Foul Play, Playboy

Posted by Rowland Hobbs on December 10 at 2:00 PM
Did you hear that? That was print media, choking another near-final gasp. Today I came across the Huffington Post's media review of Playboy's new iPhone app. Perhaps Hugh should stop filming his polyamorous exploits for E! and start reading up on his mobile best practices, because this baby is as attractive as a circus bearded lady in a tartain muumuu.

I'll let HuffPo tell you what's wrong:

"The new $1.99 app will give you the cover of the magazine, the table of contents for the issue, its Playmate's intro text and details, along with portions of text from the magazine's monthly features, like the "Playboy Interview" and "Playboy Advisor." Oh, and there's no nudity either, keeping with the Apple store's no "adult content" policy..."

Oh man, it HURTS Playboy. And not in the good way. Why bother creating an iPhone app? What decimated budget did you further decimate to create this sorry thing? As the news announces firings, issue cancellations, and more at Playboy, why waste perfectly good money on this?

Anyone who downloads it will think there will be naked photos on there. Which there aren't. Some people may expect articles... but they'll get a teaser and then a message to go buy the real thing? AND they have to pay $1.99 EVERY TIME THEY GET AN ISSUE?

No. No. No.

There are two ways to make this better, and you better do one of them fast:

1. Unlock full articles. At LEAST give your user SOMETHING to do. If they wanted clothed femme fatales, they would subscribe to Maxim. But if you give them full articles, then there is value to the app.

2. Scrap all the half-way commitments, and start creating iPhone exclusive content. NOW the users have a reason to buy! They are getting something they can't get at the newsstand! Maybe it's a few video playmate reviews. Or maybe it's new content created by your writers. Creating new content is astoundingly affordable. And it creates value, which your app sorely lacks.

Unless one of these two approaches is quickly adopted, expect another round of bloodshed at the raunchy rag. I hope to God they aren't celebrating this thing. I hope this is phase 1 of a glorious app that takes Playboy into the next generation (maybe even allowing it to leave print and start turning a profit).

But a part of me fears that this is it. Playboy thinks it's made the jump to mobile, but all we're getting is a lot of useless foreplay.

Topics: Mobile_Marketing        SHARE: