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Adobe announced that its digital media push is paying off with serious momentum in its digital publishing products, additional HTML5 support, enhanced video and developer tools support.
At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012 in Barcelona, Spain, Adobe Systems announced that more than 16 million digital publications were powered by its Adobe Digital Publishing Suite across tablets over the last year. The company also released key information about digital magazine and newspaper application usage, based on anonymous data aggregated from nearly 600 publishers worldwide that have created around 1,500 tablet publications using the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.
In addition, Adobe announced new innovations that add more enterprise-class functionality and extensibility to the Digital Publishing Suite, helping organizations drive digital revenue and brand engagement through digital publications. Key enhancements include new in-app merchandising, provisioning of targeted content based on user role and accelerated app creation.
The anonymous, aggregate data is derived from publications delivered using the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite and shows shifts in reading patterns, willingness to pay for tablet applications, accelerated purchase funnel and advertising engagement.
In a call with reporters, Danny Winokur, vice president and general manager of Interactive Development at Adobe, said tablets are driving new revenue for publishers as consumers pay for digital media content. Business publishers are also using tablet applications to drive awareness of their brands as well as the purchase of goods and services. Winokur said 68 percent of readers worldwide currently pay for digital magazines and newspapers built with the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. This is made up of single-issue purchases (15 percent), subscriptions (26 percent), and bundles of print and digital issues (27 percent).
In addition, readers are highly engaged with both editorial and advertising content, Winokur said. Every fifth page view in a Digital Publishing Suite magazine app is an advertisement. Interactivitywhich includes Web views, videos, slide shows, audio clips, image sequences, hyperlinks and other overlayscan also have a profound impact on a reader’s digital content consumption and engagement, with readers interacting with nearly half (48 percent) of all interactive features in Digital Publishing Suite apps, he said. Out of the variety of interactive overlays included in applications, Web views and videos are the two types most frequently accessed by readers.
Moreover, more than half (56 percent) of readers spend between 25 minutes to 2.5 hours a month reading their digital titles. Time spent consuming content has increased 70 percent over the last six months, which can be attributed to more sophisticated and engaging content as well as the continued adoption of tablets. Consumers tend to open a Digital Publishing Suite application up to five times per month on average, and 9 percent of readers spend more than 5 hours per month reading digital titles, which suggests that they are frequently engaging on a tablet with the brands they enjoy.
“We saw 16 million digital publications downloaded over the last 12 months, with no signs of fatigue,” said Zeke Koch, senior director of product management for Digital Publishing at Adobe, in a statement. “As digital issues grow significantly, Adobe will continue to fuel this evolution by providing innovative features that allow publishers and corporations worldwide to drive digital revenue, accelerated readership and purchase of content.
Publishers such as Rodale and Active Interest Media and companies like Sotheby’s have recently published magazine, merchandising and customer loyalty applications. Similarly, enterprises now have the opportunity to add digital content into their mobile marketing mix by creating a broad range of digital publications using Digital Publishing Suite, including sales and marketing collateral, corporate communications, as well as brand loyalty, customer acquisition and customer retention materials.
“Adobe Digital Publishing Suite has allowed us to amaze and satisfy our readers with technological innovation that they crave and expect,” said Anthony Cerretani, deputy editor and digital director at Backpacker Magazine, in a statement. “We’ve been able to integrate interactive maps, adventure videos from all over the world, and touch-point-powered content that inspires and enables our readers to experience outdoor adventure in incredibly dynamic ways. They’re even contributing multimedia to our editions on a regular basis. With the flexibility of Adobe’s tools, we’re finding new ways to optimize the experience every month.”
“As we focus on reaching our increasingly global client base, Adobe Digital Publishing Suite provides an elegant platform and enjoyable user experience,” said Amy Todd Middleton, worldwide director of marketing for Sotheby’s, in a statement. “Our Sotheby’s catalogue app combines the visual aesthetic of our print catalogues in a new convenient digital format. Analytics show that people are spending more time browsing our content offline in a more interactive environment. With zoom, original videos and 360-degree photography, it is a great alternative to being in the room with a work of art.”
Key features in the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite include:
- Restricted DistributionPublishers can provision specific content to a variety of customer, reader or member groups within one branded application.
- Custom NotificationsCustomers can leverage in-app notifications to cross-promote and market availability of publications and other content. Already embraced by select Condé Nast publications, publishers and brand organizations can use custom notifications as in-app marketing to drive demand for magazine issues.
- HTML5 SupportPublishers such as The New Yorker and National Geographic are using HTML5 within their digital publications for in-app custom storefronts, inline content and complete articles. Similarly, advertisers are including HTML5 within interactive advertisements to drive consumer engagement.
- Other enterprise-class features include Direct Entitlement (publishers can provide digital content to existing subscribers in one click), Analytics (Digital Publishing provides both Base Analytics as well as the ability to integrate with an existing SiteCatalyst account) and Custom Content Viewer (publishers can create a Content Viewer for multiple devices that supports full-screen viewing of content).