themediabriefing
by Jasper Jackson

SummaryEveryone’s talking about cross-platform media, but not many brands are doing it well - especially when it comes to advertising. That’s according to a report by Brand Perfect, which says most magazines in the UK, US and Germany are failing to deliver their content effectively for tablets and mobiles.

Everyone’s talking about cross-platform media, but not many brands are doing it very well.

That’s according to a report by Brand Perfect, which says most magazines in the UK, US and Germany are failing to deliver their content effectively for tablets and mobiles.

The report, which looked at 100 leading brands across the three countries, found:

-- Apps: In the US and UK, 83 percent of the brands had at least one Android or iPhone app, with 65 having published iPhone apps and 40 percent publishing for Android.

-- Tablets: But just over a quarter of all magazine brands in the UK and US had websites optimised for tablets.

-- Scaled-down: 43 percent of brands were delivering scaled down versions of their desktop sites to mobile - which the report says provides a poor user experience.

-- 10-inch yes, seven-inch no: Only 10 percent of the German brands had tablet-optimised sites, and while scaled-down versions of desktop sites worked reasonably well on the standard iPad, they performed poorly on smaller tablets such as the Nexus 7.

What’s the problem?
As the above stats show, many publishers have focused on apps over mobile websites, but the report is sceptical about that approach when it comes to advertising.

It says: "Publishers have invested heavily in apps, yet many publishing apps have limited audiences and often require bespoke creative work from an advertiser. Website readerships are much larger, more targetable and easier to analyse."

So what to do about it? According to the report, a first and (relatively) easy step is delivering standard MPUs in responsive HTML5 webpages.

"With some minor adjustments, many of these sites could be adapted for mobile using responsive design principles," says the report. "In addition to this, the advertising unit most favoured by marketers on magazine sites across all genres is the humble and well-established MPU (multiple purpose unit). at only 300 x 250 pixels."

"This will happily sit on a smartphone display, and give more impact than the mobile friendly mini-banner that is currently favoured by those titles that are already supporting mobile advertising."

Publishers have been slow to build responsive mobile websites - but perhaps demand from advertisers might help spur them to move more quickly.
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Thanks to editorandpublisher