iPad’s Real Category Killer

A lot has been written about whether Bezos’ Kindle will be slayed by Jobs’ iPad, with reviewers dissecting everything from the latter’s screen resolution to lack of camera. Less has been written on the impact that Apple’s new toy will have on struggling print publishers, with articles like this one “Can Apple’s Tablet Save Newspaper and Magazine Publishers?” discussing everything from new ad layouts to dual revenue streams for publishers.

What’s missing nearly altogether?

The role iPad may play in delivering GEO-TARGETED DISPLAY advertising in a size that can actually be both practical and persuasive! For years, we have had to choose between print converters like NewsStand, Inc. favored by traditional print advertisers (which essentially shrink newspapers into email-able documents while preserving print ad units)….to online media websites favored by users (which use far less disruptive online ad units). With its unique full-size color display, iPad can please both camps.

But once Apple makes its inevitable 2G or 3G model a must-have by including full GPS, the iPad can be much more.

Remember the scene in the movie “Minority Report” where Tom Cruise walks through a city composed of glass screens and ever-changing media messages that call out to him by name? We’re one large step closer. Imagine a future where the full color display ads change not only based on your subscription profile, publisher, and contextual content…but on your actual location on the subway into work? Getting off at one stop may provide a Starbucks eCoupon, whereas another generated Dunkin Donuts! And not only text links—full blown page takeovers with audio and video are possible. Doing a local market test of your latest pharma product? Now you can geo-target ads, send compliance reminders based on whether the user is walking by their pharmacy location, etc. By proximity. With full display. And perhaps even target such messages by age based on the birthdate in the user’s AT&T account. Remember how freaked out you were when you got your Newsweek and saw an advertiser calling you out by name in a print ad due to being a subscriber? Imagine how startling an ad saying “Sam, before you sit down, did you take your purple pill?” could be when you enter an Indian restaurant?

So while others laud the pretty pictures, keep your eye on the real category killer that could have real applications for eHealth: geo-targeted, full size display advertising based on immediate proximity. If you believe,  like we do, that hyper-relevant advertising messages sent to the right patient at the right time can be just as valuable as the content which surrounds it, we’ll all need to begin paying more attention to the “where” as well as to the “what”.

And that’s even more fun than being able to play “Words with Friends” on a big screen!