Apple’s recent release of the iPad Mini and the implications it carries for mobile marketing have piqued the interest of the agency community.
“It feels to me like this [the iPad Mini] will be the total on-the-go version of the iPad,” observed Matt Eastwood, chief creative officer of DDB New York. “I think people will start leaving their regular iPads on the sofa; the regular iPad will serve as a portable device within the home. For a city like New York, the absolute commuter’s choice will be the iPad Mini, opening up opportunities for brands to geo-target ads to users, and the larger screen allows advertisers new creative opportunities when communicating with consumers through location-based marketing efforts.”
Eastwood noted that “the reality is you have to look at the iPad Mini as another screen and then see how it will benefit your client. But we’re certainly thinking about the iPad Mini. One of our brands is Hertz, for instance. This could prove to be a perfect place for Hertz in the mobile space but with a little bit more functionality than that space typically offers. You can benefit from the bigger screen, a little more real estate. It could be a very exciting opportunity for a lot of clients.”
With a price point of $329 for the base model, iPad Mini is a bit more expensive than originally projected yet the demand for the device hasn’t suffered, with three million sold the first weekend. Eastwood sees parents regarding the iPad Mini as an option for their kids. “Maybe parents won’t mind putting this device in the hands of their children. Meanwhile mom and dad will hold onto the $700 iPad for themselves. The iPad Mini suddenly looms as the extra family device. And the beauty of Apple is that hundreds of thousands of apps will work immediately on the iPad Mini. There’s a continuity across the Apple devices.”
While the 3G version has been released, a 4G unit was on the verge of hitting the marketplace at press time. Eastwood has a 4G on order. Whereas his personal norm when traveling was to take his iPad and Kindle, which he reads books on, Eastwood envisions the iPad Mini replacing both his Kindle and full-sized iPad whenever he’s living out of a suitcase.
David Lai, CEO and creative director of Los Angeles-based digital creative agency Hello Design, observed, “With so many devices and so little time, it’s important for brands to understand how they help simplify consumer’s lives and tap into that. For example, the new iPad Mini will probably fill those gaps when people are out and about. It will likely be used on the go whereas the iPad is more often used at home, in the living room or the bedroom. This means there’s an opportunity to design differently for this device [the iPad Mini] by thinking about where and how consumers will engage with it. It will compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire for reading and at the same time could be used by kids to play games or watch videos. Keeping this in mind, brands should create a useful experience or service that taps into the iPad Mini’s capabilities, and make that the campaign.”
Purchasing power Todd LaBeau, VP, director of interactive at Lindsay, Stone & Briggs, a Madison, Wisc.-based agency specializing in launching and jumpstarting brands, noted that research shows that nearly half of tablet users have made a purchase after interacting with a tablet. “As more and more people move from laptops to smaller and in some cases more powerful tablets, that number will only grow. Phones are for quick check-ins, text messages, directions or (gasp), the occasional phone call. An iPad is great but–let’s face it–still a little too big to lug around easily. The Mini will change this.”
As for the ways this change will manifest itself, LaBeau related, “When people interact with a tablet, they’re in browsing mode and often in shopping mode. People in stores with a mobile device start price comparing. While standing in a store, you can buy something from that store’s competitor.”
James Green, CEO of Magnetic, a New York-headquartered shop focused on search retargeting, engaging users with ads based on their search history, observed, “Bigger canvases are better for everyone. And although there’s been lots of talk about the iPad Mini cannibalizing iPad or even Mac sales, from an advertising point of view, the more that people have larger devices in their hands, the better it is for advertising.
“Teeny weeny ads on iPhones will never be as compelling as larger full-screen opportunities that you can get on the electronic equivalent of the page of a magazine. And although we’ve all read lots of things on our iPhones, we all prefer reading on iPads and other larger screen devices. So, the big win for advertisers is that there will be more tablets on the market. The potential for compelling advertising on the larger format screen–again compared to an iPhone–is tremendous and has only begun to be capitalized. Ads such as those that Audi has inserted in electronic versions of magazines (such as The Economist) are the beginning of the future. You can shake the iPad and the ad changes into a different environment. This new ad technology is far more impactful than the typical ‘banner’ that a consumer would see on an app or web experience on their iPhone. Pundits should stop worrying about whether the iPad Mini will cannibalize its larger cousins, and instead focus on how wonderful it is that more larger screen devices will be in the hands of consumers–especially consumers who have already splashed out for the latest and greatest product from Apple, who are clearly influencers with discretionary income to spend.”
