Trend Watch: Marketing in the era of the iPad

In April, we published a post about how the iPad will change marketing. Now that it’s June and the iPad had the time to sell through 2 million units worldwide (an amazing figure), we are now seeing signs of iPad ACTUALLY changing marketing.

Who’s doing it at the moment?

1. Wired Magazine iPad Edition

Wired recently launched their Wired Magazine June edition and literally set the bar for digital magazines. Designed specifically for the iPad and taking advantage of the benefits of it being digital as well as offering iPad exclusive content, the Wired app quickly became the best-selling app on the iTunes store.

As Chris Anderson, Editor of Wired said in its Editor’s Note, “The tablet is our opportunity to make the Wired we always dreamed of. It has all the visual impact of paper, enhanced by interactive elements like video and animated infographics. We can offer you a history of Mars landings that lets you explore the red planet yourself. We can take you inside Trent Reznor’s recording studio and let you listen to snippets of his work in progress. And we can show you exactly how Pixar crafted each frame of its new movie, Toy Story 3.”

2. Mercedes-Benz to use iPad as sales tool

The program, called Mercedes-Benz Advantage, puts the iPad into the hands of the automaker’s sales force. With the iPad and Mercedes’ new sales tool app, associates will have lightning-fast access to the latest deals, while also providing a quicker turnaround time for customer credit application processes. Benz also says the iPad will help speed up the time it takes to turn-in a leased vehicle. Andreas Hinrichs, Vice President of Marketing for Mercedes-Benz Financial, contends the Apple tablet will “provide a competitive advantage to our dealers by increasing their service levels through a more flexible financing process.”

3. Jetstar to use iPad as inflight entertainment

Jetstar has gone a step further and using the iPad as a point of differentiation to its computer. Australian media has reported that the Qantas-owned budget airline will begin trials of the product in June. Jetstar chief executive Bruce Buchanan said he expected the iPads to prove very popular onboard.

“Given the demand for the iPad so far, I anticipate it will have strong appeal amongst our passengers,” Mr Buchanan said in the statement. ”Based on demand for the iPads as part of the trial, we’ll be looking to roll out the devices across our entire domestic and international network later in the year.”

More to come – for sure

The examples given above are just a handful. As the iPad is launched internationally, businesses and brands around the world are scrambling to create iPad versions of its apps. In Australia, banks and even Domino’s Pizza has launched iPad apps to capitalise on its popularity.

As the platform matures, we’ll see more and more creative use of the iPad to push the boundaries of marketing further and to create new ways to engage with consumers.

If you come across any local or regional examples of brands using the iPad as a marketing/sales tool, do let us know!