Say what you like about Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, but lets face it… he’s a game changer. And true to form, his collaboration with BlackBook Media (the guys behind those infamous city guides and BlackBook Magazine) to create an iphone application shows both his forward thinking attitude as well as BlackBook’s new approach to this new, fragmented digital media landscape.
The 13 year-old media and technology company has flipped the traditional print media model. Now their digital properties are front and center in their business whilst their print properties, although still very significant, take a somewhat subordinate role to their iphone applications, ‘Access‘ Network and web presence. Here’s some more info lifted from the release. It’s interesting stuff.
Diddy’s BlackBook mobile guide is now available in the iTunes store – representing another channel for the coveted BlackBook city guides on the Access Network℠. Diddy’s BlackBook is an international, 50-city guide with BlackBook editorial reviews for more than 15,000 shops & boutiques, restaurants, bars & clubs, and hotels, and includes Comb’s top picks across the country. “It also includes a raw, real and stripped down series of portraits - a more personal look at the man as whole and not just the celebrity,” according to BlackBook’s Creative Director, Jason Daniels. “We wanted to show ‘Sean’.”
Diddy’s BlackBook is based off of BlackBook’s latest version of its own GPS-enabled, international city guides iPhone application – the BlackBook Guides version 3.3.2. Like Diddy’s BlackBook, the BlackBook mobile city guide is part of the Access Network℠ and includes special Perks provided by businesses that are featured on the guides (at present that list is growing and already includes David Yurman, Intermix and AG Jeans). BlackBook’s editorial team (which includes a world-wide team of contributors) has been curating the reviews for the city guides and producing content for BlackBook magazine since 1996.
The city guides are the core to the Access Network℠ - the technology infrastructure that connects the reviewed venues directly to consumers on GPS-enabled smart phones (iPhone initially) and enables these businesses to provide real-time, location-based, special offers (“Access Perks℠”) to drive consumers to their place. BlackBook has made this Access Network℠ open to other media partners’ city guides, which enables businesses to also offer Perks across a network of different channels.
Leveraging the excitement and customer growth with mobile products, BlackBook is leading brands towards the new media landscape, where the Access Network℠ can deliver measurable ROI for marketers, and it also continues to deliver important branding opportunities on the printed page (where aesthetic quality is still most visible).
“My partners and I acquired the BlackBook brand five years ago with the vision of providing a technology platform that is delivered with branded content.‘ added Ari Horowitz, BlackBook Media Corp CEO. “We envisioned the opportunities around location-based mobile technology, and we believe we have the winning formula by combining content and technology into a networked solution.”
Download the Diddy App for free…here…
http://blackbookmag.com
