on Popular Science+ recently. Can you pick one and give us a little insight into why it succeeds as an ad on the iPad?

The best example right now is the Acura ad built in HTML5. The reason I like it so much is that I believe it is the most engaging for the consumers to use. A reader can touch on an image and see, say the dashboard as an image, or play the video where the car completely disassembles and comes back together. A really cool interface. The next step is to put a link in the ad to take the reader directly to the Acura dealer nearest you and schedule a test drive.

What's the biggest barrier right now in getting advertisers to use the iPad fully?

Probably production and creative approval issues. In general agencies do not like when publishers change how ads are created.  In the case of the iPad, this is necessary as the ad needs to be read in both the horizontal and vertical orientations. At the Bonnier Technology Group, we receive the pieces of the ad in their original InDesign format and manipulate them in our marketing or production departments. We then send the new files, ready for Mag+, back to the agency and client for creative approval. It is not as efficient as it will need to be, but it's a good start. 

What's your biggest argument for why an advertiser should pay for an ad on an iPad?

Engagement is the number one reason to pay for an ad on the iPad.  In an ad in Mag+, the advertiser can truly tell a story about his product. How it was designed, how to use it, what the product's best features and benefits are and how the manufacturer will stand behind the quality. In short, advertisers can truly engage with readers - and in special-interest magazines we know that the ads are nearly as important to the readership as the editorial content. 

Are you able to offer advertisers any special viewer statistics of their ads that you couldn't before? Any other concrete differences you can offer?

We are adding Omniture data to Mag+ right now which will give us metrics to share such as time spent reading, time spent on a page and how the reader engaged with the page, which will be terrific. We have also done opt-in reader studies where readers of Popular Science+ have given us feedback on the ad, on the user experience and on their interest in buying future issues. We heard over and over in the comments that price was an issue - as soon as Apple offered a subscription model we decided to try it. We are thrilled to report that this past weekend we passed 10,000 subscribers of Popular Science+ on the iPad, meaning we have a wonderful group of early adopters to test new offers against.

What are the advantages the Mag+ platform has over its competitors? What does this mean for advertisers?

Mag+ is simply an easier product to use.  It is easier for designers to design in both orientations which in turn leads to less time, less people and less cost.  In addition, our platform is the only one with layers, allowing a different interaction between text and image.  Creative and clever marketers can truly engage the readers with these layers and get more impact from every ad placed.