Adobe Digital Publishing

Omnichannel shopping. This may be a new phrase for you, but the concept should be familiar. When shopping, consumers move in a fluid way through multiple customer touch points that retailers offer. For example, Benjamin Moore & Co, a producer of paints and finishes, has a website that allows customers to research paint and interior design ideas online by looking through color swatches and photos of decorating styles. Their 200,000 Facebook fans can see samples of the latest designs and discuss color ideas with other Benjamin Moore fans.  And, knowing that their customers are looking for design ideas while walking around their home, Benjamin Moore has also created several tablet apps that allow customers to read and visualize how paints can be used in their home through this highly portable experience. These  tablet applications offer  a great way to “get to know” the Benjamin Moore brand. You can download the app and read about architects and designers that use Benjamin Moore’s vibrant colors or see examples of the color advisor’s creative work in action.

Ultimately, the digital publications that Benjamin Moore has created play a very important role in the shopping experience as they bridge the gap between standard in-store shopping, social media and online shopping.   Benjamin Moore’s tablet applications strategically merchandise their products while influencing other shopping channels.  As an example, customers can research paint chips and initiate the purchase process in the app. After making a decision, they can reference embedded maps with retail locations to go into the store to pick up the paint and discuss any questions with a Benjamin Moore rep.  This in turn can lead to additional buying opportunities as the customer who started the shopping experience in the app may now make additional purchases of brushes and tape while in the store picking up their paint. Retailers know that consumers are seamlessly moving through different channels when researching, selecting and buying products and services, and they know they need to be active in each of those locations.  This is a huge challenge for retailers to provide a seamless shopping experience across multiple channels.

Tablet Shoppers

It is easy and natural to go shopping on a tablet. Tablets have the appropriate screen size for researching products and services and allow consumers to engage with entertaining content. Because of its portability, consumers can take their tablet with them, shopping on the couch, in a coffee shop, or during a commute.

Tablet shoppers have a higher propensity to make a purchase than online or smartphone shoppers. Check out these stats[i]:

• Tablet shoppers are 3x more likely to make purchase than smartphone visitors
• Tablet shoppers spend 50% more per purchase than smartphone shoppers
• Tablet shoppers spend 20% more per purchase than visitors on laptops and desktops

Blending Lifestyle Marketing with T-Commerce

We have shared several retail apps in our App of the Week series: Benjamin Moore, ASOS fashion catalog, Wetsuit Bible, and P&O Cruises. Knowing that tablet users are likely leaning back on their couches when shopping, these retailers marry entertainment with shopping.  In other words, some retailers are integrating lifestyle marketing into the t-commerce experience. For example, ASOS, the UK’s largest online-only fashion and beauty store, includes video interviews with famous people who wear their clothing, aligning their brand with popular, trendsetting individuals. Customers can click on the article of clothing, immediately add the item to their shopping cart and continue to shop through the tablet. This format carries the consumer through the process of browsing and product discovery.  Benjamin Moore walks its readers through beautifully designed homes, sparking creativity in homeowners and interior designers. When the content tells a rich story, the consumer is encouraged to stay awhile in the app and more closely connect the product with a meaningful experience. If they would prefer in-person consultation, they can open up a map in the app and find the closest store.

Deepening Product Engagement

Digital Publishing Suite allows consumers to dive into a more detailed understanding of both products and services. In the product category, Wetsuit Bible uses 360° views of wetsuits to show detailed product features and includes videos of people surfing the waves in the suits. This serves customers during the consideration phase, but also opens up a web overlay, allowing them to locate a local store – in order to try on the equipment – or make a purchase through an e-commerce site. In the service sector, P&O Cruises uses nav-to buttons and slideshows allowing shoppers to see photos of cruise ships and destinations. Similar to the Wetsuit Bible, shoppers can begin the purchase inside the app by opening up an e-commerce site and booking their cruise.

Opportunities to Connect with the Customer

• Apps such as Faber Castell use geolocation to connect the consumer with brick & mortar locations. Knowing a customer’s location also provides opportunities for tailored advertising and coupons for local stores.
• Through direct entitlement, businesses can segment the app audience and offer customized promotions that please the shopper and ultimately drive in-store traffic.
• ASOS embeds a Twitter feed in the app to show feedback from other customers, providing suggestions for those in the midst of shopping.

Optimizing Content with Metrics

The analytics service in Digital Publishing Suite helps retailers capture consumer metrics about products and services and use real time data to make informed and efficient marketing and merchandising decisions. This way, businesses can determine which pages are most popular and tailor the content to consumers’ needs.

• For examples of retail apps, watch our App of the Week  videos on Benjamin Moore, ASOS, the Wetsuit Bible and P&O Cruises
• Read the customer success story on ASOS.

App of the Week- Benjamin Moore:

App of the Week – Retail Apps

App of the Week- ASOS:

This week we are featuring The New Yorker as App of the Week. An iconic magazine with a loyal following, The New Yorker has implemented a Custom Store using HTML. Watch the video to see how the Custom Store can be used to upsell content to engaged readers.

Other fun features:

• Video overlay: Ashrita Furman practices for his entries into TheGuinness Book of World Records
• Audio overlay: Margaret Atwood reads aloud her story, “Stone Mattress”

Check out the video here! 

• Learn how to build a custom viewer for your app in the Adobe Digital Publishing Developer Center. It includes articles on building a custom storefront and building a horizontal swipe storefront with folio preview
• Read the Merchandising with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite white paper to learn more about the business advantages of a custom store and more implementation options

As publishers hone their tablet publishing sales strategy, they have new tools to upsell and cross-sell content to readers. Both publishers and corporations pay close attention to the visual presentation of products and services in order to entice customers toward purchase. Digital Publishing Suite, Enterprise Edition customers can build a custom store in the app to showcase fresh content and drive incremental sales to a captive audience. All Digital Publishing Suite multifolio apps include a Library view allowing readers to scan the publication’s titles and purchase new content. While this has been a fruitful business practice for publishers, Enterprise customers can build custom stores with HTML in order to more accurately reflect the publisher’s brand and promote top-selling titles, ultimately driving folio sales to a fully engaged audience.

What is a custom HTML store?
A custom store built in a Digital Publishing Suite app showcases products, services, and special features available for sale. It is accessed through a “Store” slot in the navigation bar. In contrast with the existing Library view in Digital Publishing Suite, it can be organized to feature and promote top-selling titles or products, influencing reader purchase. The publisher can use the store’s flexible design to incorporate images, typography and layout that provide a richer, branded experience.

Two Condé Nast titles use the same custom store structure, different branding

Several Condé Nast titles have created custom HTML stores in order to merchandise content and drive incremental sales to their readership. Download a copy of WIRED or The New Yorker to fully experience the features. The landing page showcases the most recent issue with a more prominent cover icon and a short description of featured articles. When the reader taps on the cover, he not only sees an enlarged view of the cover, but can also scroll through the table of contents, similar to the selection process at an actual newsstand. Swiping through back issues, the reader can scan the table of contents for each issue and carefully select and purchase relevant content.  The tabs on the top of the store navigate to featured items – such as the WIRED App Guide or The Year in Gear.

New Yorker has the same organization as WIRED, but uses colors, typography, images and content that reflect The New Yorker brand. Whereas WIRED’s customers are drawn in by the latest technology (such as apps or gear), The New Yorker customers are enticed by collections of stories from renowned authors.
Build your own custom store

The article “Build a horizontal swipe storefront with folio preview” provides developers with a template for creating and customizing your own store within a viewer app. This template enables users to swipe horizontally through store pages, view folio previews, and navigate to different sections of the store which can feature different categories of product offerings.

Two views of the custom store template included in the “horizontal swipe storefront” article

Custom Stores in Business Publications
The custom store is not limited to merchandising digital publications. Rather, its capabilities extend beyond content to products and services that readers may be interested in. For example, a fashion retailer may use Digital Publishing Suite to publish a catalogue that contains physical products for sale within the custom store of the app. A membership organization could sell t-shirts and mugs to its members. This streamlines the purchasing process without asking the reader to change gears and leave the app.

Why HTML?

• HTML provides the flexibility required for a custom store. Web pages in the custom slots of the navigation bar can be hosted by the publisher if desired, rather then embedded them in the viewer app. If a publisher needs to revise the price of an issue or feature a timely promotion, hosted HTML allows the designer to modify the content and immediately update the store without requiring the end user to update the viewer app.
• HTML allows for transactional capabilities, allowing customer to purchase content or physical goods within the app.
• HTML allows for highly customized visual design and user experience, and also allows existing web assets to be re-purposed.

• To learn how to build a custom viewer for your app, visit the Adobe Digital Publishing Developer Center. It includes articles on building a custom storefront and building a horizontal swipe storefront with folio preview
• Read the Merchandising with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite white paper to learn more about the business advantages of a custom store and more implementation options

We’re seeing more publications built with Digital Publishing Suite for the new “resolutionary” iPad. Last week, Martha Stewart Living was updated to be retina-capable, meaning it is optimized for the new iPad. In addition, MSLO released its inaugural digital issue of Whole Living for all versions of the iPad. Stewart previews Whole Living on her iPad3 in the following video, pointing out fun animations and delectable recipes.

Watch the video here

Whole Living features gorgeous photography of lush gardens and beautiful foods, enhanced by the rich colors on iPad3. I particularly love the step-by-step recipe instructions featuring fennel, fiddlehead ferns, and fava beans. Last week Apple featured it in the Newsstand rotator and named it the iPad App of the Week, surely capturing readers’ attention and driving sales.

Download Martha Stewart Living and Whole Living from the iTunes store.

Apple announced with iOS5 that due to privacy concerns, they would be moving away from unique device identification number (UDID) tracking.  In response, Adobe plans to deprecate or stop usage of UDID in applications published by Digital Publishing Suite.  Adobe has now updated Viewer Builder to publish applications that now leverage GUID (app-specific viewer generated number) in place of UDID. Using GUID will ensure that  each DPS application will have its own unique identification number and should align with Apple’s privacy policy.

This change may impact publishers in areas such as analytics, authentication, push notifications and custom storefront.  Please review UDID Deprecation on iOS white paper for more details and recommendations from Adobe on how to address this change.

In his latest set of videos, Colin Fleming articulately summarizes recent developments in Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. Take a tour through the exciting new features in Digital Publishing Suite, including Scrollable Frames overlay, enhanced restricted distribution, iPad3 authoring methods, auto-archiving, and linking to custom stores.

Scrollable Frames and Pan & Zoom – V19
The most recent update to Digital Publishing Suite adds a new type of overlay called “Scrollable Frame” and refines how Pan & Zoom is handled. Colin provides step-by-step instructions on building trays with the Scrollable Frame overlay – and shows a creative use now that scrollable frames can be positioned anywhere on the page.

In addition, Colin does a cursory discussion of iPad3 authoring for Digital Publishing Suite. For more thorough guidance, watch the Ask a Pro session that Colin hosted last week, or read the white paper on authoring for the new iPad.

Viewer Features: New iPad, Auto Archive, and Bookmarks
The mid-March update to Digital Publishing Suite includes new features for custom viewers for Digital Publishing Suite applications. Colin discusses iPad3 support in Viewer Builder, bookmarks, auto-archiving and sharing to Facebook.

Enterprise Features: Restricted Distribution and Custom Store Navigation
The latest enterprise features include:

• A new and improved method for restricted distribution (publisher’s ability to control reader access to folios)
• Linking to the custom store

To walk through the steps of navigating to the custom store, watch the Enterprise Features video below.

Scrollable Frames and Pan & Zoom – V19

Viewer Features: New iPad, Auto Archive, and Bookmarks

Enterprise Features: Restricted Distribution and Custom Store Navigation

The release of the new iPad has created quite a stir in the publishing community, and designers are eager to learn best practices for delivering high quality content for all versions of the iPad. Colin Fleming and the designers at Adobe have provided several resources for publishing to the new iPad. Fleming wrote a white paper, Best practices for using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite to publish to the new iPad, which was updated this week. In addition, he hosted an Ask a Pro session on Friday, April 6th. These recommendations are written with the intent of helping designers work most efficiently:  to build the highest quality display with minimal effort.

The Basics
Before you dive into our recording of Fleming’s Ask a Pro session or open up the white paper, it’s helpful to understand the three basic rules of publishing to the new iPad.

1. Create your articles in PDF format
Compared to raster formats like PNG, the PDF file type results in smaller folio file sizes.

2. Use renditions
Build folios with the same folio name at both 1024 and 2048 resolutions; these different sizes of the same folio are known as renditions. When renditions are used in multi-folio apps, Content Viewer will detect the correct folio size according to the device size, and only the correct folio size will be downloaded to the device.

3. Rebuild the branded app using Viewer Builder and publish
Rebuild your branded app in Viewer Builder using high-resolution app icons and UI assets so that your brand assets look crisp on the retina display. Also make sure you publish both renditions (1024 and 2048) before sending push notifications.

The white paper contains information on:

• Working with overlays to minimize file size
• Building renditions
• Managing metadata
• Creating assets for both resolutions in Viewer Builder

 Watch the Ask a Pro session here

For more information, read Bob Bringhurst’s Guidelines for Creating Folios for iPad3 and visit the Digital Publishing Suite Developer Center.

Today, SoDA (Society of Digital Agencies) released the SoDA Report on the iPad using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. Formerly known as the Digital Marketing Outlook, The SoDA Report is released quarterly to an eager audience of tech-savvy digital strategists and marketers. SoDA is embracing the technology that its member agencies use in order to build the app. Creative and digital agencies are using Digital Publishing Suite to drive new client revenue at a higher margin, expand their skills, and provide innovative services to current clients.

Tony Quin, SoDA Board Chair and CEO of IQ, introduces the app in an embedded video, sharing the story of this thoughtfully crafted publication replete with insights for digital marketers. SoDA has a highly exclusive membership, and the content is written by some of the most influential thinkers in the industry.

SoDA’s mission is to provide education, advocacy, and best practices for digital agencies. Open up the app, and you’ll find a mix of consumer data, agency strategy, modern marketing trends, and tech talk.  Perusing the articles, I was intrigued by a case study on Occupy Wall Street’s viral communication strategy. I also loved the article on marketing technologies that, contrary to popular belief, aren’t dead. Learn more by reading SoDA’s press release, and then download The SoDA Report from the iTunes Store today!

ASOS, an online fashion and beauty retailer based in the UK, recently launched a digital edition of its popular ASOS Magazine to help expand its reach internationally. Using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Professional Edition, ASOS was able to leverage its existing print workflow based on Adobe InDesign to create a feature-rich, interactive digital edition.

Editorial and Design Director Duncan Edwards commented on how easy using Adobe software to bring its iconic ASOS Magazine to tablets saying, “We selected Adobe Digital Publishing Suite because it let us get into digital publishing quickly, without having to create our own app from the ground up.”

The free app features celebrities modeling the latest fashions, editorial content with a modern flair, and the ability to browse and add products to online shopping carts. ASOS is seeing positive results from its digital edition, with the average basket size for online orders placed through the app ringing in at approximately 30% higher than orders placed directly through the website.

ASOS also appreciates the ability to localize text for various audiences. But most important is the ability to build brand awareness and gain exposure among affluent consumers. In the coming year, ASOS hopes to double—or even triple—the number of app downloads. To learn more about ASOS and its use of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Professional Edition, click here: http://adobe.ly/HerBaT

To show off the value of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Adobe recently worked with Hybrid Design to create the internal DPS Sales Tool iPad app. The experience benefitted both Adobe and the agency. According to Dora Drimalas, principal at Hybrid Design, “Digital Publishing Suite opens the door to create all kinds of apps and services for our clients that drive merchandising, brand loyalty, customer acquisition, and more.”

Hybrid Design easily created the feature-rich app for Adobe in just four weeks using Adobe InDesign software. Apps developed with Digital Publishing Suite can increase merchandising, brand affinity, and boost conversions. Instead of passing around tablets to showcase apps that customers have created, Adobe can simply use its own app to demonstrate the interactive feature set.

The DPS Sales Tool app gives Adobe global sales teams immediate access to content that can be updated with ease. The app lets account managers engage with customers using Adobe’s own app as an example of a direct sales use case. It also enables sales professionals to showcase customer implementations, white papers, slideshows, and videos—which makes the presentations even more visually compelling. Using the app, Adobe can illustrate to customers how app content can be distributed behind a firewall for internal groups.

Integrated analytics within the DPS Sales Tool app also provide Adobe with a way to track usage and decided on future enhancements to the app. The company can see what salespeople are showing most, and determine which interactive features and sections are gaining the most traction. For example, analytics show that up to 80% of the account managers or solution consultants who downloaded the application spent up to 30 minutes per application visit and, 55% of monthly visitors leveraged the Digital Publishing Suite Pitch folio included in the application.

Lynly-Schambers-Lenox, group product marketing manager of Digital Publishing Suite at Adobe says, “We’ve experienced it ourselves: Adobe Digital Publishing Suite can empower enterprises and publishers in a vast number of useful and productive ways.”

• Learn more about the Adobe DPS Sales Tool app.