In a previous life,
we learnt the power of information on behaviour and buying patterns. Some 30
years ago one of the leading examples was Vons supermarkets in the US. They not
only tracked every purchase, but also every purchase against the individual store
layout and other associated products. This information enabled them to send their
customers paper vouchers not for what they did buy, but also associated
products they didn’t buy, or areas of the store they didn’t buy from and when a
competitor open up nearby they supplied vouchers for the essentials the individual bought regularly.
Now we take this information analysis and use as normal and within 24 hours the
likes of Asda have not only analysed our transactions, but also compared it to
their competitors and worked out the value of reward you have earned as a
result.
So what has this to
do with publishing?
Some years back we
developed a digital inspection copy and ecatalogue system for publishers. The
inspection copy is particularly relevant to academic and educational markets where
books are sent out to institutional clients for adoption on spec. We obviously enabled
the full digital copy to be read, annotated, bookmarked and shared with others
on a limited time window and then followed up automatically by a feedback process
and adoption feed straight into their back office systems. The savings were
clear as was the ability to promote all titles and not just the new ones and also
send them out like confetti with little commercial cost or risk.
However, the real power
was in the information collected, which wasn’t always fully exploited. We collected information on every click,
access, page turn, timing, annotation, bookmark and also what was read and even
if the copy was even opened! A goldmine for any proactive marketer and salesman!
The information could also provide feedback into the editorial development process
itself on what worked and what didn’t.
So where are we
today?
There have been some
raised eyebrows recently over the extent of information that today’s ebook
platforms have potentially been accumulating on our reading habits. Amazon like
others has a cross device platform, which is supported by cloud services and is
able to identify some interesting habits. For example, if a reader highlights a
passage, this is collated when the account is synchronised. Amazon aggregatesthose highlights into Popular Highlights which they share with others in their most
popular online reports. You can view most viewed data both over time and
currently so are able to spot today’s as well as historic trends. Importantly
they hold the information at both an individual and aggregated level
In this case, the
content has to be highlighted first and maybe that makes you question whether
that is a true representation of activity, or just the material that has been
highlighted? However what other information do they have access to?
Another twist on the
information front is to turn the tables on its head and respond interactively
to specific activity and information from online users and then track its
adoption. GPS and mapping works this way, in recognising where you are and
feeding you the relevant directions or places near you etc, and in doing so, it
responds to information you have given it.
J Now Eli Horowitz has developed a story app ‘TheSilent History’, which is about a generation of unusual children born without
the ability to create or comprehend language but who have other skills. The
work is released in daily episodes like a Japanese Keitai novel. For readers
who wish to explore more, Horowitz has created hundreds of GPS locked ‘Field
Reports’ that can only be read when the reader takes their device to the
specified place. The location-based stories can be accessed across the U.S. and
around the world.
Education has already
adopted online assessment based on student responses and today McGraw-Hill
announced Smartbook, which is a new ‘learning’ ebook for students, enables
students to read the same textbook. However, as they individually start to
answer review questions embedded throughout the chapter, different passages
become highlighted and point the reader to where he or she should focus
attention. It like having the teacher looking over your shoulder as you read!
So
is the tail wagging the dog or the other way round? Information about
behaviour, likes and dislikes is not just for the supermarkets and online
retailers but can be used to shape digital content and even determine our
individual navigation through it. Of course all this data can also feeds the ad
model businesses , so those little tick boxes on many registrations may be more
important than you think. It’s a pity we can’t easily find out what information
is being held against us.
No comments:
Post a Comment