The whole eBook thing...

For those who don't know, the world is changing and perhaps by chance or luck or even by design, T-Mobile and Orange have hit the nail on the head about how people want things with their newly merged company name "everything, everywhere".

Today, we want to have a look at the world of online publications - those things we once printed thousands off are becoming ePublications as we think we can save money, but what if we could also deliver something our consumers want - wouldn't that be good?

The rise of the mobile device we all use to think of as a phone and its bigger brother the tablet, mean that more of us are connected for longer and in many more places. This coupled with our seemingly insatiable desire to tell everyone what we are doing though social networks means that brands need to deliver communications in a way that reflects how, when and in a format we want them.

For our clients, we also see the complexity of the device platforms currently competing for consumer attention, with no clear winner currently in sight. So what do you do? Exclude an 'acceptable' percentage of your market or try to develop a solutions for them all? In many cases, this decision is reached by who you and your market are and how deep are your pockets!

Transforming a PDF into something useful

In a recent example, we received a copy of a report from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) on the Mobile Phone and thought how strange that an institution in the game of marketing and communications would release such a humbly formatted communication n the digital world?

So we took their PDF and re-formatted it using one of our online page turning formats to see if we could take the humble PDF and move it forward.

By taking this commonly distributed PDF we...

• Added a full online search function
• Created a publication that was Search Engine Optimised (SEO)
• Allowed the viewer to see it on a desktop or mobile device
• Built from both Flash and HTML5  for maximum compatibility
• Allows the user to share on social networks
• Allows the user to zoom in and out for accessibility
• Live links from within the publication to other online assets
• Nice page turning effect
• Oh, and allowed them to download a copy as a PDF!

Saving money and space

Reviewing a project for a recent client, The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, we find yet more compelling reasons to explore the extension of a publications design into the digital world. In this case, they have legal reasons to create certain documents that traditionally would be printed and distributed.

Online documentation does not mean not printing, but it does allow choice in relation to cost for quantity of print, storage, distribution and ultimately disposal of unused copies.

In this case, we designed the publication and have offered the digital version as a complimentary extension of our services for the RNOH to choose an additional distribution channel.

Perhaps one of ePublications biggest benefits is the need not to carry a copy in order to be able to access the information. We have all been in that situation where a report or publication we needed was left behind. The proliferation of cloud services that promise to 'sync' your documents with a service that can be accessed by this magical mobile device; added to the delivery of more information in ePublication formats means we truely could be heading towards accessing 'everything, everywhere' in the near future.

Please call us if we can help with any aspect of your mobile or ePublication engagement on +44 (0)1480 223458 or click here to email us