Flipboard Announces Duran Duran Project At SXSWi 2011
March 13, 2011
By Leonard Chen, Austin
Flipboard, developer of what it calls the world's first "social magazine" for the iPad (and, this summer, the iPhone), is aiming big. The company, based in Palo Alto, Ca., says it wants nothing less than to completely transform the way we consume content. In the process, and core to their business model, they hope to bring what CEO and co-founder Mike McCue described as the elegance and storytelling of print advertising to the digital world.
In a standing room-only session at SxSWi on Saturday, McCue was interviewed by AllThingD's Kara Swisher and described his vision for Flipboard: to partner with publishers and other content creators to "connect readers with the products they love."
"The world of publishing and content consumption is going through transformation like we've never seen before," he said, noting that he's aiming for a "combination of print ideals with real-time web capabilities - creating something totally new."
One way of furthering that vision was announced via Twitter during the panel, although it wasn't mentioned by McCue: Duran Duran will be taking part in Flipboard's "live magazine" for an interview during SXSW at a time to be announced. Also, starting on Friday, Flipboard will offer a Duran Duran-featured section that will show the band's Twitter feeds in a magazine-style format.
"Flipboard turns Duran Duran's, Simon Le Bon's and John Taylor's Twitter feeds into a digital flip-able magazine available only on Flipboard," said Rachel Masters of Red Magnet Media, a San Francisco-based social media/digital strategy consultant working closely with Duran Duran on their digital marketing efforts. "Their section will be constantly updated by new tweets. We view this as a digital concert program for the modern era that documents Duran Duran's time on the road that is always-on and very easy to update with new content. The goal is to leverage the iPad's unique capabilities to fully capture the band's experience at SxSW and will continue through the band's tour."
