iPad Advertisements Are Like Print On Steroids

Agencies view the iPad as having great potential to breathe new, interactive life into the print ad, with Michael Ancevic, Mullen's senior vice president, group creative director, likening the device's ads to "print on steroids." Although iPad applications are an affordable way to enter the iPad market, the device's marketing possibilities are still being explored. "We haven't even cracked the surface on the experiences we can create," said David Hewitt, mobile practice lead and creative director for the Southeast region at SapientNitro.

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Michael Ancevic, svp, group cd at Mullen, is nearly as excited about Apple's iPad as those in the publishing industry. (The only difference: his future may not depend on it.) While working on an ad that will run in a Conde Nast title on the new tablet -- he declined to name the brand or magazine -- he said, "We felt we were doing something that's going to change everything. ... It's print on steroids. What if that photo came to life? What if you can see different angles of a certain product or demo it? It picks up where print left off."

David Hewitt, mobile practice lead and cd for the Southeast region at SapientNitro, calls it "the most compelling mini-media consumption device" there is. Advertising on it, he adds, is as much about reaching the early influencers as it is about the buzz. "A lot of clients are using this as a first-to-market opportunity," says Hewitt.

The industry has iPad on the brain, and agencies and brands alike are busy assessing ways to make their marks on the hottest new product to hit the technology sector since, well, the iPhone. Brands that have jumped in include Cadillac, which paired with trend-spotting site Cool Hunting (and BBH Labs) for an app that helps promote the CTS and CTS-V coupes, and Procter & Gamble's Pampers, whose app, Hello Baby -- its first mobile-device application -- allows pregnant women to track their babies' development.

Serena Connelly, cd at StrawberryFrog, which created the Pampers app, says that it was important for the brand to have an early presence. "Pampers wants to be present and part of innovations in technology that help to redefine mass culture," says Connelly.

Apps are probably the easiest and most cost-efficient way for marketers to get into the iPad game because existing iPhone apps can be repurposed for the larger device. Dan LaCivita, president, Firstborn, says the agency is extending clients' iPhone apps as well as creating new ideas.

"It all depends on the initial app itself," says LaCivita. "If the apps can use the same functionality and it's not a lot of redevelopment, the physics and math are going to be the same." Size is the main issue, he adds: "For example, if you have an [iPhone] app that's graphics heavy ... we would have to redesign those images to make sure the quality is there, that the aspect ratio is correct."

Hewitt, however, says taking the same app from iPhone to iPad is rarely optimal.
Text and graphics are going to get a little blurry, he notes, not to mention many popular iPhone apps rely on the phone's camera and voice capabilities, features not yet available on the iPad.

Early entries that have optimized the features of the iPad so far, Hewitt says, are apps that allow users to manage their social networking, such as TweetDeck; to shop and browse, like apps for Gilt or eBay; or to watch videos, like those for YouTube and Yahoo Entertainment.

Because it's so early in the game, the challenge, of course, lies in not knowing how much can be done on the iPad, and what will and won't work.

"We haven't even cracked the surface on the experiences we can create," says Hewitt.

SOURCE: ADWEEK