iPad media apps – the revenue solution for media publishers?

The extremely sucessful iPad launch (3 million iPads sold in 80 days) has created a tremendous buzz and excitement in the media industry. I am certainly one of the very happy iPad owners.
Many publishers see the iPad as a solution to their main headache: How can we charge for our media content when our web site users don’t want to pay for it and there is such an abundance of free content on internet?

With the iPad, the argument goes, we can deliver an improved user experience that looks more like our print media but with some added features like video, then people will want to pay for it.

But are we really seeing improved user experiences with the current iPad media apps? We are now seeing the first generation media apps from big publishers, like Bonnier’s Popular Science, Time magazine, Wired magazine, Washington Street Journal and many others.

Many people react against paying for these apps, some with the rather strange argument “but there are ads in it, so I should’t have to pay for the app”, as if print media were ad-free. Well, that reaction of course stems from that we are so used to free media content on the web.

I don’t mind paying for interesting media content, provided that:

1. I can’t access equivalent content for free as nicely packaged somewhere else (hint: build your brand and work hard on your interface design and user friendliness)
2. I feel that my money goes to an organisation that I want to support (hint: tell me your corporate story and mission)
3. The payment process is simple and quick (this is one of the iTunes Store key success factors)

But I don’t want to pay for media apps that I feel are giving me a worse experience than online media.

Today’s media apps feels like CD-ROMs

I and many others also react against the walled garden of these apps, most of them are not connected to internet at all. We are suddenly back in the 90′s world of interactive CD-ROM media that looked great but were all one-way communication that could not be updated.

In my opinion most of them represent a step backwards compared to web media:

• I can’t copy text in the articles
• I can’t comment the articles
• I can’t share  articles with my friends via email, Facebook, Twitter etc
• I cant’ search for keywords in the articles
• I can’t bookmark or write my own comments in interesting articles
• I can’t interact with the ads
• I have to wait for apps to load
• I find the user interface unintuitive

Interface standards

The current breed of iPad media apps are using a multitude of different interface standards. Even basic functionalities get confusing when you don’t know how they work.

Two examples:
We are used to reading articles in columns from top to bottom. This is the way all our printed media have always worked. Still, Washington Street Journal manages to introduce a horisontal article layout, it even has a column between the continued story so you don’t see where it is. This also forces them to repeat the headline on each screen, a clumsy and unintuitive solution.

Menus: Publishes want an uncluttered interface design, so they hide the menu buttons, and they all do it differently. Some make you tap anywhere on screen, others use more obscure tricks. Worst so far is Bonnier, introducing a totally incomprehensible two-finger vertical swipe from the bottom to reveal the menu buttons. Sorry guys, I think the only way is to have small, constantly visible, easy to interpret menu buttons.

App download time

I don’t mind downloading utility apps, but when I want media content, I want it immediately. The current crop of iPad media apps weighs in at 150-500 Mb, which takes a loooong time to download. I just bought Wired’s July issue at 375 Mb, it took 25 minutes to download. Bonnier’s Popular Science July issue, 147 Mb, 51 minutes to download! Both of these magazines’ web sites load in about a second… This is somewhat like comparing apples and oranges, sine their websites don’t contain the same content, but the user experiences the app download as a pain that does not exist on the web.

What should be done?

I see two paths of development:

1. Since users are still so reluctant to pay for online content in a web browser, apps will continue to grow for some time. The second generation of apps will soon be connected and solve most of the problems described above.
2. Meanwhile, HTML5 and other emerging web standards and tools will enable publishers to improve media sites with smarter interfaces and functionality. In this process they will experiment with new types of online revenue models, (see my post “Experiment or die“). This will also eliminate the problems of adapting your content to multiple mobile platforms like iOS and Android. Eventually this will to a large degree replace downloaded apps, but it will take a few years.

The key here to media publishers is that they have to be more innovative and develop smarter interfaces and functionality that all the other free online media sites cannot offer.

Things like:

1. Connect the apps to internet, link them with social media and have moderated and well designed comments and discussion forums
2. Reinvent the navigation
3. Develop smarter personalisation tools, letting me create a dynamic media app according to my interests and mood for the moment
4. Work with the advertisers to increase the user value. I want to see ads that are relevant to me and my needs, and I want to be able to access more information and buy products easily via the ad

The best way to find out what will work best is to be innovative, start experimenting with all sorts of solutions. I am convinced that the development pace will be very fast in the next couple of years and look forward to enjoying media like never before.

                 

(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

At our latest TEDxStockholm event we experienced what almost all event organizers also do: a lot of people have signed up to attend just don’t arrive for the event.

We had 150 seats available and since we were met with lots of enthusiasm when we announced the event, we were worried about having to turn away many. So we clearly wrote in all invitation posts and emails that you had to apply for a seat and we would send out confirmations on the Friday before the event on Sunday, June 13.

Shelby Bonnie speaking. What you don’t see here are the empty seat rows in the back…

We had calculated with 10% no-shows, so we sent out confirmation emails to 165 people on the schedule.
Here is what happened:

During the weekend, we received 12 emails or twitter messages with cancellations, so we still had 153 reservations.

We also received 9 new requests to get a seat, even though the registration was closed. I turned away these people, since I was afraid that we would be over our capacity of 150.

At the event on Sunday evening, only 112 of the 153 confirmed people showed up.
So we had a no-show rate of 27%!
Another 6 people showed up at the door and said that they had heard about the event and wanted to attend.

We were a bit sorry for this since we had turned away people that wanted to come. But there was still great energy in the room and the event was a big sucess. And the local police was happy since we gave them our remaining food plates…

So what did we learn?
My conclusion: People don’t read instructions so we should have sent our remindersearlier and in more ways. We got explanations like these:
“Since I did not hear from you a week before the event I made other plans” (We said in the sign-up form that confirmation emails would be sent out on the Friday)
“I thought the registration started at 19.00″ (we said 18.00 in the confirmation email and on the web site)
“I could not find the venue” (we had very clear information in the confirmation email and on the web site)

People forget about their plans:
“I completely forgot about the event.”
“I thought it was next Sunday”

My guess is that this is because we now live in an information overflow society with a lot of buzz in many channels. There are many smart tools to handle this with online calendars and reminders etc, but most people don’t use these, there is too much choice. We rely more on being buzzed and reminded all the time so we can re-negotiate continuously. The main problem is that there is no single way of communcation that works for all. We all need to take this into consideration when we communicate.

What did we do wrong?

In hindsight, I think we should have:

1. Sent out the confirmation emails at least 5 days ahead
2. Sent out another confirmation email the day before or on the morning of the event day
3. Sent out an SMS text message on the morning of the event day (surprisingly many people said that they did not access their email during the weekend)
4. Overbooked with 20%

What do you think? Please share your experiences.
Some people told us that we should charge a SEK400 fee for no-shows, like they do at other seminars. But this is a non-profit event, so I am not sure that would be OK, besides, does that really work?

                 

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

I have now expanded and updated these two posts:
Presentation skills Do’s and Don’ts
and
Conferences Do’s and Don’ts

In these new versions I have added lots of tips based on my recent participation in big conferences like Rework the World in Tällberg with 1700 attendees, where I also moderated one of the workshops, and TEDxStockholm LOVE2010 with 150 people.

I want to improve the formats of conferences and the way we present and interact at them.
So please read my updated posts and post your comments!

                 

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

I am now trying to digest all my impressions from 4 days in beautiful Leksand at the Rework the World conference, organized by the Tällberg Foundation and YES (Youth Entrepreneurship & Sustainability)

I am still suffering from information overload, but here is a brief summary:

Rework was one of the most inspiring events I have attended. As usual not so much because of all the keynote speeches and workshop sessions, but becuase of the people attending.

There were 1700 very different types of people from 120 countries, but they all shared on important thing: they had passion in their eyes! Passion to want to rework the world, to meet other people, exchange ideas and learn new things!

It’s about the people!

All the keynote speeches by famous people and all the workshops and panels are of course important to attract this audience, but the biggest value is created in all the meetings between the attendees! I met a lot of my existing contacts and made many new friends.

The main hall was the big ice hockey rink in Leksand, where Carl Mossfeldt did a very professional job as the main moderator:

This hall was even equipped with a sauna VIP lounge with a giant glass window overlooking the rink!
I did not understand why it was not open for us, imagine all the fun discussions we could have had in there!

Keynotes

My favourite keynote speaker was Majora Carter, you can see her amazing talk here about how she transformed South Bronx in New York from a war zone to a living community. (Why on earth is there no embed function for the videos?!) She had great passion in her story, it was very personal and she illustrated it with her own pictures.

Majora’s way if giving a talk should serve as a role model, too many of the other keynote speakers stood paralyzed behind the podium, reading an article-style speech and showing Powerpoint slides with lots of bullet texts and complex diagrams. Some speaker coaching would have beeb great, and Powerpoints should be banned.

The most interesting event in the main hall was the investment panel. I have attended many events  where entrepreneurs pitch to a panel of investors, but never with so many really hot products. Note to Rework: please publish the list of the 10 finalists on the site!

Workshops

A small sample of interesting workshops that I attended:

Fredrik Hären talked about the explosion of creativity in what we stupidly call “developing nations” and why we in the “developed world” need to rethink and start moving. (The program said Teo Härén, but he was sick so he called in his twin brother who is just as excellent as a speaker!) Unfortunately his talk was not filmed, but you can see another talk by Fredrik here.

Dev Patnaik talked in two panels and did a brief appearance on the main stage. His US company Jump Associates works with creating growth strategies for big corporations like General Electric, FedEx and Nike. He was not filmed either, but check out his short video about empathy and why it is important for your bottom line. After seeing this I immediately ordered his book “Wired to Care“.

Experiences

It was great for me to meet my “adopted” changemaker, Gbenga Adenuga from Nigeria. He is a talented musician with a mission to inspire the youth in Nigera to vote in the upcoming general elections. I learned a lot from him about this great country and the struggle to improve conditions there. We will stay in touch for sure, and one day I will visit him in Nigeria.

There were also several great outdoor events, like this “Nature experience to empower change makers”

A big challenge for all organizers of events like this is to maintain some form of dialogue after the event. Rework has a community site where you can see the videos shot in the main hall and join online discussions. But to me the user interface in this forum is way to old-fashioned and there are very few discussions there.

I now have a lot of new contacts to follow up during the summer, many of them in corners of the world that are unknown for me. So my list of interesting places and peopel to visit keeps growing. Networking works!

                 

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

I am preparing myself for my participation in one of the biggest and most important conferences next week: The 5th Global YES Summit – Rework the World gathering more than 1500 people from all over the world in Dalarna, Sweden on June 2-6.

Rework the World is organized by the Tällberg Foundation, known worldwide for their large annual workshops gathering world leaders addressing the over-arching question “How on earth can we live together?”

“Rework the World is responding to the  confluence of three major global crises: the financial, the social and the ecological. These crises are related, both in their consequences and their causes. We are in the midst of an inevitable transition. Energy systems must be reconstructed, water sources restored, ecosystems regenerated and cities rebuilt. There is an awful lot of work to be done.
Indeed, the whole world must be reworked.”

I am happy and proud to be part of this by attending the  event and being a moderator for one of the workshops; “Rework mechanisms: Communities to promote sustainable change”

I have also taken part in the program Adopt a Changemaker, sponsoring a participant of Rework. Here is my “adopted” changemaker that I have sponsored the trip to the event for:

Gbenga Adenuga is a multi-talented musician and entrepreneur, he is the CEO of headroom Africa, a youth empowerment outfit.

I am looking forward to seeing him and all the other people from all over the world, it will surely widen my perspectives and give me new insights.

I will report more about my adventures in Tällberg here next week.

                 

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

TEDxBromma was a small event, focussing on an important topic: “Work 2.0″, about leadership and work culture for today and the future.

Here are the slides that Gisela Jönsson, the organizer showed: (in Swedish)

                 

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

My congratulations to the U.S. Ambassador in Stockholm, Matthew Barzun, and his crew for organising a great TEDx event at the embassy yesterday. A very fine example for others in diplomacy and the public sector to follow!

There were around 40 attendees, people from the Stockholm chamber of commerce, media, students, embassy staff etc, a good mix.

I liked the program, with great talks (we Swedes have a LOT to learn about public speaking from the Americans), awesome TED Talks and music. An American musician, Ben Sollee, (stranded in Stockholm due to the Icelandic volcano), gave us an unforgettable music piece, singing and playing his cello in a way that I have never experienced before.

The Ambassador, Matthew Barzun gave a talk about his work with the Obama grassroot campaign, with wonderful pictures “From a candidate in a corn field in Iowa to the presidential inauguration in Washington in front of 2 million people”.

Cameras were not allowed in the embassy, so I have no pictures from the event, but here are the TED Talks that we enjoyed:

UPDATED: Here are pictures on Flickr, taken by the embassy staff

Adora Svitak, 8 minutes: What adults can learn from kids

Child prodigy Adora Svitak, age 12, says the world needs “childish” thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism.

This is an amazing talk from a 12-year old, with important messages!

Hans Rosling, 20 minutes: Let my dataset change your mindset

Talking at the US State Department this summer, Hans Rosling uses his fascinating data-bubble software to burst myths about the developing world. Look for new analysis on China and the post-bailout world, mixed with classic data shows.
.
Hans, as usual, gives an extremely insightful and uplifting talk, all politicians and citizens should watch this!

The TED@State event in Washington DC reportedly had over 800 attendees!

Read more about it at the Whitehouse blog “Open Government Initiative: “Hands down it is the best event that I’ve attended in all of the years that I’ve been at State” and on the TED blog: TED goes to Washington

I think this is wonderful and hope that we can have TEDx events here in Sweden too. During the embassy event I talked to a guy from the City Hall who expressed interest in arranging an event at the Stockholm City Hall, that would be great!

And what about our own State Department, Regeringskansliet, surely they would benefit from organising a TEDx event too?
I will try to plant a seed there too…

                 

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

The TEDxStockhom event was small, just 13 people, but highly energetic. Our mixed set of very talented and passionate people created a powerful discussion. As Nicholas Negroponte says: “Creativity comes from difference”!

The event was organized by Ulla-Britt Fräjdin-Hellqvist and me, we had an ambitious theme: Rebuilding Society

The designer Anders Rinman demonstrated his “Future Scenario machine” Urbavista

We started by watching this TED Talk, 17 mins: Tim Brown urges designers to think big

Tim Brown is the CEO of the US “innovation and design” firm IDEO

Our discussions covered a large spectrum:

We live in disruptive times that need change: Financial crisis. Environment crisis. Social crisis.

What are our needs for mobility, really? Cars, are they they problem or the solution? Do we really need our own 2 ton cars that are idle 20 hours per day?

Energy consumption in houses vs cars. The potential of garbage.

Is central planning in countries like China better for solving city planning problems, compared to the slow “democratic” process we have here? Or can market forces be more efficient?

The need for a market place for ideas.

Catch 22: Our politicians and general public often do not understand complex plans for renewal of cities etc. But if we creative physical models or use 3D graphics to visualize the projects, they understand more but tend to focus on irrelevant details, not seeing the whole perspective.

How can we organize productive long-term discussions about complex issues, discussions with many participants, visualization and that evolves over long timer periods; months, years? Online tools, physical meeting forms etc?

TED Talk: Cathering Mohr builds green, 6 mins:

Catherine Mohr walks through all the geeky decisions she made when building a green new house, looking at real energy numbers, not hype. What choices matter most? Not the ones you think.

TED Talk 18 mins: Bjarke Ingels: 3 warp-speed architecture tales

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels rockets through photo/video-mingled stories of his eco-flashy designs. His buildings not only look like nature,  they act like nature: blocking the wind, collecting solar energy,  and creating stunning views.

To all of you who are reading this: you are very welcome with your input and ideas, or if you want to be invited to future TEDx events.

By commenting here in this blog, or by emailing me at henrik.ahlen@alfabravo.com

                 

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

TEDxViggbyholm was a very ambitious event, organized by Johan Ronnestam, a well-known “consultant, digital media professional, creative director, advertising man, innovator and entrepreneur from Stockholm”.

The theme was Visualisation, see the full program here

Johan organized the event in 3 days and attracted 10 speakers and a crowd of 90!

My favourite talk was by Ted Persson, founder of Great Works, with the title:
A visual experiment – An attempt to prove that visual thinking is more effective than non visual thinking

Johan Ronnestam: Design with your heart!

                 

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

TEDxDjurgården was an intimate gathering hosted by Beata Wickbolm, senior strategist at Pool.

She gathered 24 people in her livingroom, very different personalites but with two common traits: being curious and open-minded.

Beata, by the wall on the left, as always a very professional moderator!

The overall theme was cities, with subjects like:

Favourite places in Stockholm
Urban Gardening
The city of the night
Densify for better cities
Urban sprawl
Stockholm vs Tokyo

We discussed TED Talks and also watched this awesome urban animation by MUTO

For Urban gardening we were were inspired by the Guerilla Gardener YouTube channel
so we made some Seedbombs:

Here are some recipes for seed bombs

                 

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...