e-Mersion Media uses technology platform to launch Ibiza digital tourist magazine

Authorised Investment Fund (ASX: AIY) investee e-Mersion Media has used its magazine digitisation platform to launch a digital guide to Ibiza targeting the millions of tourists who visit the Spanish island each year.

Box Ibiza Magazine is the company’s first digital product created “from the ground up” and is being marketed as a definitive and interactive insider’s guide to the popular holiday spot.

e-Mersion – which changed its name from Box Digital Media in February – said the luxury lifestyle publication will bring the “pulse of the island to discerning individuals in search of an insider experience like no other”.

Importantly, it will generate revenue potential from multiple streams including app download fees, advertising across each issue and a share of e-commerce and merchandise sales from participating partners.

e-Mersion will also target monetisation of data generated through the digital platform for programmatic advertising purposes, as well as revenue-sharing with affiliated partners in hotel reservations, car rental and other services booked within the app.

Engagement platform

e-Mersion chief executive officer Vincenzo Viola said Box Ibiza Magazine will deliver stakeholders a “well-structured, innovative fan engagement platform” to keep users switched on to the island while attracting new followers looking for the “next big thing”.

“Regular visitors to Ibiza, or any of the world’s super islands, are no longer content to merely engage with their favourite club or DJ at one event alone – they want an active, ongoing relationship via new channels,” he said.

“They want to interact before, during and after the event experience – all of this opens up huge opportunities for clubs and key Ibiza stakeholders to create unique experiences, differentiate [themselves] from the competition and better monetise [customer] hunger and passion.”

Data analytics

e-Mersion’s “groundbreaking” magazine digitisation platform provides full contextual content and advertising opportunities complete with end-to-end usage and engagement tracking and user data analytics.

The platform is dynamic and allows magazine publishers and advertisers to access real time insights to drive future business and editorial decisions.

Users are exposed to editorial content within the magazine’s ecosystem – in other words, print which is enhanced with video, sight and sound.

Advertisers can access the same features to enhance their advertisements and utilise existing cross-media assets that would not otherwise be possible within a traditional print magazine environment.

Reporting dashboard

Mr Viola said e-Mersion’s comprehensive reporting dashboard will provide Box Ibiza Magazine advertisers with better information relating to traffic, user journeys and audience segments, and allow them to monitor and measure content engagement and e-commerce.

“Today’s powerful mobile devices enable consumers to unlock content that combines creativity with technology, resulting in a rich and disruptive experience unseen in previous generations of publishing,” he said.

“The e-Mersion platform will enable live updates; exclusive offers and event interactivity; quality, authentic, customised content; [an easy] purchase process prior to the event before touching down on the island; and VIP access meaning no queues, great offers and preferential service.”

Ibiza is one of the world’s premier travel destinations with a five-star hotel occupancy rate of 95%.

In 2018, the island attracted over 4 million visitors, each spending an average €250 per day.