The first tablet specific newspaper launched

Rupert Murdoch & Steve Jobs announced a first of its kind partnership this week – The Daily. A tablet-specific newspaper that can be purchased through the app store for 99 cents per week or $39.99 for a year-long subscription. It is a general interest newspaper (US national) that will be updated daily with ‘short-bite’ content and lots of interactive features. It is an attempt by Murdoch to engage an audience - expected to be 50 million strong in the US by the end of the year - that has long abandoned traditional newspapers.

The implication for advertisers is greater pressure on agencies to produce engaging advertising. The temptation will be to replicate print advertising in apps but the reality is the audience who subscribe to content via this channel expect that it will provide a better experience for them, tailored to their desires.

For the beauty industry, consumers will demand instantaneous product information and instructions for replicating a celebrity’s look as soon as it hits the red carpet – the opportunity will be to harness m-commerce and close the loop between engagement and sales.

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Private Label V Big Brands

Future growth is expected amongst private label beauty products according to Euromonitor. We have already seen this trend start to emerge in Australia with Cole’s recent focus on ranging health & beauty products, and their launch of the Derma Q10 range which garnered huge popularity in the UK.

Given that many of the retail brands launching into this space have no prior beauty experience or credentials, they are primed to respond to consumer demand. This is evidenced by H&M’s organics range in the UK. Their ability to start from a clean slate will mean that ‘traditional’ beauty companies will need to innovate in response to consumer demand and localise to keep up with the emergence of new competitors. If they are unable to do this, consumers will be looking for added value to rationalise the higher price point of more traditional beauty brands.

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See Euromonitor’s 3 minute video opinion here

Converting awareness to sales

Estee Lauder have employed a unique digital technology in the U.S. that allows consumers to view a “how to” video and click directly through to purchase the product. As the video plays, the user can roll over the video where clickable tabs pop up and reveal more information about the product or allow for click through to purchase or more information.

With multiple screens from which to consume, people seem to have an insatiable appetite for content. This execution is a great way of driving consumers from the content they seek, through to more branded information. Given we’ve seen a huge increase in visitation to consumer generated how-to content, there is an opportunity for a brand to add value to the content by providing the ‘experts’ voice and connecting consumers through to point of purchase. An important feature of this technology is that it is user controlled and if the user rolls off the ad, the pop-ups disappear so to prevent a poor user experience.

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P&G renew their focus on celeb endorsement

P&G appear to have renewed their focus on celebrity endorsements, this week announcing that J-Lo will, alongside Jonny Wilkinson & Brian O’Driscoll, be endorsing the Gillette brand. P&G have signed J-Lo as the global ambassador for the Venus franchise and have taken an innovative approach to employing her. Rather than just use J-Lo’s ‘face’ P&G have had the artist remake the song “Venus” to drive the association between her and the brand. She will appear in all creative assets but the ‘spectacle’ of her singing makes her presence relevant.

There is nothing new about celebrity endorsement but the way P&G are engaging with their new ambassadors is admirable. Employing our L’Oreal ambassadors to advertise in the field that they’re known for would help to heighten relevance. For instance, if they’re an actress we might make a short film series or if they’re a sportsperson we may run a coaching clinic with them. People expect to be closer than ever to their celebrities thanks to perceived one-to-one communications formats such as twitter. So if a brand facilitated this connection, it would reflect very positively on brand health.

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