How can publishers
make money from
reader data (and not
leave it to the others...)
Frankfurt Book Fair 2008
- Rolfe Swinton -
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Rolfe Swinton
co-founder, Apollo Mobile
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Apollo Media
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INSEAD
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A view on the evolution of
supply chain and the use of data
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Our sophistication has
evolved from asking...
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What happened?
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How many? Where?
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Why is this happening?
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Seasonality
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The Longtail
- can this save us?
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Xerox
Delphax
Oce
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Xerox
Delphax
Oce
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Still asking
Why is this happening?
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BOOKSURGE
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What will happen next?
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BOOKSURGE
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You don’t have to be
Amazon or Google
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We Have Tools To Help
You Harness Reader
Data to Gain Insight
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Using The Vast Data
Source - The Internet
and People’s Mobile
Phones
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There are other ways
to answer key
questions such as...
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where are your
readers?
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what are they saying?
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Our tools can help...
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see if you are making a
difference?
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what best
communicates to them?
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You can see if people
are judging your book
fairly by its cover
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Proportion of each demographic group selecting this jacket as first-choice
Profile of 100% 32% 22% 5% 12% 21% 18% 21% 0%
Total ample
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Proportion of each demographic group selecting this jacket as first-choice
Profile of 100% 32% 22% 5% 12% 21% 18% 21% 0%
Total ample
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Proportion of each demographic group selecting this jacket as first-choice
Profile of 100% 32% 22% 5% 12% 21% 18% 21% 0%
Total ample
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Was it the book or the cover?
- 15 -
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Data supported the publisher’s
confidence in the book
Propensity to buy the book after reading an extract by demographic sub-group
% saying certain
would buy it
Profile of
50% 50% 0% 7% 29% 29% 29% 7% 0% 0%
Total Sample
- 16 -
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- 17 -
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so more book sales…
Entered best seller chart at #40
Richard & Judy, selected the book
Sold over 300,000 copies
- 18 -
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how can you get them
to try, to share, to
discuss?
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• Finish mobile technology
• In use by a range of media companies
• Technology runs on all kinds of
mobile phones
• Makes it easy to let people sample,
share, discuss, and buy books
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turn audiences into
communities
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Media sampling,
consumption
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Media sampling,
consumption
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Realtime Interactivity
Competitions
 Push or pull people to
events, chats, competitions
 Hold events that connect
groups of users as managed
by the application or users of
the system
 Can be controlled manually
or automatically
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Realtime Interactivity
Competitions
 Push or pull people to
events, chats, competitions
 Hold events that connect
groups of users as managed
by the application or users of
the system
 Can be controlled manually
or automatically
68

Realtime Interactivity
Competitions
 Push or pull people to
events, chats, competitions
 Hold events that connect
groups of users as managed
by the application or users of
the system
 Can be controlled manually
or automatically
68

mCommerce
 Select and pay using
premium SMS, PayPal, or
Credit Card
 Deliver digital, physical
products, or barcode tickets
 Lock purchase to a specific
user (handset) if required
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mCommerce
 Select and pay using
premium SMS, PayPal, or
Credit Card
 Deliver digital, physical
products, or barcode tickets
 Lock purchase to a specific
user (handset) if required
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mCommerce
 Select and pay using
premium SMS, PayPal, or
Credit Card
 Deliver digital, physical
products, or barcode tickets
 Lock purchase to a specific
user (handset) if required
69

mCommerce
 Select and pay using
premium SMS, PayPal, or
Credit Card
 Deliver digital, physical
products, or barcode tickets
 Lock purchase to a specific
user (handset) if required
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Content & Community
 Content overview
 User comments
 User rating
 Share content with others virally
(via text message from the user’s
own phone)
 Find content similar (based on
database or on other users with
similar preferences)
 Upload photos, video, audio
 All user data can be monitored to
ensure it is appropriate – repeat
offenders can be prevented from
entering new content
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Polling & Participation
•Pre‐planned & live poll / testing
to engage audiences in novel
way
•Real‐time push to users possible
•Adjust to user profiles
•Handles multiple question types
now – could easily be expanded
(forced choice, multiple choice,
•Robust and detailed data
capture
•Send reminders via text or
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Polling & Participation
•Pre‐planned & live poll / testing
to engage audiences in novel
way
•Real‐time push to users possible
•Adjust to user profiles
•Handles multiple question types
now – could easily be expanded
(forced choice, multiple choice,
•Robust and detailed data
capture
•Send reminders via text or
71

Polling & Participation
•Pre‐planned & live poll / testing
to engage audiences in novel
way
•Real‐time push to users possible
•Adjust to user profiles
•Handles multiple question types
now – could easily be expanded
(forced choice, multiple choice,
•Robust and detailed data
capture
•Send reminders via text or
71

Polling & Participation
•Pre‐planned & live poll / testing
to engage audiences in novel
way
•Real‐time push to users possible
•Adjust to user profiles
•Handles multiple question types
now – could easily be expanded
(forced choice, multiple choice,
•Robust and detailed data
capture
•Send reminders via text or
71

Polling & Participation
•Pre‐planned & live poll / testing
to engage audiences in novel
way
•Real‐time push to users possible
•Adjust to user profiles
•Handles multiple question types
now – could easily be expanded
(forced choice, multiple choice,
•Robust and detailed data
capture
•Send reminders via text or
71

Polling & Participation
•Pre‐planned & live poll / testing
to engage audiences in novel
way
•Real‐time push to users possible
•Adjust to user profiles
•Handles multiple question types
now – could easily be expanded
(forced choice, multiple choice,
•Robust and detailed data
capture
•Send reminders via text or
71

Polling & Participation
•Pre‐planned & live poll / testing
to engage audiences in novel
way
•Real‐time push to users possible
•Adjust to user profiles
•Handles multiple question types
now – could easily be expanded
(forced choice, multiple choice,
•Robust and detailed data
capture
•Send reminders via text or
71

understand readers’
behaviour
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One Hen
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link
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community
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test
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expensive?
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easy?
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• organisation
• people
• technology
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join us
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experiment
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publishing analytics
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Ostrich
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X
Ostrich
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simple
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measurable
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low-risk
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see what’s happening
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listen
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try
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test
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learn
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talk
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rolfe@swinton.org
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from what happened?
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to what’s going to
happen?
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to what’s the best that
can happen?
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rolfe@swinton.org
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