How the iPad will revolutionise Direct mail
February 1 2010, 8:33 am | | 8 Comments
As the launch of the iPad sparked a global debate on how it might affect mainstream media ranging from newspapers to TV, Simon Canning in today’s Media section of The Australian reports that one Australian company predicts it could derail one section of the communications industry: direct mail.
8 Comments
We will, inevitably, have to change the way we look at everything – especially DM and print.
The Internet is an immediate medium. People are now used to getting information instantly – within minutes of it happening if you count news.
The traditional newspaper will die – it has to. Why pay a dollar for what happened yesterday when I can get what’s happening now for free?
As such, iBooks is just the start. I predict most national newspapers (especially news limited) will be purchased monthly through iTunes in the same way we download apps and music.
The newspaper will stream directly into your iPad, ready for the bus to work.
That means clickable ads. Ads that move. Ads with rotating cars, video.
It also means completely targeted advertising. The ad that appears on the front page of my iPad will be different to yours. If I’m having a baby – it’ll probably be for a safer car, pampers, child seats.
If you’ve been buying certain bands through iTunes, the ads will be for music festivals – jeans, vodka etc.
So yes, why send out stuff that folds when you can run a fully three-dimensional bottle of vodka that plays Muse when you click it?
Exciting times.
Unless the fucking thing doesn’t sell of course.
Nice post, 11:58
11.58:
“The traditional newspaper will die – it has to. Why pay a dollar for what happened yesterday when I can get what’s happening now for free?”
That’s all good and well 11.58, but you still have to stump up the major $$$$$ to purchase the thing, and the majority of people won’t, they’ll just keep getting their newspapers.
Remember too, there are more to newspapers than the latest news… comment, reviews, etc
There’s a huge difference between a mass insert/door-drop catalogue, as Simon Canning is talking about in his article, and a carefully targeted direct mail campaign.
Used effectively, ‘old fashioned’ direct mail still delivers a tactile experience you simply can’t get from a computer/iPad/iPod – yet anyway.
Humans love touching stuff. It’s the way we’re programmed. That’s why direct mail, in some form or another, is going to stick around for a while longer yet.
As for trashy junk mail, it should all be killed immediately…
12:45
Are you still building your CD collection? I doubt it very much.
It will still take ten years for it to really kick off. 5 minimum.
Plus Apple have shot themselves in the foot by not allowing free content on there, you’ll have to pay for everything. And no flash.
Silly really.
Yep, no flash. All the sponsorship stuff on this site wont work. Well done Apple.
This won’t change direct mail one iota.
There are many target audiences, segmentations, professions and demographics that simply aren’t contactable via anything other than direct mail.
How would you send a targeted communication to a teacher, for example? They are a protected profession. There is no email list. You mail to their school.
Or residents in beachside suburbs? Or customers who purchased a car brand but only left their name and address on the paperwork?
Yes, digital is a growing industry. But it didn’t kill TV. Just as TV didn’t kill radio. No new media will replace an existing one. New channels only shift the dynamics and balance of spend.