:: By Courtney Ackerman, Print Media Director and Tim Glover, Digital Media Director

With more than 3 million iPads sold in less than three months, there are nearly 3 million different opinions around the tablet device – and seemingly just as many questions facing brands considering how the iPad impacts marketing efforts.

Is it an e-reader? Is it an oversized iPhone? Is it for creating content? Is it for consuming content? The answer to all of these questions is yes. As iPad impact continues to unfold, it’s clear that this new technology is already fueling new developments in media.

Convergence, Consumption and Change
Media convergence is nothing new to the industry and media consumption now shifts across multiple screens to fit any consumer’s lifestyle and preferences. The iPad reminds us that a mobile device can no longer be defined as just a phone, fueling more change than the smart phone or even the laptop initiated.

The consumer’s hunger for convenience and portability, combined with more powerful mobile devices accessing broadband more freely than ever, brings new opportunity to marketers. Since launching less than three months ago, the iPad has already bubbled up three trends across three media categories.

The device’s ease of use and portability makes it attractive to consumers young and old.

Online Builds Portable Brands: Publishers can now give consumers a richer level of content in a larger, more powerful and more portable format. This new level of convenience raises consumer expectations for all media providers. New partnerships are forming to blend mobile and display media to build better ad platforms that can be served across different devices.

Rich media platforms are being beta tested to better understand consumer interaction. Early numbers show consumer engagement 100 times higher than online display ads based on click rates. The industry is also discussing the future of iAds and how the lack of Flash and introduction of HTML5 will increase more video opportunities.

Apple’s iAds mobile ad network already has $60 million in commitments for 2010 with brands as diverse as Chanel, Nissan, Citibank, Campbell’s Soup, Sears and Walt Disney Studios all signing on. Applications offer less expensive opportunities for unique iPad media buys, but tomorrow will bring an entirely new set of considerations as this space changes quickly.

Print Infusion: Print publishers were amongst the first to tap into iPad’s potential to invigorate their brands and increase revenue. Consider how the iPad changes the reading experience. WIRED magazine, for example, now offers a deeper level of detail, adding interactive infographics, video and even music to articles within the same look and feel of an 8 ½ by 11 printed page. Readers accustomed to flipping the pages of a magazine or reading long columns in the newspaper can still scroll from side to side or up and down to navigate through their reading experience.

In the process they discover expanding pictures, multimedia content and a higher level of interaction with a brand. This interaction can start in the magazine and continue elsewhere online as advertisers offer content beyond the ad itself through links.

The iPad’s ability to fuse the engagement of print and online ads, making them available in another digital platform, has already seen success.

USA Today’s partnership with Marriott brought the application to users free, which more than delivered the anticipated impressions in the second week of its three month sponsorship, while GQ’s iPad version is still gaining traction.

WIRED magazine more than managed high expectations and is the new standard for any magazine coming to the iPad. In fact, WIRED’s iPad sales are already beating its newsstand sales. And Conde Nast is making it clear they can extend advertisers across a variety of platforms, in the hopes increased ad spending will follow across all of its titles.

Early adopters can gain an edge, taking advantage of the benefits this new platform brings. But iPad ads come at a premium price and publishers are still figuring out metrics. Sponsorship, production fees and, depending on an ad’s features, development of video content or a 360 degree product view can add up quickly.

While the cover of WIRED is optimized for the iPad’s ability to shift seamlessly between landscape and portrait views, not all of its ads are similarly optimized.

With more publications set to release their own iPad applications, customization will become more prevalent in the near future. Expect integrated deals across print, online, mobile, video and tablet to surface as a result from this print infusion.

From Flat Screen to Touch Screen: The increased desire to time-shift viewing has created an entirely new landscape for how people view their favorite shows. The networks have fully grasped this with their full-episode players and are even introducing advertising opportunities during the Upfront negotiations. ABC has already branded itself as the first network to market with an app to view their programs, with 650,000 episodes already viewed. Early test results from the first 10 advertisers invited to test this space are yet to be released, but there’s no doubt that the “follow the consumer” mindset for marketers will only increase over time.

Beware of iPad Blindness
Whether it’s the iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Android, Blackberry, Netbook or PC, consumers seek the content they love where, when and how they want it. As a result, it is increasingly important to always diversify marketing plans and take advantage of the converging media landscape. It’s important to look at digital media forms as extensions of traditional platforms.

Marketers must take the iPad frenzy seriously, pragmatically considering how it impacts the brand. The iPad is another way to create a brand interaction with a consumer segment, and as such, can play into a brand’s marketing efforts complementing other media forms to surround the consumer on their terms.