Today the Digital Publishing team held a Digital Publishing Summit in New York City. The event was an opportunity for companies, agencies and educational institutions to learn how tablet applications can drive deeper customer engagement, enhance brand loyalty and influence purchase channels.

Marquee speakers from well-known brands, advertising agencies and universities, who use Digital Publishing Suite today, wowed the audience with their dynamic tablet applications exemplifying how tablets are changing the way organizations approach mobile marketing, customer acquisition and retention and drive new business opportunities.

The Summit kicked off with Forester Research delivering an engaging session that sparked a dynamic conversation about soon-to-be-released tablets. The discussion revolved around the changing tablet landscape, the value of an accessible app marketplace in making tablets and tablet content successful, and the types of companies that are using apps to transform their business including pharmaceutical/life science organizations, auto manufacturers and catalog retailers.

Sotheby’s, Benjamin Moore and Red Bull then took the main stage to discuss how tablet applications are fundamentally changing the way they engage with customers.

Sotheby’s, a leader in the auction world, plans to expand its tablet catalogs built with DPS to over 400 by the end of the year, eliminating much of the cost associated with publishing print catalogs.

Sotheby’s discussed why their tablet applications came about, how they perform much better than the Sotheby’s website and print catalogs in driving engagement and providing an expanded set of information about the art collections. Compelling, interactive features such as in-app note taking, the ability to see final sales price within the application and access to the content on the go, has proven to add significant value to the art buyer. The fabulous presentation from Sotheby’s got the attendees thinking about what is possible through tablet applications in their business.

Benjamin Moore, a provider of paints and stains, is a brand well loved by it loyal customers. Benjamin Moore discussed the role of their current iPad apps and recently released iPhone app (all built with Digital Publishing Suite) in driving, deeper engagement with paint products by providing a narrative shopping experience that capitalizes on how paint can spark emotion and drive a very personal purchase decision. A demo of the ColorTrends 2012 iPad and iPhone apps illustrated how applications can successfully   bridge the gap between traditional brick-and-mortar stores and other shopping channels, including the Benjamin Moore website.

Within the Benjamin Moore tablet app, users can request paint chips or order paint with the option of having it shipped or picking it up in the store (setting up impulse purchase opportunities for additional paint items). Additionally, Benjamin Moore discussed how making apps available to people on the go effectively drives location based merchandising and offers convenient store locator information.

Red Bull followed Benjamin Moore on stage. Red Bull isn’t just a high octane company that has sold 30 billion cans of their energy drink. They also produce events, music, entertainment and television content (on Red Bull TV) making them an aspiring media company and using their tablet application to tie it all together. Red Bull inspired the audience with their use of high production, highly creative videos included in The Red Bulletin tablet application built with Digital Publishing Suite – capitalizing on their customers’ love of multi-media to stimulate engagement. Red Bull publishes their tablet application in both English and German and has used it to drive customer and brand engagement worldwide – something they couldn’t do with the print edition of The Red Bulletin.

The University of Alabama took us from commercial applications to those used by higher education institutions to successfully engage with alumni as well as recruit students and college athletes.

Their highly successful Fan Guide and Gameday applications are built with Digital Publishing Suite and are a hit with all who follow college athletics. Both applications include video, slideshows, interactivity and more. The apps are used to successfully profile student athletes and make alumni feel connected to their university by providing a virtual game day experience – for when they can’t be in the parking lot tailgating before kickoff. University of Alabama has big plans to expand their applications to support product placement of university wear, T-commerce, live game day content streams, targeted marketing through integration with CRM systems and much more.

All of the applications showed at the summit are available for free in the Apple App Store or in the Digital Publishing Suite Gallery. Check them out!

For those that couldn’t be in NYC with us, we missed you but we do plan to make video content from the event available next week. Stay Tuned.

Don’t forget to read about major Digital Publishing Suite announcements from earlier this week!