Digital Magazine Examples - KLM Leads the Way with iFly

I had an interesting email conversation with Sak van den Boom at CustomerMedia.nl about digital magazines recently.

We can't seem to find a company doing more with the digital magazine format than KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and their digital magazine iFly.  If you haven't seen it before, it's one of the very few digital magazine examples that fully integrates flash and video into a customer experience, and tracks customer usage. It's worth checking out.

But is it working? Definitely. After each issue is released, an email is sent to KLM customers, who then click through to the magazine issue. That way, KLM can track the behavior of each of their customers from the email. KLM can then track this information back to repeat ticket sales (the ultimate goal for the magazine is to sell additional tickets to their customers).

Here are some of the findings.

• After their third issue, KLM has found that iFly is the best marketing tool they have EVER used to sell repeat tickets.
• The average reader spends 20 minutes with the magazine.
• Half read more than five pages.
• 20% read the entire magazine.
• Frequent flyers are heavy users of the magazine.
• The click-through rate of iFly is higher than any other online campaign from KLM.

(thanks to Sak and Arjen Bonsing for putting together these incredible stats)

Digital Magazines in the States

To find out why more of these types of digital mags aren't produced by US corporations, I went to experts Marcus Grimm from Nxtbook and Cimarron Buser from Texterity.

From what I can gather, most digital magazines start as print, not as stand-alone digital magazines. Since that is the case, most publishers take the PDF-version of the magazine and optimize it for the web (integrating flash, video or RSS after the original print version is created). It also seems that many US companies opt for using microsites or independent websites instead of digital magazines, such as P&G have with homemadesimple.com or beinggirl.com.

Also, the investment in custom flash technology does cost quite a bit more for custom programming, which is another reason why people simply tweak the PDF versions.

Regardless, Marcus and Cim were able to share some great digital magazine examples, including:

• Project Analog - Example flash cover animation.
• Driver's Republic - Integrated video with some interesting advertising options.
• Lancaster Chamber of Commerce - PDF-based magazine with integrated flash.
• Organic Style - Includes interactive recipes and fashion close-ups.
• Linked - Brings in live feeds.
• Consumer Goods Technology - Solid BtoB example with interactive elements.

The Future of Digital Magazines
There is no doubt that digital magazines have always been a great option at giving publishers a proven digital replica option for their magazine, which can increase international subscriptions, and allow publishers to be more choosy in who they send their printed version to. 

For marketers like KLM, it's a excellent option if you want to track exactly what your customers are doing. Stats like the ones that KLM have received are much more challenging to get on a website version (as it pertains to one-to-one customer information). Also, if I already have a print magazine version, a digital replica is a no-brainer.

That said, if I were to start an online magazine, I'm not sure I would use a digital magazine format.  Seems like it may be better to open it up via a website and make it more possible for customers and prospects to actively share the information.

(Added after conversation with Marcus - interesting take "website is better to attract customers, digital magazine may be a better option for retention efforts...hmmm).

What say you?

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Comments

[Craig Hodges]

what a great example of what a digital magazine can be---using the best of flash and video to get results for a client. With my custom publisher hat on the biggest challenge is getting clients to think of the digital mag as a "blank canvas" and start again-- not be a cheaper alternative to mail as a distribution model. We've always said that it should be a new communication piece with different ways of getting a message across just the same as a microsite is to a custom magazine.

Are digital mags going to make it?---well if we keep seeing examples of this ilk they may well get there as a viable option for our clients to get their customers to move in the right direction....

[calvin lloyd]

i say check out UCE Magazine, a standalone digital magazine with a global readership:

http://www.ucemag.com

[ted]

ever checked www.bomvol.com ? This is the best example i've ever seen.

[Joe Pulizzi]

@Calvin...UCE doesn't look like it's a company sponsored magazine (at least I can't find it if it is).

@ted Looks cool. Is there an English version?

[Bright 4]

Nice examples idd, although I must say that this is not so innovative and new...
We worked on an online magazine for KPN (Dutch telecom provider) for it's Hi Paars brand at the end of 2006. Including user tracking etc:
http://www.paarsmagazine.nl

Now we would probably change a lot of things (3 years more experience), but they still use the site and update the content often.

It is indeed a nice bridge between the paper feeling and online world.

[Andrew]

UCE Magazine looks great - but yes agreed Joe, I dont think it is a company-sponsored mag.

thanks very much for the details on iFly - really fascinating!