Statistics show medical professionals are migrating toward iPads. Now, one medical journal publisher says, advertisers have followed.

“We’re saying to advertisers, ‘We have a new way to reach physicians,’” said Karen Abramson, president and CEO of Wolters Kluwer Health Medical Research, which includes Lippincott Williams and Wilkins journals as well as the Ovid print titles.

Because of FDA regulations, adapting ads for the new format requires close attention, and Wolters Kluwer says that many advertisers have been hesitant to enter the new space.

To remedy this situation, the publisher launched a new ad model: In January it stopped offering advertisers the option of purchasing print-only ads and moved to a plan that bundles print together with digital apps. A spokesperson said the move “is aimed at helping advertisers innovate their marketing strategies and benefit from the opportunity to offer ads in multimedia format,” such as videos and product tutorials.

At the same time, the publisher has also migrated 52 of its journals onto the iPad and preliminary stats show the logic: data across six specialties show the average amount of time an iPad reader spends interacting with an ad is on average between 10 and 40 seconds. Also, the addition of the iPad increased digital (web and app) page views between 30% and 70%.

In contrast, Abramson said it’s unlikely a print reader will look at an ad for 10 to 30 seconds. “The apps are able to engage their readers in a way that, quite frankly, journals in the print world cannot” she said.

Because the app drives a different customer experience than print, getting more pharma and device advertisers to take advantage of the medium requires bringing advertisers up to speed. “We are teaching advertisers about the notion of audience and not just print circulation,” Abramson said. “The typical behavior around print is you read it, put it on the shelf and don’t come back. The behavior around digital is you repeat and repeat and repeat your view of the journal.”

From the September 01, 2012 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media