What Happened
Quartz, a subsidiary of Atlantic Media, is taking an innovative approach to deliver content to a mobile audience with the launch of its new iOS app. The new app sends users snippet of news curated by editors via a messaging interface, along with occasional sparkles of emojis and Gifs. Upon receiving the news, users can choose from a few canned responses to indicate whether they are interested in learning more about the news item or move on to the next one. Breaking news will be delivered via notifications to keep readers in the loop, and banner ads will also be displayed in the messaging interface.
What Brands Need To Do
By employing a messaging interfaces, Quartz is able to transform news consumption into a texting-like experience that most mobile users are already familiarized with, therefore better engaging with its audience. Conversational interfaces, whether voice-based like Amazon Echo or text-based as this new Quartz app is, is an emerging trend in UI design, presenting new challenges in building brand-consumer touch points that brands need to adapt to.
For more information on how brands can develop authentic brand voice on those interfaces and navigate the new discovery systems it brings outside of standard SEO, check out the Conversational Interfaces section in our Outlook 2016.
Update 2/16: It appears that Quartz has added some more “native-looking” ads into the app, as the following screen grab shows.
Source: The Verge