Project Overview
To re-make a paper magazine into a tablet app that literally sings and dances.
Organisation
Team
RACV Publications team
Oomph HQ
Project Brief
Let's twist an analogy: if looks could thrill …
Well, we needed to make something that would thrill our readers just by looking at it, because as any publisher will tell you, a good thriller is something you can't put down.
We've got a paper magazine with huge circulation and high production values that we post out every month to 1.5 million of our members. A great majority of our members like it that way, but what about those e-centric technology addicts who want something different. They're the ones who don't want more mail (who does?) or don't want the good and worthy news we give them each month in a paper product.
Give us something that excites our attention, they say.
OK, we say, let's find the best app developer in the land and hit 'em between the eyes.
Project Need
We've got heaps of worthy and, yep, necessary stuff in RA. Let's not be modest; people really should read it if they want the best from their travel/touring, their mobility and rewards available to them as members.
But we're basically a leisure read, and nobody wants their leisure to be hard work. What could be more simple than our tablet app?
With no restrictions on space like in the paper mag, the type is a size everyone can read – no to squeeze/swipe to find a legible resolution.
All links are live and immediate – no more: "I'll have toturn on the computer and type in that website.” And get it wrong, ring us up and we talk them through the links. With the app, one tap and you're there!
You can add Events to your calendar.
We embed video – no worry of YouTube links breaking. It's in the app so it works every time.
It's social media-enhanced with a live Twitter feed which encourages to go back and back with news updated daily.
And being on Newsstand, readers get a library they don't have to build themselves. Too easy.
And it means we don't deal with as many readers queries. There's only 10 of us and 2.1 million of them, so it's less work for us. As I said, too easy.
User Experience
Our ethos in producing the title is to give the reader something they can use; we look forward rather than report on what's gone on in the past, so any content in RoyalAuto should be the trigger for a certain number of readers to act on it: visit, book, buy, whatever.
Readers love the interactivity of it, connecting to what we put in front of them straight from the screen via live links.
They're also very good at comparing the app with the paper magazine, which starts from a very high base. They acknowledge the production and content values of the title but appreciate this new treatment is so user-friendly and, putting it simply, simple.
The form of the feedback is also telling: it's short and sharp, and with one exception (he didn't want music or folding headlines – we directed him to the flipbook on the website) positive. With my hand on my heart, I can tell you, the readers love it.
The experts agree: in the iMonitor ratings of worldwide magazine apps by McPheters last year, RA was one of only three Australian apps to get five gold stars, with perfect scores for its interactivity, ease of sharing articles via social media and its video content.
A pleasing by-product is that a certain number of readers say they no longer need to receive the paper version. Every little bit helps the environment and, of course, our bottom line.
Project Marketing
We are lucky in that we start with a 'captive' potential readership base of RACV's 2.1 million members, but we're so proud we think everyone, not just RACV members, need to get their hands on this app.
So we have promoted its goodness all over Facebook and Twitter.
We had editorial interest from newspapers and Melbourne's ABC radio and television's favourite, Coxy's Big Break.
Full-page ads have appeared in advertising and marketing magazines MediaWeek, B&T and AdNews.
It is featured regularly on Newsstand as a What's Hot or Top App. The app has been the number one travel app on Newstand at various times and on average sits between third and fifth.
Internally, we have given it promotions via:
* Regular links in the fortnightly electronic newsletter that goes to 375,000 subscribers.
* Prominent monthly promotion through the print magazine (1.5m) alerting readers to app-only content.
* Promotion on www.racv.com.au homepage that has more than 2 million visitors every month,
* To keep readers informed we have produced videos for youtube, which are linked from our newly refreshed digital edition landing page at www.royalauto.com.au
Project Privacy
Although an electronic title that is marketed primarily to members, the RA app does not require the supply of personal information by the member, nor in fact by anyone who accesses any edition of the app magazine.
Any interaction that the member has via the app, whether it being entering a competition or purchasing an RACV product promoted in our content, goes behind the protection of the RACV firewall, and only then is personal information requested and stored.
Travel & Tourism
This category relates to applications dedicated to travel and tourism services and information.
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