Tablets and the flip side of advertising

Life was simple just a few years ago for the average ad guy. One had to create a print ad (adapt into a billboard design),  produce a TV commercial and maybe a radio spot (if the TVspot has a jingle, even the radio spot is taken care of) and you were done – all 360 degrees of it. Now the creators of advertising have to worry about a new medium a day. The latest ‘new’ medium: the tablet, read the iPad.

I downloaded the May 2011 issue of WIRED for iPad (free for 30 days courtesy Adobe) and found some of the ads tailor made for that medium – using the features of the iPad to the hilt. While ads on the tablet version have included videos from the time of launch, the latest issue has a couple of cute improvements.

An ad for Kohler’s flip action shower, the visual changes as you change the orientation of the iPad. Hold it vertically and you see this:

Turn the iPad into a landscape mode and you see the same ad flip to this:

Lovely integration of the product features – etching the flip action in the consumer’s mind. There’s an ad for Banana Republic too which has a different visual of models for the portrait & landscape modes. And then there’s an interactive ad for Lexus asking you to spot the 4 Lexus Hybrids in a visual of a city scape.

So for those thinking mere adaptations of a print ad in various ratios it’s time to have a rethink. Its time to add a new screen to the to-do list.