Tag: apple

Apple To Open Universal Search Wide On Apple TV

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
One highlight feature of the new Apple TV that was unveiled last month is Universal Search, which allows users to search for content via Siri in a granular manner – down to a specific episode or even a specific guest star – across multiple OTT content platforms. At launch, this feature only supports select launch partners such as Netflix, Hulu, Showtime, and HBO, which vastly limits the reach of this killer feature. So it came as no surprise that Tim Cook confirmed, in a recent interview with Buzzfeed, that Apple would soon release an API for Universal Search, which allows developers to easily integrate this feature with their content, so it will show up in the search results as well.

What Brands Need To Do
As we previously wrote in our Fast Forward analysis on the new Apple TV, Universal Search provides an unprecedented opportunity for new content discovery across integrated apps, especially from lesser-known services. Now that Apple has confirmed that it will soon open this feature up to all providers, brands need to be prepared to add Universal Search support to their Apple TV app as soon as the API arrives, and to start by indexing their content for it to appear in favorable spots when users search for certain keywords.

 

Source: Buzzfeed

 

Apple’s watchOS 2 and iOS 9 Are Here

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Apple has released the much-anticipated watchOS 2 after about a week’s delay due to “unexpected bugs.” The new operating system brings native apps, new personalization features, and HomeKit support to Apple Watch. In related news, iOS 9 was also released to the public last Wednesday after months of beta testing, bringing proactive search, along with several security and performance updates to millions of Apple users.

What Brands Should Do
As we wrote on Apple’s WWDC event earlier this year, watchOS 2 offers more opportunities for brand integrations through its enhanced personalization features like “complications,” which allow branded apps to add functionality to the watch face. The added support for native apps also promises a faster and more reliable user experience for third-party apps developed by brands. Similarly, iOS 9 brings proactive search extensibility to Apple’s mobile devices, which means brands need to get their apps properly indexed to ensure content discovery, both through search and through “peek and pop.”

 

Source: The Verge

Apple Music Debuts Branded Channels With Burberry

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Earlier today, Apple announced a new partnership with Burberry, allowing the fashion brand to develop the first-ever branded Apple Music channel featuring exclusively British artists. Burberry has already developed an online music platform on its website named Burberry Acoustic, and the upcoming Apple Music channel will reportedly mirror much of that content, in addition to a new series of exclusive videos.

What Brands Should Do
This new partnership might look a bit strange at the first glance, but it makes sense considering Apple has been making some strong efforts to work with the fashion industry as part of its strategy around the Apple Watch. Plus, Apple’s current retail chief, Angela Ardhents, was the former CEO of Burberry. With this precedence, brands with their own music content or trusted cultural tastemaking should consider opening their own branded channels on streaming services to increase the reach of their brand and content.

 

Source: 9to5Mac

Fast Forward: How Brands Can Take Advantage of the New Apple TV

Posted on by Lab Team

Your guide to tech-driven changes in the media landscape by IPG Media Lab. A fast read for you and a forward for your clients and team.

•  Apple unveils new Apple TV, complete with a new tvOS platform and App Store
•  Brands can now develop TV apps to connect with consumers in their living rooms
•  A new path to native sponsorship and call-to-action opportunities

What Apple Announced
During Wednesday’s press event, Apple finally debuted the long-anticipated update to the Apple TV that aims to revolutionize the way people interact with their TVs. Equipped with a brand-new iOS 9-based operating system called “tvOS,” the new Apple TV comes with an App Store, Siri-enabled universal search across content platforms, and a touchpad remote that doubles as a game controller. The new Apple TV will ship in late October, and the tvOS developer beta is available now.

What Brands Need to Do
While we’re likely to see an explosion of new modes of interaction as developers explore the platform, we already know that good content works well in the living room. For brands who have existing content plays, such as Red Bull’s video and event content, it’s time to secure the OTT streaming rights. If your brand doesn’t currently produce content, an event sponsorship is a great way to get started. In an on-demand, App Store world, you don’t need to worry about producing a full slate of content to justify an app install — Apple themselves have an Apple TV app dedicated to the iTunes Music Festival, which this year will only feature a week’s worth of content. Focus on quality over quantity.

A couple of features which weren’t discussed on stage could provide interesting go-to-market strategy for brands: support for interactive video, and deep-linking between Apple TV apps. We expect these will be combined to form a paid app install ecosystem much like we have on mobile, with early leaders likely to be ad-supported platforms with premium content, such as Hulu and YouTube. Ahead of any such announcements, however, there are still opportunities for brands to partner with existing content creators and game developers to drive app installs or to push value offers and reminders from the TV to a phone with a single click.

What Retail & Ecommerce Brands Need to Do

•  Apple TV brings ecommerce into the living room and creates a shared online shopping experience
•  Experiment with shoppable videos built upon Apple TV’s support for interactive videos with links to additional info

During Wednesday’s press event, Apple invited online clothing retail platform Gilt on stage showed off their new app designed specifically for Apple TV. Users can use the new touchpad remote to scroll and swipe through the categories of clothing, view product details, and even purchase items direct from their couch. Support for ecommerce apps brings online shopping into the living room and make it a social affair to be shared with family and friends. Apple’s tight integration between TV and mobile will also allow activities to be handed off to a user’s phone, allowing a brand to activate mobile coupons which could easily be triggered automatically when the customer enters a retail location.

Moreover, brands should take advantage of Apple TV’s support for interactive videos and start experimenting with shoppable videos, which embed clickable info providing viewers with product information and an easy way to purchase, turning video content into direct sales channels. Brands such as Sears, Kohl’s, and Gap have been experimenting with shoppable videos with some early successes, and with Apple TV, shoppable videos seem to be on the cusp of mainstream adoption, demanding attention from retail brands.

What Entertainment Brands and Content Owners Need to Do

•  Apple TV can deliver a rich media experience
•  Index your content to make sure it is discoverable via universal search
•  Explore the interactive storytelling opportunities and new types of engagement

As MLB demonstrated during the event, apps provide a great way for content owners to deliver a rich media experience with additional information and interactivity. Apple TV supports universal search across integrated apps, providing an unprecedented opportunity for new content discovery, especially those on lesser-known services. Although only available for select partners at this time, it seems reasonable to presume Apple to open this feature up to all eligible platforms down the road, similar to the universal search in iOS 9. Brands need to index their content for it to appear in favorable spots when users search for certain keywords. The added interactivity also brings new storytelling opportunities for content and ad creators to explore and connect with viewers.

Market Impact
As expected, the new Apple TV introduces a new app platform, while not (yet) providing a truly new way for consumers to subscribe to television content. Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue called it the “foundation for the future of television,” which it may yet be, timed to take advantage of a holiday season which is primed for cord-cutters. It notably provides a way for Apple to extend their entire ecosystem – which may one day include platforms like iAd and Apple Pay – into the living room, along with their massive iOS install base and developer network, something that competitors such as Roku and Amazon cannot offer.

While it remains to be seen exactly how wide adoption of the new Apple TV will be, Apple’s new products quickly reach tens of millions of units sold and they are putting significant effort behind this one. Since a large share of marketing budgets are focused on the living room, a significant change in the way content is consumed there, away from linear and even streaming and towards the interactivity of apps, is worth adapting to. For both content creators and advertisers who support them, the new Apple TV offers expanded ways to reach users who earn more and spend more, whether that’s with traditional video content, expansions of existing iOS apps, or hybrids which blend video with interactive content of different types.

Apple’s entry into the living room gaming market is a bit more of a wildcard. While it opens up an obvious new market for existing iOS games, and we’ve seen some initial support of the device from big cross-platform games like Skylander and Guitar Hero, without a first-party game controller it remains to be seen whether the platform will be used for gaming or what price points it will support. Most at risk will be Nintendo, whose Wii U hardware and mainstream audience overlap with the new Apple TV’s capabilities and appeal. But if Apple follows its usual path of year-over-year hardware upgrades, Sony and Microsoft’s consoles may also be at risk, especially if Apple can woo top-tier game developers. As far fetched as it may seem, Apple was already EA’s biggest revenue generator all the way back in 2013. For the time being, our standard recommendations for brand integrations with gaming hold true for the Apple TV as well: integrate as natively as possible with branded content, sponsorship of in-app purchases, or participating in the wider gaming community.

For More Information
Please contact Engagement Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) at the IPG Media Lab if you would like more detail or to schedule a visit to the Lab to discuss strategies and tactics around tapping into the marketing potential of the new Apple TV.

For previous editions of Fast Forward, please visit ipglab.com. Please reply with any constructive criticism or feedback. We want these to be as useful as possible for you and your clients, and your feedback will help us immensely.

 

Header image courtesy of www.apple.com/tv/

Everything Marketers Should Know From Apple’s iPhone 6s Event

Posted on by Lab Team

Regular as clockwork, Apple’s annual iPhone launch event took place this afternoon in San Francisco, where the company unveiled some major upgrades to almost its entire product line. Here are the highlights from today’s event that all marketers and brands should be aware of.

• Apple Watch Gets More Apps and Fashionable Watch Bands
Apple demoed various new Watch apps such as Facebook Messenger, GoPro, and AirStrip, and collaborated with Hermes on new models with exclusive bands.

• iPad Pro Gives Brands More Screen Space To Impress
The brand new iPad Pro that boasts a stunning 12.9-inch screen, giving brands more space and processing power to impress their audience on mobile devices.

• iPhone 6s Presents New Features For Brands To Engage
With 4K video recording, animated Live Photo, 3D Touch, and more, Apple debuts the next-gen smartphone that brands need to adept to.

• The Future Of TV Is Apps
With “tvOS”, Apple brings App Store, gaming capability, and Siri to Apple TV, providing brands with a gateway to infiltrate the living room space.

The new iOS 9 will be made available to all users on September 16, with updated iPhones available starting September 26. The Apple TV and iPad Pro will hit stores later this fall, in October and November, respectively. As always, the Lab will offer our hands-on take on these next-generation devices, so remember to check back for more.

iPhone 6s Presents New Features For Brands To Engage Mobile Users

Posted on by Lab Team

Announced at Apple’s annual press event on Wednesday, the new iPhones, predictably named iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, may look similar to their precursors at the first glance. Upon a closer look, however, the newest additions to Apple’s smartphone lineup reveal some neat new features that brands can make good use of. In addition, the new phones also come with the “always-on Siri,” which allows users to activate Siri with just their voice by saying “Hey Siri,” as well as improvements to the processors, cameras, wireless, and Touch ID.

Besides a new 12 megapixel camera that supports 4K video recording, the new iPhones will also add “Live Photos” to its imaging arsenal, a new photo format that essentially functions as HD animated gifs with audio. Apple has released the developer API for Live Photo and alluded to Facebook’s integration of this new format, which could brings a richer layer to brands’ visual content across platforms.

The new iPhones also boasts a crucial new feature named 3D Touch. Developed upon the Force Touch technology, this new system-wide feature enables new touch gestures such as Peek and Pop that allows users to dip in and out of apps without opening them full-screen. While this offers brands a new way to provide handy shortcuts to their app users, it also presents a challenge for brands to truly engage with the mobile consumers as they jump in between apps seamlessly. This expands on the recent trend of app content appearing outside of the app itself, a double-edged sword which rewards the most useful apps with higher visibility, while punishing apps which can’t provide content that is useful in multiple contexts.

Apple also announced their own iPhone Upgrade Program, a financing product which allows users who purchase a phone at the Apple Store to get a new, unlocked iPhone every year starting at $32/month. Along with carriers unbundling their own financial offerings, this has the potential to increase the rate of upgrades, and further shift control of the customer relationship from the wireless carriers to Apple.

The Future Of TV Is Apps, According to Apple

Posted on by Lab Team

During Wednesday’s press event, Apple finally debuted a new Apple TV set-top box that aims to transform the way people watches TV. Equipped with a brand-new iOS 9-based operating system dubbed “tvOS,” the new Apple TV comes with App Store and Siri-enabled universal search across content platforms. Apple also debuted a new touchpad remote that doubles as a video game controller, further pushing Apple TV into the gaming market. The addition of App Store offers brands a gateway to infiltrate the living room space via branded TV app. Apple demoed several brands already developing their TV apps, including fashion e-retailer Gilt, Twitter’s livestreaming app Periscope, accommodation-booking app Airbnb, as well as media content providers like MLB.

Stay tuned for the Lab’s in-depth Fast Forward feature on the brand implications of the new Apple TV platform.

iPad Pro Gives Brands More Screen Space To Impress

Posted on by Lab Team

The much-anticipated new iPad confirmed the pre-announcement speculations, as Apple unveiled the brand new iPad Pro that boasts a stunning 12.9-inch multi-touch screen, capable of running two full-size apps in profile mode side by side. This will no doubt give brands more space to impress their audience on tablets with stunning graphics and more information.

iPad Pro boasts a new A9X processor, making it faster than 80% of the portable PCs sold in the past year, according to Apple. It also supports a new detachable smart keyboard a la Microsoft’s Surface and Apple’s first stylus named Apple Pencil for more nuanced interactions. Nearly as powerful as a regular laptop, iPad Pro signals the next stage of mobile devices’ takeover of consumer screen time. If your brand hasn’t adapted to mobile yet, you need to start developing a mobile strategy right now.

What To Expect From Apple’s Press Event Today

Posted on by Richard Yao

Apple’s annual press event is set for 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, September 9 in San Francisco, where the Cupertino-based company is expected to unveiled the next-gen iPhones, iPads, and even a new Apple TV. Here is a quick summary of what to expect from tomorrow’s big event and why brands should care:

New Apple TV To Become The Smart Home Hub
Based on numerous credible reports, Apple will almost certainly unveil a major upgrade to its set-top box Apple TV, which will be equipped with a modified version of iOS that includes Siri integration, universal search, and a full-blown App Store. Moreover, it is also expected to add a motion-sensitive remote control to support gaming consoles, further signaling Apple’s intention to push Apple TV into the gaming market. The long speculated OTT TV subscription service reportedly won’t be ready until next spring due to stagnant negotiation with content owners, so this update will mostly focus on unveiling a new, more capable Apple TV, well poised to become the central hub for Apple’s smart home ecosystem.

iOS 9 To Arrive With Ad-Blockers
It was announced back in June at Apple’s WWDC event that the new iOS 9 will allow developers to build content blocking extensions for Safari browser, which has led to a round of panic and debates over the impending popularization of ad-blockers among the ad industry and digital publishers. You can read our take on this issue and brand implications in our recent Fast Forward here.

New iPhones And iPad To Push Consumers Deeper Into Mobile
As usual with Apple’s September events, the main star of the show would most likely be the new iPhones, which reportedly would be a minor upgrade with new features such as 3D Force Touch added in. More intriguingly, Apple is also reported to be launching a new line of tablets named iPad Pro, which will likely feature an impressive 12.9-inch display that can run 2 full-sized apps side by side. Together, we expect these new devices to usher today’s consumers deeper into the mobile-first age and away from desktops and TVs, and brands would be wise to follow where the audience is going.

As usual, Apple will be live-streaming the event tomorrow and the Lab will be live-tweeting @ipglab during the event, followed by our original posts highlighting the brand implications of the new announcements. So remember to check back tomorrow afternoon to learn more.

Amazon And Apple Collide In The OTT Space

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Two new developments from the OTT space today reminded us again of the ongoing convergence of content providers and digital distribution channels. Amazon Prime Video expanded its “download for offline viewing” feature from its Kindle tablets to its iOS and Android apps, while Apple has reportedly started talks with Hollywood executives about developing original contents for its long-rumored Apple TV subscription service.

Market Impact
By allowing users to download content for online viewing with monthly reauthorization required, Amazon would undoubtedly eat into the movie rentals and sales – most of them motivated by lack of Internet access caused by travel nowadays – that Apple’s iTunes Store currently occupies. Meanwhile, Apple’s ambitious entry into the OTT content market, complete with a subscription service and possibly its own original content, would put it in direct competition with Amazon along with a handful of other OTT services.

As the digital transition of the TV industry continues, we expect to see more twists and turns in the changing TV landscape that all brands and media owners need to be aware of, even if they are not immediately actionable.

 

Source: The Verge & Variety