iPad - The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades

We're at T minus 15 hours and counting down to April 3rd, the day the iPad officially hits store shelves. Leading pundits and devotees of the digital brand anticipate an end to global hunger and disease, the cessation of all wars, the beating of swords into plough shares, peace and brotherhood among men and the return of Elvis. Oh wait, yesterday was April Fool's day and I'm a day late and a buck short. Oh well, time for a little truth.

I'm sitting surrounded by Apple products at my desk, two Macbooks, an iPhone, three iPods, magic mice and cosmic keyboards abound. I'm the target market, I'm the one they built the iPad for, a recent convert from PC to Mac who is a fan-boy extraordinaire and lover of gadgets. But I'm here to tell you it's not a burning bush, nor is it a lark, rather it's the direction we're moving in. To support this idea that the iPad is going set a trend let's think back to the iPhone. How many touch screen phones did we have before it launched? How many do we have now?

As I caffeinated this morning I went through my social networking ritual, I checked my Tweetdeck, blog reader and then finally my Facebook. When I hit Facebook I did a double take: NPR announced today an iPad optimized App and Site. What are they doing was my first thought? They're leaping before looking, they're acting like giddy school children, inconceivable! But then I read on and it all began to make sense. NPR estimates that close to 5% of their listening audience is planning to buy an iPad. The concept that one out of every 20 people will opt to purchase a new piece of technology that according to NPR is more condusive to 'deep reading' is a boon for any news organization. NPR's synthesis of audio and reading material is a perfect match with the iPad's rich media environment and the news organization hopes to capitalize and find new ways of engaging their audience.

NPR is no spring chicken, the organization has been around a long time and they concede the fact that 5% is the high end of the scale and that the actual early adopters may be much smaller. However, in their eyes, going through the process of adapting their technology for a new, rich media environment is a good exercise and a learning opportunity. What can you learn from adapting your content to new technology?

Well let's think about this logically, an examination of your content from the standpoint of optimal rendering can yield design flaws, new ways of organizing materials into a logical, coherent narrative that keeps the attention of your audience for longer periods of time. Am I speaking just of a website redesign? Absolutely not, this applies to email and all forms of communication. SMS is clipping our attention span along with every other form, type and style of media. Text is fast and short, commercials move rapidamente, if you're sending a copy of your web page with too many offers, too many calls to action, you're going to lose your audience because you're over cluttering their world and their inbox. The beauty of the iPad is that it clears the clutter, it removes the keyboard, the clam shell of the laptop, it's a hard metal and plastic version of a newspaper, a clean glass mirror to which you can say "mirror mirror on the wall, what's the most cost effective offer of all?" Will it be your email with the thirty offers and specials and exclusives that aren't based on your previous purchase history or your competitor that presents one or two key items in a big and bold format that screams "I know you my customer and I have what you really want."

The other benefit here is banking on the future. The iPad will not be the sole player on the market, nor is the perfect platform; it galls me to no end that Apple will not support flash and I know I'm not alone. Competitors will come along that will be about the same size, about the same price point, maybe a couple hundred less, have similar features because the iPad is a fad already and it hasn't hit the shelves. Apple is really good at creating myths that become legends that become icons that become indispensable. I wrote about this several years ago when I was heading to Russia with multiple iPhones for friends there that were willing to shell out months worth of salaries to own a piece of gizmodic-cool. By engaging in a process and creating applications and content for a new technology marketers are sure to keep in touch with the fads and the consumers of those fads which are the most digitally savvy customers in their database.

My advice to marketers is this: engage in a process that will help you stop looking at emails, your content and how you present it from within your comfort zone. Adopt what Buddhists sometimes call "beginners mind", forget what you know and relearn it. Walk a mile in your customer's shoes and make bold changes to what you are doing where necessary. Split test it until your fingers are raw and your eyes cross from reading numbers, there will be worth while data and learning throughout the process.

Cheers!
-Len Shneyder
Director of Deliverability & Messaging
Unica | Pivotal Veracity