Southern Africa’s Tourism Update n June 2012, South African
B2B title Tourism Update became the first South African animated digi-mag. In one fell swoop, owner Now Media closed the paper-based edition of the B2B title Tourism Update, and replaced it with a digital version. In a rare show of support, every
single advertiser switched their contract to the new digi- mag. It was an instant success.
The inaugural June edition was downloaded by more unique viewers than the ABC circulation of the original print product. The flash-based publication is an originally produced and developed platform that is also set for launch via iPad in 2013.
It is visually stunning, loaded
with animation and interactive elements (it’s not just a PDF version of its print ancestor), and is easy to navigate. Instead of the concept of two facing pages that require online readers to zoom in to be able to read the text, pages are in a landscape form designed specifically for tablet screens.
It’s also easy to navigate. Subjects are
broken into smaller segments so that readers can easily find what interests them without skimming through large blocks of text.
Advertisers get animated graphics, slide-shows, clickable stories,
gorgeous photos, and in-depth details completely unachievable in print. One advertisement lets readers look out of a train window as the South African countryside rolls by. Try that in print.
Despite the features of a digi-mag ad,
the cost and effort to convert a traditional ad to an interactive one makes it a hard sell to advertisers. Aware of this problem, Now Media offered a service to convert existing PDF designs to the digi-mag format and “flash it up” at no additional cost to advertisers. It even offered a full-screen ad at the same rate as a full-page print ad.