AMB Album

By Nick Sherman

If you’re a designer and haven’t already heard about Typographica’s relaunched site and Favorite Typefaces of 2008 list, chances are you’ve been stranded on a desert island, far away from any relevant news sources. And even then, the list has received considerable attention beyond the usual design and typography blogs, getting mention in sources that wouldn’t usually have much to say about type.

With all that coverage already out there, what’s left to say that hasn’t already been mentioned? Stephen Coles has written and spoken about the history of Typographica and the reasons for its redesign; Joshua Lurie-Turell (Typographica’s founder) has bestowed his blessing on the new site; and countless other sources have heralded, congratulated, and approved via blogs and Twitter updates.

An element of Typographica that I think deserves to be noted—and indeed has contibuted to the site’s fine reputation—is how it is purely about type for type’s sake… type for the joy of type. Consider the following, from a “font industry” point of view: Both Stephen Coles and Chris Hamamoto (the site’s editor and designer, respectively) are employees of FontShop (a major font distributor). Knowing that, one might assume that the content is biased accordingly, that the opinions expressed are not objective. However, Typographica’s vast archive is evidence to the contrary.

For instance, despite my own employment with MyFonts (another major font distributor), I was  honored with being invited to write the introduction to this year’s Favorite Typefaces list. Also note that Stephen has written fair commentary on numerous other topics in the past, despite a direct relation to his professional circumstances.

Historically the site’s contibutors also come from every facet of the type world, presenting views from about as many “competitors” in one place as is possible. I use the term in quotation marks, because—regardless of politics—a mutual passion for typography in some shape or form will bring people together as the best of allies. Typographica embodies that spirit perfectly, where the only thing that matters in the end is the love of type.

Notes:

Listen to Stephen on the RBtL podcast.

Interested in sponsoring iLT’s RSS feed? Contact me.

Typography

At the OMMA Mobile conference on Wednesday, Jim McDonnell, marketing manager, emerging channels for Papa John’s International, shared some bad news about the potential for mobile applications associated with a business. In short, he basically called the Papa John’s iPhone app a dud, saying that the company hasn’t “seen anything that really delivers for us as well as mobile display advertising,” and based on the numbers, the company has decided not to expand to other mobile platforms.

Oh no! The iPhone doesn’t deliver? Businesses take heed? Well, that’s what it sounds like. Except there’s just one small problem here: Papa John’s doesn’t have an iPhone app – they have a mobile website.

Sponsor

According to an article on Mediapost, McDonnell is quoted as saying “we haven’t seen numbers that really made us think we need to be everywhere else yet,” when speaking of the company’s decision to refrain from branching out to other mobile platforms.

In fact, if you read through the article, the doom-and-gloom story of the Papa John’s iPhone app disaster may have you wondering if iPhone apps for businesses are even worthwhile.

After reading through the article, although confused as to the supposed app’s failure, on a personal level I was excited. I didn’t even know that Papa John’s had an iPhone application, but I was definitely interested in downloading it. You see, where I live, Papa John’s is the only pizza place that delivers. I’ve been eagerly awaiting an iPhone application like this since our household tends to order Papa John’s pizza about once a month (well, if we aren’t on diets). I immediately hopped over to iTunes and did a search. Query: “Papa John’s” – no Papa John’s apps found. Query: “Papa Johns” – still, no go. What gives? They were talking about an iPhone application, right?

Apparently not.

Actually, what Papa John’s has is a mobile website at mobile.papajohns.com/iphone, which offers a store locator and shortcuts that take you to the main mobile ordering system – a system that sees 50% of its traffic from iPhones, by the way. And that’s what McDonnell was referring to: a mobile website.

Say what you want, but a mobile site is NOT an app. If it were, then the Papa John’s app could do nifty things like tap into the iPhone’s GPS to display the nearest stores to the user’s current location and offer those stores’ current specials. It could store user account information in its settings so that every time the app was launched, it would remember your latest order… maybe even have a button that let you reorder with one click. And so much more.

But all it does is let you order from a mobile website and locate a store… you know, manually.

Given its limited nature, it wouldn’t be surprising if Papa John’s was only having moderate success with this “app”/mobile site. But the thing is, they are. According to McDonnell, the “app” has driven $1 million in revenue to the company. Um, that’s actually kind of good. Now imagine what a REAL app could do. Unfortunately, McDonnel says Papa John’s just isn’t ready – they’re only “dipping their toe in the pond” now and don’t want to spend money on an honest-to-goodness iPhone application yet, much less start developing for other platforms.

Well, that’s a shame because they haven’t really even dipped their toe into the iPhone platform yet.

Papa John’s, let us know when you actually launch an iPhone application, then you can tell us how well it works for you.

Discuss

ReadWriteWeb

At the OMMA Mobile conference on Wednesday, Jim McDonnell, marketing manager, emerging channels for Papa John’s International, shared some bad news about the potential for mobile applications associated with a business. In short, he basically called the Papa John’s iPhone app a dud, saying that the company hasn’t “seen anything that really delivers for us as well as mobile display advertising,” and based on the numbers, the company has decided not to expand to other mobile platforms.

Oh no! The iPhone doesn’t deliver? Businesses take heed? Well, that’s what it sounds like. Except there’s just one small problem here: Papa John’s doesn’t have an iPhone app – they have a mobile website.

Sponsor

According to an article on Mediapost, McDonnell is quoted as saying “we haven’t seen numbers that really made us think we need to be everywhere else yet,” when speaking of the company’s decision to refrain from branching out to other mobile platforms.

In fact, if you read through the article, the doom-and-gloom story of the Papa John’s iPhone app disaster may have you wondering if iPhone apps for businesses are even worthwhile.

After reading through the article, although confused as to the supposed app’s failure, on a personal level I was excited. I didn’t even know that Papa John’s had an iPhone application, but I was definitely interested in downloading it. You see, where I live, Papa John’s is the only pizza place that delivers. I’ve been eagerly awaiting an iPhone application like this since our household tends to order Papa John’s pizza about once a month (well, if we aren’t on diets). I immediately hopped over to iTunes and did a search. Query: “Papa John’s” – no Papa John’s apps found. Query: “Papa Johns” – still, no go. What gives? They were talking about an iPhone application, right?

Apparently not.

Actually, what Papa John’s has is a mobile website at mobile.papajohns.com/iphone, which offers a store locator and shortcuts that take you to the main mobile ordering system – a system that sees 50% of its traffic from iPhones, by the way. And that’s what McDonnell was referring to: a mobile website.

Say what you want, but a mobile site is NOT an app. If it were, then the Papa John’s app could do nifty things like tap into the iPhone’s GPS to display the nearest stores to the user’s current location and offer those stores’ current specials. It could store user account information in its settings so that every time the app was launched, it would remember your latest order… maybe even have a button that let you reorder with one click. And so much more.

But all it does is let you order from a mobile website and locate a store… you know, manually.

Given its limited nature, it wouldn’t be surprising if Papa John’s was only having moderate success with this “app”/mobile site. But the thing is, they are. According to McDonnell, the “app” has driven $1 million in revenue to the company. Um, that’s actually kind of good. Now imagine what a REAL app could do. Unfortunately, McDonnel says Papa John’s just isn’t ready – they’re only “dipping their toe in the pond” now and don’t want to spend money on an honest-to-goodness iPhone application yet, much less start developing for other platforms.

Well, that’s a shame because they haven’t really even dipped their toe into the iPhone platform yet.

Papa John’s, let us know when you actually launch an iPhone application, then you can tell us how well it works for you.

Discuss

ReadWriteWeb

Last month, you may remember having heard about a special iPhone ad from Dockers. Its claim to fame was that it was the world’s first “shakable” ad. Called “Shakedown to Get Down,” the ad prompted users to shake the phone in order to set the on-screen freestyle dancer into motion. The dancer, of course, wore Dockers. It was certainly a clever attention-getter at the time, something that had everyone talking. But this ad wasn’t just a one-off experimental project – it was representative of the start of a new trend and one that’s going to change advertising as we know it.

Sponsor

The Dockers ad was created by media agency OMD and Medialets, an analytics and advertising agency that specializes in mobile. The ad itself ran within a handful of iPhone applications, including iBowl, SGN Golf, iBasketball, iBaseball, and iTV. The goal of selecting those particular apps to feature this new ad was a desire to tap into the casual consumer market – that is, someone who’s using the iPhone to have fun and is already familiar with the phone’s accelerometer thanks to the games they’ve been playing.

The Dockers ad was built using the Medialets platform, a platform that combines real-time analytics and rich media functionality that leverages the iPhone SDK, allowing ads to tap into the phone’s GPS, accelerometer, microphone, and other features. It even allows the ads to work when the phone goes offline, too, thanks to pre-caching technology that delivers the ad to the phone in the background so that it’s available anytime, signal or no signal.

And while Dockers may have been the first shakable ad, it’s not the only one being built using this new technology. Some other examples of ad actions built using the Medialets platform include:

• A soda company creates an interactive bottle of soda that is motion-sensitive. (The user shakes up the bottle and it splashes all over the screen.)
• A car rental company can determine that a user is outside their typical geography and serve a CPA ad for a discounted rate.
• An electronics company showcases a new rebate enticing users to scan a barcode at a nearby store.
• A cruise line offers deals for users in Baltimore and Ft. Lauderdale due to proximity to their ships.

And that’s just the beginning. Just around the corner we’ll see even bigger and bolder uses of this technology. Think: interactive film trailers tapping into the iPhone accelerometer, YouTube videos playing within the ad unit without leaving the app, ads that target users by geography or even time of day.

This sort of technology is set to revolutionize the nature of advertising. It’s innovative and unique… and it’s not something that’s ever been possible before. (Try shaking your TV set – it’s hard!)

The Benefits of the New Mobile Ads

For advertisers, they know they’re also getting a more engaged user. Unlike print ads, where there’s no tracking available, or TV ads where users often fast forward or leave the room during commercials, a well-placed mobile ad often has a user’s undivided attention. Mobile users aren’t usually doing anything else when playing with the apps – the device has their complete attention.

And a “well-placed” ad isn’t referring to the physical location of the ad on the screen… it basically means the best time to show the ad within an application… a time which, for the record, is not during a pre-roll. People hate pre-rolls, especially when they’re itching to start using an app. But give those same users a fun and unique ad in between levels of their game and they’re usually happy to watch, shake, or whatever else the advertisers can come up with.

Because the ads can tap into iPhone features like the GPS while still having the power of analytics on the back-end, these new ads are quite different from the TV ads targeted towards a more general public audience. Instead of just hyping the latest movie with a trailer, they could show the trailer and let you check the show times at your local theater. Instead of just talking about the latest sale at a retail outlet, they could give you a mobile coupon to use when there. They could even pinpoint you as a poor college student looking to save money on your next pizza purchase or as a young, married professional looking for new restaurants to try for your Saturday night out. They know you, but in a non-creepy and actually sort of useful way.

No other advertising can apply that level of targeting and personalization… except perhaps online ads. But consumers have become nearly blind to the banners and AdSense sidebars on today’s websites… and then, of course, there’s the problem of your not being able to shake them.

Discuss

ReadWriteWeb

Last month, you may remember having heard about a special iPhone ad from Dockers. Its claim to fame was that it was the world’s first “shakable” ad. Called “Shakedown to Get Down,” the ad prompted users to shake the phone in order to set the on-screen freestyle dancer into motion. The dancer, of course, wore Dockers. It was certainly a clever attention-getter at the time, something that had everyone talking. But this ad wasn’t just a one-off experimental project – it was representative of the start of a new trend and one that’s going to change advertising as we know it.

Sponsor

The Dockers ad was created by media agency OMD and Medialets, an analytics and advertising agency that specializes in mobile. The ad itself ran within a handful of iPhone applications, including iBowl, SGN Golf, iBasketball, iBaseball, and iTV. The goal of selecting those particular apps to feature this new ad was a desire to tap into the casual consumer market – that is, someone who’s using the iPhone to have fun and is already familiar with the phone’s accelerometer thanks to the games they’ve been playing.

The Dockers ad was built using the Medialets platform, a platform that combines real-time analytics and rich media functionality that leverages the iPhone SDK, allowing ads to tap into the phone’s GPS, accelerometer, microphone, and other features. It even allows the ads to work when the phone goes offline, too, thanks to pre-caching technology that delivers the ad to the phone in the background so that it’s available anytime, signal or no signal.

And while Dockers may have been the first shakable ad, it’s not the only one being built using this new technology. Some other examples of ad actions built using the Medialets platform include:

• A soda company creates an interactive bottle of soda that is motion-sensitive. (The user shakes up the bottle and it splashes all over the screen.)
• A car rental company can determine that a user is outside their typical geography and serve a CPA ad for a discounted rate.
• An electronics company showcases a new rebate enticing users to scan a barcode at a nearby store.
• A cruise line offers deals for users in Baltimore and Ft. Lauderdale due to proximity to their ships.

And that’s just the beginning. Just around the corner we’ll see even bigger and bolder uses of this technology. Think: interactive film trailers tapping into the iPhone accelerometer, YouTube videos playing within the ad unit without leaving the app, ads that target users by geography or even time of day.

This sort of technology is set to revolutionize the nature of advertising. It’s innovative and unique… and it’s not something that’s ever been possible before. (Try shaking your TV set – it’s hard!)

The Benefits of the New Mobile Ads

For advertisers, they know they’re also getting a more engaged user. Unlike print ads, where there’s no tracking available, or TV ads where users often fast forward or leave the room during commercials, a well-placed mobile ad often has a user’s undivided attention. Mobile users aren’t usually doing anything else when playing with the apps – the device has their complete attention.

And a “well-placed” ad isn’t referring to the physical location of the ad on the screen… it basically means the best time to show the ad within an application… a time which, for the record, is not during a pre-roll. People hate pre-rolls, especially when they’re itching to start using an app. But give those same users a fun and unique ad in between levels of their game and they’re usually happy to watch, shake, or whatever else the advertisers can come up with.

Because the ads can tap into iPhone features like the GPS while still having the power of analytics on the back-end, these new ads are quite different from the TV ads targeted towards a more general public audience. Instead of just hyping the latest movie with a trailer, they could show the trailer and let you check the show times at your local theater. Instead of just talking about the latest sale at a retail outlet, they could give you a mobile coupon to use when there. They could even pinpoint you as a poor college student looking to save money on your next pizza purchase or as a young, married professional looking for new restaurants to try for your Saturday night out. They know you, but in a non-creepy and actually sort of useful way.

No other advertising can apply that level of targeting and personalization… except perhaps online ads. But consumers have become nearly blind to the banners and AdSense sidebars on today’s websites… and then, of course, there’s the problem of your not being able to shake them.

Discuss

ReadWriteWeb