Beet.TV founder and digital guru Andy Plesser caught up with our very own Matthew Cavnar who explains how quickly Vook can create new mixed-media experiences. Books may have an 18-month creation cycle but not Vooks. Click here.
“Every so often, something comes along that changes the rulebook.”
It’s no secret that technology is radically changing our lives. Some of these changes are gradual and influence our personal lives. Others are huge, shaking up entire industries and the way we do business.
ZMOT, or the Zero Moment of Truth, is in the latter group. Six years ago, Proctor and Gamble coined a term called FMOT, or the the First Moment of Truth, to describe a shopper’s first interaction with a product on a shelf. For years, this was considered the most important moment for customer engagement.
Now, the game has changed. The widespread use of search engines has dramatically altered consumer behavior so that instead of FMOT, we’ve got ZMOT.
So what exactly is ZMOT?
“ZMOT is that moment when you grab your laptop, mobile phone or some other wired device and start learning about a product or service (or boyfriend) you’re thinking about trying or buying.”
In other words, consumers have made their buying decisions long before they see a product on the shelf, or even enter a store.
Fortunately, Google collected all its search data on these behaviors into a comprehensive Vook called Winning the Moment of Truth: ZMOT. ZMOT uses text, expansive charts, and engaging videos to reveal the ins and outs of consumer behavior – and share the essential components of a winning strategy.
Vook was thrilled that Google chose it to create Winning the Zero Moment of Truth – ZMOT and help spread the word about this important marketing concept.
Start learning the new rules now – download ZMOT for the iPhone or iPad here.
When Vook launched two years ago, the idea of putting videos in eBooks was radical – and debated. Now, the enhanced eBook marketplace is rich, diverse, and competitive. A year ago, people were surprised to find they could read on a tablet; now they’re looking for the most incredible tablet reading experience.
As the largest publisher of enhanced book content, we’re focused on continuing to create best-in-class product experiences — such as our recent title “Zero” and our title on Osama Bin Laden published with ABC. And we need top level talent to do that – which is why we’ve added Product Manager Nick Ruffilo to our team.
Nick comes to us from the BookSwim Corporation, where he was the chief technology officer. At BookSwim, Nick developed a revolutionary, disruptive eCommerce product that changed the way people purchase and read books. We hope he’ll do the same and more for us as he works to make our Vooks and our publishing platform better than ever.
Nick’s worked in the financial sector, marketing communications and publishing — and he’s been following Vook since we launched. He was drawn to us immediately. “I like building tools that people can really use,” he said. “And Vook is a tool that allows producers to make amazing content.”
Nick has some incredible visions for Vook, but mostly he wants to ”take a great product and make it extraordinary.”
We’re thrilled to welcome Nick, and we’re hoping you’re as excited as we are about the future of Vook!
Want to use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to connect with your customers, build your brand, and grow your profits?
Of course you do! It’s clear that a vibrant social media presence is essential to your company’s success, but if you’re like many others, you haven’t nailed down the perfect strategy.
Don’t believe naysayers who claim that social media success is a mystery – there are clear best practices that will launch your company to the next level – and you can find them all in our latest Vook, Groundswell.
Groundswell, the best-selling definitive guide to a researched, winning social media strategy, has been updated, enhanced, and is chock-full of new tools that will catapult your business into success.
New features include:
New media moves fast – and so should you! Download Groundswell now – available as an iPad app or in iBooks.
ABC News and Vook have partnered up again to bring you Target: Bin Laden, a comprehensive video/text mash-up detailing Osama bin Laden’s life – and gripping capture.
Target Bin Laden: The Life and Death of Public Enemy Number One, by a powerhouse team at ABC News, features the very best of ABC News’ coverage of the terrorist mastermind, bringing readers in to the early days of bin Laden and al Qaeda, September 11, 2001, the war in Afghanistan, and the massive manhunt for Osama bin Laden. This special video enhanced eBook features a heart-stopping account of the 40 minutes that changed the world, delving into how an elite Navy Seals team — and one warrior dog — took down bin Ladin in his compound.
Target: Bin Laden also features a gripping account of the white-knuckle moments inside the White House Situation Room as President Obama and his security team wached the operation from Washington, and sheds light of the mother lode of intelligence found in bin Laden’s lair. This groundbreaking ABC Video Book is packed with original reporting exclusives: ABC News footage from inside bin Laden’s compound, excerpts from an exclusive ABC last-of-its kind interview with bin Laden, first person accounts, and gripping photos and videos.
Target: Bin Laden provides the details and reporting only ABC News can deliver – put together in a gorgeous, dynamic Vook.
Download it now – click here to get it from the iBookstore.
After a walk through Sausalito tonight, I stopped to examine the books in the window of our local bookshop, not many left around here. A quote from page 100 of Anthony Cronin’s Yeats is Dead was posted on the window
“I think books are wonderful. If they had never been invented and somebody thought of them now, they would be the greatest things ever. I can’t think of anything that had given so much happiness to humanity. No batteries, no wires, no earphones. Absolutely silent, don’t interfere with anybody else, you can take them anywhere with you, in bed, into the bath. And they can’t be broken. You can lie on them, sit on them, prop the door or window sash open and you still can’t damage them.”
Several thoughts rolled around in my head. The quote is factually correct and it captures the sentimentality most of us feel about our physical books. Also, the book store owner is probably feeling defensive as the world changes around her.
I had a final competing thought as I walked home, technology is like fire and water, it goes where it wants and not much can stop it.
A few months ago, I left my iPad in the back of a New York City taxi-cab. My reaction was not the same as losing a cell phone or a stolen laptop. Losing those devices is an inconvenience. But I grieved the loss of my iPad as I do when losing a half-finished book. My emotional connection to a book and my tablet are the same.
Books are perfectly suited for the post-PC world. Tablets are a back-to-the-future experience reinventing a familiar and intimate media experience, they will revive reading and save the book.
Summarizing a new report by Forrester Research, Sarah Rotman Epps wrote that the post-PC world was characterized by:
Stationary to ubiquitous. Contrast the experience of computing on a desktop PC, in one place with a clear start and finish time, to that of the anytime/anywhere computing done on a smartphone or tablet.
Formal to casual. In contrast to PC interactions with a formal start and finish time marked by booting up and shutting down, instant-on/always-on computing on smartphones and tablets fills in-between moments like standing in line or watching TV.
Arms-length to intimate. With desktops, computing is literally an arms-length activity. With portable form factors like laptops, netbooks, and tablets, computers become something consumers keep close to their body, and they use them in intimate places.
Abstracted to physical. The mouse/keyboard paradigm relies on an abstracted interaction with content. Touchscreens like those on smartphones and tablets enable direct physical manipulation of content in two-dimensional s
The PC and the Internet did not change reading, but they did compete with reading. Even the most passionate readers spent time away from books as we browsed the Internet, sent email and searched for the answer to every imaginable question.
Now the book has an ally. The tablet renders books in ways that are familiar, fun and accessible. And readers are willing to pay for the privilege of reading stories, something they generally did not do on the desktop.
The far-reaching computing shift from desktops to tablets from browser searching and surfing to apps and a curated rich media experience are profound and lasting for books and book readers. The revolution in miniaturization is finally engulfing the reading experience in a promising way.
The rich-media tablet soon to be in the hands of 178 million people enables people to read in a way that they are comfortable and even enchanting like the stories we read.
-Brad Inman, Founder and Ceo, Vook
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