Did you make fitness a priority for 2012?  Well we have you covered – Oomph now powers an exciting range of fitness and health magazines.

This means you can lean back, relax with your iPad whilst getting inspired about the latest fitness trend, (kettle bell anyone?)  nutritional advice (gotta love that quinoa) latest celebrity weight loss (come on Federline) and hot new training gear (impatiently waiting for the new Garmin 910x).

Along with the award winning Fitness First Magazine produced by Active Media Group, Oomph now powers Australian Men’s Fitness by Odysseus Publishing and Women’s Health and Fitness Magazine the first of 3 new sports focused iPad mags from Blitz Publishing.

Blitz Publishing is a new client to Oomph and publishes some of the most exciting sports publications worldwide. Women’s Health & Fitness is their first foray into iPad publishing. The team use slick navigation and animations that make you explore the app as much as read it. You can read their press release here.

Odysseus Publishing launched Men’s Fitness Australia In November and like their global brand name, the February magazine is bursting with famous sportsmen including the return of an amazing looking Michael Klim, gym workouts, recipes, movie reviews and of course how to improve your bedroom performance!

Why do fitness and health magazines work so well on the iPad?

So you got some great technique tips from your expensive personal trainer and now you want to hit the gym on your own – only to find you can’t quite remember which muscles to activate or if you are holding the right form (stomach muscles in, back leg straight etc).  iPad magazines regularly include embedded fitness videos which is just like having a personal trainer in your hands while holding that pose!  

Many fitness magazines also cover a range of topics including nutrition and provide healthy recipes. The Fitness First iPad magazine features voice control in recipe mode so you never need to put your ‘cooking’ hands on the screen.

Plus these mags are a great source of upcoming Australian races, events and outdoor activities – anyone else keen for the Sydney Triathlon?

Proof that using an iPad can be good for your health!

Lisa Walton, Marketing Director Oomph (and part time triathlete)

We welcome the new release of the Harper’s BAZAAR Australia Collections iPad magazine.  The lovely people at ACP Magazines have compiled the Spring/ Summer 2012 collections from all around the world.  As well as the top 10 moments from our favourite fashion shows this beautiful magazine includes a video of the breath taking performance by Florence (from Florence and the Machine) who performs  for Chanel emerging from a giant oyster shell.

It launched on the 25th January and is featured in the New and Noteworthy category in the Newsstand – along side other Oomph titles  such as StreetPress Australia’s iPad mags Drum Media, InPress and TimeOff, PC & Tech Authority, FourFourTwo Australia, Gourmet Traveller, Australian Women’s Weekly.  For a full list of Oomph powered iPad apps visit our Apps and Publications page.

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Giving apps more Oomph

See the original blog post here on http://www.smk.net.au/article/giving-apps-more-oomph

Digital action in the Asia-Pacific

Originally from Ireland, Keith Ahern came to Australia via Silicon Valley, where he worked for Netscape on the Navigation Browser and Philips Research and Development, where he was granted two US patents.

After arriving in Australia in 2000, Ahern worked in various online roles before co-founding the Oomph Tablet Publishing Platform, which today powers over 90 iOS and Android apps for brands including ACP Magazines, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and News Corp.

Ahern talks to SMK about how it’s becoming easier and more profitable for brands to use tablet apps.

It all started with the iPhone

In September 2008 Ahern left News Digital Media (a division of News Ltd), where he was Mobile Technology Manager, and started working with Tom Adams, whom he’d worked with on mobile projects previously. The two launched Mogeneration and began developing apps for the recently released iPhone, which then accounted for 1% of the handset market.

Their client list grew as the iPhone gained popularity, and Ahern and Adams soon moved from making custom apps to a platform they licensed to media companies and publishers.

They called their platform Oomph.

Giving apps more Oomph

The idea for Oomph, a tablet publishing platform, arose as a way to streamline the often-costly app development process.

“We created Oomph because a certain percentage of what every customer wanted we were building over and over again. So Oomph makes that available, but in a way that the customer gets to brand it and show it off in a way that they entirely own.”

Click, point, create

While Oomph uses sophisticated technology, it remains easy for clients to use.

“We literally try and disappear behind the scenes. We let the creative people realise what the product vision is, using terms that and tools that they are familiar with.”

Clients start by selecting a plan on the Oomph website, where they decide what type of content, such as text and video, to include in the app. The next step is to create the app, with Oomph’s staff providing technical support throughout the process.

Once the app is complete, Oomph work with Apple and Android to publish and push out the content, for example via Apple’s newsstand.

Users more willing to pay for mobile content

Before the iPhone, consumers were typically only paying for ring tones and wallpaper on their mobile devices.

With the App Store, Apple offered a curated, trusted selection of apps and a streamlined payment system that changed that way consumers engage with and pay for content. Ahern sees this trend continuing in the burgeoning tablet market.

“With its bigger screen and price-tag, people are willing to pay a little bit more content on the iPad. It’s very easy to reach a world market through the app store is very well established on the iPad. The app store tends to provide a richer experience [than the web] that people feel has more value attached to it.”

Tablets changing e-commerce

Ahern sees the rise of tablets as a game changer for e-commerce, as consumers can now shop within the app. Oomph recently produced an app for Fitness First that showed a 360 degree view of each trainer and a tap to buy feature that led to a price comparison engine, showing the best price for the product.

As tablets continue to grow in popularity in Australia, Ahern sees the brands becoming increasingly able to profit through apps.

“We’ve all seen the stats, but there is a huge usage of iPad in the evening time which is a high e-commerce time. All indications are that this will be one of the most important e-commerce platforms within a really short chunk of time. Apps help the brand connect with the consumer in the way they want to be connected with.”

Who needs an app?

Oomph works with a range of clients, all the way from News Corp to small businesses. Ahern says clients who have content, whether it’s written, photo, video or media rich content that they want to reach a tablet audience can benefit from apps.

“We take on any kind of client that wants to use social media to engage with customers, and who want to monetise and measure. So we’ve know we’ve got clients right across consumer, B2B, government, education and enterprise.”

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There’s a new player in town.

Welcome to adidas onside!  A new project for Adidas from Haymarket Media has produced two hot new iPhone and iPad apps powered by the Oomph digital publishing platform.

This is an exciting development for the Oomph digital publishing platform in that it now powers iPhone apps with great results (we’ve been focusing on iPads and tablet apps for the past few months).  The team at Haymarket Media Australia produce both the FourFourTwo Australia iPad magazine and PC & Tech Authority iPad magazine.

Get ready to raise your game with adidas.

Features
Dribble like Messi
Shoot like Kaka
Save like Neuer
Pass like Schweinsteiger
Interviews with star players
Football tricks to impress your friends and teammates
Coerver Coaching tips to improve your skills
What it takes to be a professional football player
Exclusive photo galleries and video content
Share the content with your friends on Facebook and Twitter

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JP Morgan forecasts that 99m tablets will be shipped worldwide  next year – a whopping 55% growth from 2011.  Tablets will continue to proliferate and infiltrate the way we use and consume information.  So where are we going to see the biggest impacts and what does that mean for you?  Here we make a few predictions as we tablet publishing becomes mainstream with growth in areas such as corporate publishing, advertising and retail.

1) iPads remain dominant

While Android tablets such as the Kindle Fire will make in-roads at lower price points (with lesser functionality) Apple’s dominance will remain.  We’ll welcome the iPad 3 with higher resolution screens and camera and we may even ask Siri to turn the pages of our apps for us.

2) Ecommerce hits a tablet near you. 

Research shows that people are increasingly open to buying through their apps on their tablets.  Advertorials will become more mainstream.  Tablet usage will remain high in the evenings but expect corporate use to rise. T-Commerce/ Tablet Commerce anyone?

3) Tablet Advertising = Brand Advertising you can track.

Tablet Advertising will catch on as we’re already seeing interactive tablet ads achieving engagement rates of 7-15% ad engagement results.  Advertisers will embrace multiple screen advertising campaigns.  Data and analytics will be the secret source. It’s not just about the number of impressions but making an impression.

Recent research from eMarketer (dec 2011) found that “Adults in the United States now spend more time with mobile than print magazines and newspapers combined.”  One hour and five minutes on mobile versus just 44 minutes for newspapers and magazines — combined!That’s a 10% share of people’s media time for mobile. And yet, mobile gets less than 1% of the advertising dollars.  Read more & watch this space.

4) Customers will be the winner

The argument over who owns tablet publishing (the digital vs graphic design debate) will be won by those who understand UI and put their customers at the heart of the app content and design.  App publishing platforms (like Oomph) that offer easy navigation, rich media and great functionality will allow media agencies and publishers to focus on their customers and embrace this exciting media rather than be limited in what they can create.

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It’s almost done, another year gone!  While we are all looking forward to taking a few days off to recharge, we decided to review what has been an amazing year.  In this blog, we cover some highlights from 2011 and we provide predictions for what we expect to see in 2012.

What an exciting year it’s been, we’ve watched the tablet market explode in Australia with almost 1.6m iPads sold and no sign of this slowing (JP Morgan recently predicted a 55% growth in shipments in the upcoming year).   We’ve seen the iPad truly dominate this market but look forward to seeing Android make some in-roads in 2012.

We saw the launch of iOS5 and the Newsstand in the App Store  a sub site that promotes News and Magazine Style apps (re-occuring periodicals with a re-newable subscription.)  Our clients are experiencing first hand the ‘Newsstand Effect’ – where magazine featured in the Newsstand are seeing dramatic increases in downloads and awareness.  And we farewelled the inspirational Steve Jobs.

The Oomph Year 2011 

1) Oomph now has over 50 clients and Oomph powers over 90 titles on the iPad including apps for consumer, business and custom publications to corporate reports and event apps.  Visit our Oomph Apps and Publications page for more details.

2) We have continued to innovate the platform and it’s bursting with more than 30 features inbuilt in the platform including slick animations, social media integration (twitter, Facebook and email), 360 degree panoramas, location services and rich page interactivity.

3) We changed our hero brand from Mogeneration to Oomph – Simply Smart Tablet Publishing as testament to our single minded focus in this space.

Highlights from 2011:

• Winner of  2011 Excellence Awards by Publishers Australia – Inaugrual Award for the Best App on Mobile or Tablet Device for Fitness First iPad Magazine published by Active Media Group.
• 3rd Equal Best iPad Magazine in the world – Magazine World Magazine for the Gourmet Traveller iPad magazine published by ACP Magazines. As ranked by McPheter’s iMonitor.
• StreetPress Australia launching 5 titles onto the iPad including Australia’s first iPad only magazine Three Magazine and the Street guides Drum Media, Drum Media Perth, Inpress, TimeOff – these street guides come out weekly using just one dedicated resource.  All 5 magazines have been heavily featured in App Store categories.
• Oomph was named one of Australia’s Coolest Companies by Anthill Magazine

B2B Stepping up

Plus it’s great to see the B2B world embrace tablet publishing and taking advantage of rich media.  Oomph powers The Financial Standard Newspaper, (Rainmaker Group)  The Blue Journal (The Tax Institute) , The Adviser (Sterling Publishing), Australian Broker, (Key Media), Australian Business Solutions (Australian Media Group) and the Superfunds magazine (ASFA) and more.

We are also very proud to have powered PwC’s most prestigious titles to the iPad this year,  The Annual Review 2011 and the Entertainment and Media Outlook Report 2011-2015.

Customer Growth

We have continued to grow our relationship with ACP Magazines who continue to create world class apps.  Alongside prestigious titles Australian Women’s Weekly, Myer Emporium and Gourmet Traveller, ACP launched  Harper’s BAZAAR Collections and Wheels Showroom. as a Porsche special edition.

Haymarket Media‘s stables FourFourTwo Australia and PC & Tech Authority were joined by the Limelight iPhone/ iPad app – featuring the best 100 classical tunes of all times.

Partnerships

In 2011 Oomph partnered with some fantastic businesses in Australia.  We’d like to thank them all for their support, organisation and enthusiasm for tablet publishing.

• AIMIA
• Oomph was AIMIA’s official Tablet partner
• The Sell Out Tablet Wars events – the only Tablet specific event series in Australia.  See the video here or Download the event app here
• The AIMIA Tablet Advertising Guidelines Report and Event released in Dec 2011.  Download iPad App Guide 
• Publishers Australia 
• Key sponsors of Magazine week
• Keynote at the Future of Digital Publishing Event series
• Creative3 - Oomph were sponsors of the Forum held in Brisbane in October 2011; Bringing Enterprise, Investment and Creativity together.

Thank you.

Most importantly,  from everyone at Oomph, we’d like to say thank you for making 2011 such an amazing year.  Our clients continue to make some of the media best apps in the world and you can be sure that in 2012 we will continue to provide a leading edge platform.

Oomph – Powering your world class apps.

Lisa Walton, Marketing Director.  Lisa@OomphHQ.com

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“The Mobile Magazine Reader” A Custom Study of Magazine App Users was released in November for the US Association of Magazine Media.   With a sample size of 1009 tablet users – the largest study of it’s kind.

Some amazing insights from this study including the rise of ecommerce on tablets (or Tcommerce) and that tablet advertising is something that people are willing to engage in.  At Oomph, the best tablet advertisements are seeing 7-15% ‘tap through rates’ as compared with 0.1-0.3% that you would find on website interstitials or banner ads.  We believe that if the quality of advertising can remain strong, that advertisers go beyond replicating their print ads and use this new medium to create a brand experience, then advertising can change from that thing we flick past to something we enjoy.  Who’d have thought!

Highlights:
90% said that since acquiring their mobile device, they are consuming just as much—if not more—magazine content
82% want a gift card pre-loaded with a digital magazine subscription when giving a mobile device as a gift this holiday season

Publishers & advertisers take notice:

Rise of mobile commerce

59% they want the ability to buy direct from the ads

70% want to be able to purchase products and services directly from editorial features.

73% said they typically engage with digital magazine ads.

“Digital magazines provide a direct link between purchase intent and actual transaction” Christopher Kevorkian, EVP/ Digital MPA.

You can download the report here.

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Today I was reading through the Three Magazine and checked to see how the reviews are going.  Average rating is 4.5/5 and it’s still in its infancy.  This is a great mag and attracts an obviously eclectic audience as the App Store  review demonstrate.

“3D raise the bar on street press editorial.  Three Magazine uses it as a toothpick.  While sitting it on a motorbike.  Made out of dragons. On fire.  I actually saw this happen.  I was also on fire. It was awesome. That’s not to say you will catch fire too, but Three IS a hot magazine.”  Burninate 5 stars.

StreetPress Australia continues to enjoy the Apple Orbit with The Drum Media, Inpress, and Time Off Magazine featured in Newsstand New & Noteworthy category on the App Store.

5 of the 18 iPad magazines featured in the Newsstand are powered by Oomph including The Australian Women’s Weekly and Gourmet Traveller by ACP.

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We are very proud to be the sponsors of an important piece of work in the Australian Tablet Market – the first Tablet Advertising Guidelines report.  See the press release below.

We have created the Tablet Advertising Guidelines App available for free from the App Store.  Somehow these things always look better on the iPad. Download it here.

Press Release AIMIA

The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) has released a set of guidelines designed to help advertisers identify the best practices for creating and selling ads on tablet devices.

AIMIA’s Guide to Tablet Advertising was launched today during a forum event sponsored by digital publishing tablet platform, Oomph.

John Butterworth, AIMIA CEO, said: “As the tablet market in Australia grows and matures, the marketing and advertising opportunities are becoming difficult for brands to ignore.”

“We saw a clear need to develop guidelines for the industry because of the unique nature of tablet advertising and specific considerations that go along with the platform and different ad formats available.”

The guidelines offer recommendations to agencies and advertisers on how to make advertising more effective and engaging. AIMIA said it anticipates that the guidelines will be reviewed periodically as the industry grows and matures.

AIMIA said it recognised the importance of tablet advertising as a recent Fairfax Media survey found that consumers conduct a variety of retail focused activities. More than 90% of respondents said they researched a product to buy on their tablet, 82% searched for a store and 71% buy products on their tablet.

The guide provides an overview of screen dimensions and the screen real estate available, ad formats and commonly used terms.

It also offers advice on how to execute creative advertising, such as avoiding flickering animations and ensuring typeface is readable. The guide also runs through branded applications, media and metrics and measurement among other topics.

To read a copy of the guidelines click here.

The guide is sponsored by Oomph and was developed in consultation with Oomph, Google, Snakk Media, Optus, Ikon Communications, Fairfax Media, Maxus Global, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Venture One and Telsyte.

We are getting excited about the upcoming Tablet Advertising Event held next Tuesday 6th December.  We’re putting the final touches on the report and accompanying App which will be available for download on the day of the event.  If you work on a brand that is interested in advertising on tablets, if you’re an advertising agency wanting to stay ahead of the crowd or even a publisher who wants to make revenue on their app then this is relevant for you!

Tickets have almost gone so get in quick!

Tablet Advertising Guidelines Report released December 2011.

The Tablet Advertising Forum Event 6th December 2011.

AIMIA and Oomph present ‘The Tablet Advertising Forum’, examining new opportunities for brand engagement, advertising models and how to position and market your brand on a tablet.

Join us in December as we provide insights into how you can successfully monetize your apps as well as build successful business cases to promote positive ROI .

Advertising Guidelines – brought to you by AIMIA and Oomph; 

How to create, value and sell advertising on tablet devices.

The Advertising Tablet Guidelines will focus on how to create, value and price advertising on this exciting new device as well as:

- What is different about tablet advertising

- What is working, who should use it and how to sell tablet advertising

- Effective in-app advertising placement strategies

- How to stimulate effective consumer engagement with tablet advertising

- Effective tablet advertising models.

peakers

Event Details:

Date: December 6th 2011

Venue: KPMG Auditorium

Address: 10 Shelley Street, Sydney 2000

Time:

09:30am Registration & networking

10:00am Forum begins

11:00am Moderated Q&A

12:00pm Forum ends

Prices:

$95.00 + GST AIMIA Members

$155.00 + GST Non Member

(All prices exclude GST)

Proudly Sponsored By:

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Just days after FourFourTwo Australia hit the Newsstand it has leapt up the App Store Charts. It now sits at number 6 in the Top Grossing Charts in the Sports Category.  To celebrate their entry into Newsstand, the November edition is free.  So for all Football/ Soccer fans, Xmas has come early.

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Media Release   November 28, 2011

Oomph has been named one of Australia’s ‘Coolest’ businesses in Anthill Magazine’s Sixth Annual Cool Company Awards.

Oomph was recognised as a Finalist in the AusIndustry Innovation Award Category  last Thursday evening, at the Anthill Magazine 2011 Annual Cool Company Awards.

AusIndustry Innovation Award Category

The Innovation Award is awarded to a business that – through being novel, unique or different — generates a dramatic improvement over current conventional solutions. The originality and strength of an organisation’s ‘big idea’ and/or business model was the main focus for judging.

WINNER: LX Design House
Finalists: Nanotek, Oomph, Guvera, Brightgreen

Hon. Mentions: Starlettos, LeadBolt, Lexim, OrionVM, ThereItIs

The Reader’s Choice Awards are still open – so to get some Cool Karma you could vote for us!

The Cool Company Awards is a national program that was developed in 2006 to recognise Australian companies that are doing things differently to bring about positive change.

Over 700 aspiring ‘cool companies’ were nominated for the 2011 awards, making ‘The Cools’ one of Australia’s largest business awards programs.

“The Cool Company Awards are extremely egalitarian,” said James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine. “Previous winners have included two-person start-ups, not-for-profit social enterprises, large private companies and publicly-listed corporations.”

“Judging takes into account far more than mere business variables, such as revenue and wealth. The criteria are geared to consider other qualities, from the disruptive nature of the product or service to the culture of the organisation.”

“Applicants either nominated themselves or were nominated by peers, work colleagues, family, friends and other ‘admirers’. A field of hundreds was examined (and cross-examined) before our judges were able to isolate three Finalists for each of our seven categories.”

What are Cool Company Awards?

The Cool Company Awards was launched in 2006 as a way for Anthill Magazine to publicly acknowledge and celebrate Australian organisations that are doing things differently to bring about positive change. In its sixth year, the awards attracted nominations from over 700 organisations, making it among the largest business award programs in Australia.

What is Anthill Magazine?

AnthillOnline.com is a digital business magazine that celebrates creativity, inspiration and commercial ingenuity, providing a fresh, exciting and practical perspective on Australian business in a global world. It is among the Top 50 Business & Finance websites in Australia, as ranked by Nielsen Online Ratings, and is home to the Cool Company Awards, the 30under30 and the Smart 100. It’s where ideas and business meet.

For further information:

Lisa Walton, 0414209520, Lisa@OomphHQ.com 

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” Not a bad view for a Friday afternoon”

ACP Magazines rules Newsstand with both Australian Women’s Weekly and Gourmet Traveller featuring at one and two in both Top free iPad apps and Top Grossing iPad apps.  Nice!

Thanks for the heads up Maeve O’Rourke, Senior Mobile Producer from ACP Magazines.

Note Impress Magazine by StreetPress Australia hits number 5 in their first week of launch.

StreetPress Australia today released their fourth iPad magazine – Time Off (QLD).  This sits alongside Three Magazine (their iPad only magazine) and their other weekly street mags Drum Media (NSW), InPress (VIC) with the Drum (WA) launching next week.

In the App store where there are hundreds of new apps launched daily, it is vital to promote these apps so it stands out in the crowd.   Congrats to SPA for embracing this challenge and going the extra mile in transforming their print mag covers into iPad promo tools – if you hadn’t realised the image above is a picture of their print magazine.

These mags continue to be heavily supported by Apple in the App Store charts and this is due in part to their entertaining and original content but also because of SPA’s progressive marketing strategy.  Talk about embracing the new medium!

The below is SPA’s press release 

Three down, one to go, as Time Off’s first iPad edition goes live onto the app store today, complete with interactive content.

The launch of Queensland street press Time Off (who share a publisher with Your Daily SPA in Street Press Australia) follows the successful launches of Melbourne’s Inpress and Sydney’sThe Drum Media.

Both The Drum Media and Inpress have enjoyed success on the new format – launched to accompany the existing physical print editions – with Street Press Australia holding down positions 4 and 5 in the App Store’s Newstand charts for free apps over the weekend.

The launch edition of Time Off features an interactive cover with The Wiggles, as well as embedded video with Thousand Needles In Red and HTRK stories and mp3 tracks with album reviews of The Fauves and Witch Hats.

Next week will see the launch of Perth’s The Drum Media into the weekly cycle.

Download Time Off on the iPad now!

You can download The Drum Media and Inpress now.

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Below is Active Media Group’s press release about their publication Fitness First winning the inaugural Best App on a mobile or tablet device at the Publishers Australia 2011 Excellence Awards.  Oomph has powered the app since it’s launch in November 2010 and has recently taken on iPad production also.  Best of all you can download the app here for free.

Fitness First Magazine iPAD wins Best App on Mobile or Tablet Device at 

the Publishers Australia 2011 Excellence Awards

The Fitness First magazine iPAD app was recently awarded Best App on Mobile or Tablet Device at the Publishers Australia 2011 Excellence Awards.

The Awards, which celebrate the best in Australian print and digital, were held on Friday 11^th November and attended by 500 publishers, editors, journalists, designers and digital suppliers.  The Fitness First Magazine iPAD App won the inaugural ‘Best App on Mobile or Tablet Device’ category for its innovative approach to presenting information in an interactive format.

Michael Ryan, Director of Active Media Group, Fitness First, said the team is thrilled to be recognised with this award.  “It’s a huge achievement to be selected from among the best digital publishers in the industry,” said Mr Ryan.

“The Fitness First Magazine App is unique because it delivers cutting-edge and practical information to help people take their health, fitness and lifestyle to new levels. And anyone from anywhere around the globe can access this App, so long as they have an iPAD and an internet connection.”

The content in the App is based on the Fitness First print magazine, which is distributed every two months via all 94 health clubs around the country. However, the Fitness First Magazine App includes exclusive and extra content, such as:

• videos of the exercises in Fitness First training programs to help you master safe and correct technique
• exclusive video messages from authors, providing you with training tips and supplementary information not included in the hard copy version of the magazine
• behind-the-scenes video footage
• ability to instantly enter competitions (if online at the time of viewing)
• ability to instantly send feedback to the editor (if online at the time of viewing).

The Fitness First Magazine App is produced in conjunction with Oomph Publishing and SoDUS Creative and is available for FREE from www.fitnessfirst.com.au/magazine New issues are released every two months, in conjunction with the release of the print magazine in clubs. However, with iOS5 on your iPAD, you can subscribe to the Fitness First Magazine App (for FREE) and all future issues will be automatically made available for download in the Apple Newsstand, as soon as they are released.

 About Fitness First Australia

Fitness First is the largest privately owned health club group in the world with over 450 Fitness First clubs worldwide reaching over 1.2 million members in 15 countries.  In Australia there are 95 Fitness First clubs with over 350,000 members.  Every month there are more than 2 million visits to a Fitness First club in Australia, with over 200,000 personal training sessions and more than 20,000 Group Exercise classes. Our mission is simple. We want to make the World a fitter place. www.fitnessfirst.com.au

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Oomph is growing fast!  To make sure we continue to deliver excellence in our platform and customer support, we are excited to announce that Tony Redhead has joined Oomph as our first Creative Technologist.  Tony has a wealth of experience working on some amazing projects in the US and Australia plus he’s bursting with enthusiasm for the Oomph platform and what it can deliver for our clients.  Tony will be managing the Oomph community and help provide support and guidance to our clients and dev teams.   I asked Tony a little bit about himself – and to explain exactly what a Creative Technologist does.

The start of my life as a graphic designer started many years ago at Channel Nine in Willoughby creating “supers” for the promotions department, but before long I moved to Channel Seven to take up the role of Art Director for news graphics.

In 1984 I joined digital pioneer Quantel and worked on the development and promotion of a system called the “Paintbox”. The paintbox became a key component in the commercial acceptance of digital imaging. In 1987 I left Quantel and started my own production company, Electric Paint, in Los Angeles using paintboxes to create “key art” or what are more commonly known as movie posters. We were one of the first companies in the United States to use computers to retouch high resolution images suitable for printing as movie posters.

In 1992 I left Electric Paint to work as a consultant and relocated to Japan to develop an in-house digital studios for Tokyo agency Leo Burnett-Kyodo.

After working as a consultant for a number of years with software companies such as Macromedia, Fractal Painter, Live Picture I returned to Australia in 1995 and established on of the first internet agencies in Australia, Red Square Productions. Red Square went on to develop long lasting relationships with a number of key brands including Qantas, Panasonic Australia, YHA, Maersk Shipping, the oneworld Alliance of Airlines to name a few.

In October 2008 we merged the business out of Red Square with another internet agency webqem and I entered what I thought would be semi-retirement, how wrong can you be!

Oh oh, no golf! Well I’d been involved with the Adobe beta of DPS and as a consultant I wanted to get a good understanding of the different technologies that companies such as Woodwing, Adobe, Aquafadas had to offer. In early September I was inquiring about a publishing program on a Linkedin group, when Keith Ahern, the CEO of Mogeneration, mentions his product Oomph. So I sent off an email saying I was interested and about a week later I was invited to a demo of the platform. I don’t know how many hours and sleepless nights exploring the wonders of Oomph I’ve spent in the last month but it’s certainly opened my eyes to a fantastic platform and now I find myself being part of it’s success. Serendipity is a wonderful thing

What can you say about Orion but a great crew, wonderful food and a beautiful ship. During the 15 years we ran Red Square, my wife and I, as sole owners really didn’t have time for holidays, so after the merge with webqem we promised ourselves a trip to Vietnam to see my daughter who had been living in Hanoi for a couple of years. Cruising was never really on our horizon but Kelly, my wife, saw Orion and read that they were doing a inaugural cruise up the Gulf of Siam to Ho Chi Minh city, so we booked our passage. Now 360 panorama photography is one of my passions and during the trip I took a number of panoramas around the ship, as it turned out, the owner of Orion, Sarina Bratton, was onboard for most of the cruise and as it’s a small ship and you end up on very small zodiacs it’s not hard to make friends. After our return we met at a social event and I showed her some of the panoramas I’d shot on-board and she was very enthusiastic about them and asked if she could use them on the site. This started a great relationship and now I’m in the process of creating an Oomph app that will highlight the Orion 2012 sailing schedule as well as showing the beauty of the ship via the 360 panoramas I’ve taken. It’s that old serendipity again!

Gosh, where do you start? I’ve been digital since 1984 and for a long time is was a gentle wave now it’s a Sunami, the change of pace is accelerating and digital publishing is up there on the crest of it going at a 100mph. It’s an incredibly exciting time and products like Oomph are putting such powerful but fun tools in the hands of creative people who are developing the future. The change that happened so far and the change to come in the near future will have such an impact on so many aspects of our lives it’s the most exciting time.

There’s lots of debate going on at the moment about Creative Technologist and their job description. I’m a bit of an old romantic and I always liken it to the artisan of old, they were creative but at the same time they had the technical skills to make their own brushes or create their own paints. For me it’s not about coding etc it’s more left brain right brain working together to create conceptual applications based on good technology.

Once the light went on in the old brain I was so impressed by what Oomph had delivered, it’s such an elegant solution with almost unlimited flexability for designers to develop unique interactive magazine. I don’t know how you guys came up with the underlying workflow but thank you very much. Rather than a particular function, of which there are many, I think it’s more the complete package that wins you over. The ability to create complex multi layered pages is probably my favourite. I think if you can create the feeling of layers then there is a depth and richness to the page. If every element has to sit within it’s own little piece of the screen you just don’t get the richness. The crew are great, as you can imagine I’ve been pushing the product in ways it probably wasn’t meant to be pushed and the development team has been very patient dealing with my enquiries. I think everyone at Oomph realises they are witnessing and participating in a radical change in the way we publish and it’s reflected in their attitude and desire to make it work.

I want to create a groundswell of opinion from creative individuals in the publishing industry both in Australia and worldwide that they want to develop in Oomph, that Oomph gives them the best platform to express themselves in this new medium, that Oomph allows them to experiment and be innovative but still make that deadline.

Thanks Tony – and stay tuned for more blogs, insights and tips from Tony!

Lisa Walton, Marketing Director Oomph.

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Oomph attended Magazine Week on 10-11th November.  The Publishers Australia event had over 70 inspiring (and at times colourful) speakers and panelists and was attended by over 350 publishers from across the country. The Excellence Awards gala evening closed off the week with a bang!

It was a rare opportunity for publishers and service providers alike to get together, review the market and look to the future.  For the team at Oomph, it was a chance to re-connect with the editors, producers and decision makers from both large multi-title businesses to independents, many of whom face the same the same challenges in the quest for consumer share of wallet and share of attention.

A key take away for me was that in the world of new media, success relies on delivering well designed, relevant, entertaining (or educational) content – the core skills of any good magazine publisher.  The Oomph digital publishing platform complements these skills by making it simple for magazine publishers to create multi-media digital experiences.

Congrats to Active Media Group for their Fitness First iPad magazine winning the Best App on Mobile or Tablet Device at the Magazine Week Excellence Awards 2011. This iPad magazine provides the essential tools to create and sustain an active, healthy and balanced life.  The app is proudly powered (and now produced) by Oomph and incorporates the latest features and functionality offered by the Oomph platform.  Judges made special mention of the suitability of the content and media for both the audience and advertisers as evidenced by the iPad version making a profit from the first edition.

Congratulations to the full list of 2011 winners, plus find out more about Magazine week here.

Lisa Walton, Marketing Director, Oomph.

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We’re pretty stoked to be named in the top 50 of Australia’s coolest business.  Thanks Anthill!

Oomph has scored a place among Anthill’s Top 50 in its 2011 Annual Cool Company Awards, a national program developed in 2006 to recognise Australian companies that are doing things differently to bring about positive change.  Oomph has been named one of Australia’s ‘Coolest’ businesses in Anthill Magazine’s Sixth Annual Cool Company Awards.

 Over 700 aspiring ‘cool companies’ were nominated for the 2011 awards, making ‘The Cools’ one of Australia’s largest business awards programs. The winners will be announced at an award’s function on Thursday 24 November 2011 and published on AnthillOnline.com.

“The Cool Company Awards are extremely egalitarian,” said James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine. “Previous winners have included two-person start-ups, not-for-profit social enterprises, large private companies and publicly-listed corporations.”

“Judging takes into account far more than mere business variables, such as revenue and wealth. The criteria is geared to consider other qualities, from the disruptive nature of the product or service to the culture of the organisation.”

“Applicants either nominated themselves or were nominated by peers, work colleagues, family, friends and other ‘admirers’. A field of hundreds was examined (and cross-examined) before our judges were able to isolate three Finalists for each of our seven categories.”

 What are Cool Company Awards?

The Cool Company Awards was launched in 2006 as a way for Anthill Magazine to publicly acknowledge and celebrate Australian organisations that are doing things differently to bring about positive change. In its sixth year, the awards attracted nominations from over 700 organisations, making it among the largest business award programs in Australia.

 What is Anthill Magazine?

 AnthillOnline.com is a digital business magazine that celebrates creativity, inspiration and commercial ingenuity, providing a fresh, exciting and practical perspective on Australian business in a global world. It is among the Top 50 Business & Finance websites in Australia, as ranked by Nielsen Online Ratings, and is home to the Cool Company Awards, the 30under30 and the Smart 100. It’s where ideas and business meet.

For further information:

Lisa Walton,  Lisa@oomphHQ.com, 0414209520

The urban dictionary tells us that being cool – is laid back, relaxed, not freaked out, know what’s going on.

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