A panel of publishers convened before the lunch break at Tablet Revolutions attested to the high interaction rates associated with tablets. For Flixter, the movie site's iPad app is generating 7 to 9 trailer views per session compared to 2 to 3 on smartphones, according to chief revenue officer James Smith. Using are spending more time on the app per session on the iPad than phones or the Web. Christine Cook, who leads ad sales for The Daily, News Corp.'s iPad-specific newspaper said consumption of  video and long-form content has been higher than expected. The Weather Channel Interactive's Sheila …

Sheila Buckley, senior vice president-digital advertising sales at Weather Channel Interactive, says her company has been having "tremendous success" with its iPad platform, noting that about a year after its launch, The Weather Channel has just under 4 million iPad users. Still, she says, "Where is the money? Where is the advertising money. That's been interesting to see how that is evolving." I think Buckley was using the word "interesting" in the way some sales executives might use the word "frustrating," because despite the huge consumer uptake, Madison Avenue just hasn't …

When it comes to how people respond to advertising in iPad apps, "neuromatic" testing by Universal McCann found most ads are doing a good job of engaging both the cognitive and emotional sides of people's minds. Among ad features liked best were the ability to play a video, tap to view, photos, and 360-degree product views. One thing users didn't like was music in an ad auto-playing, leading people to try to shut it off as quickly as possible. "If advertisers think people can play music to get people's attention, that's a huge turnoff," said UM's Haggerty. In terms of …

This year will be the year that women truly embrace tablets, according to Michael Haggerty, SVP and Director of Research and Marketing Accountability at UM. What's attracting women to tablets? Unlike men -- who are obsessed with a tablet’s “cool” factor -- women like tablets’ portability, UM found. They’re hoping to jettison all their heavy magazines for one, light tablet, which they can easily carry in their “pocketbook,” Haggerty said. More broadly, UM found that tablets are family gathering tools -- as apposed to mobile phones, which people feel are personal devices -- which appeals to female consumers. For some …

So what are people actually doing with tablets, besides as child pacifiers? Michael Haggerty, SVP, Director of Research and Marketing Accountability, UM, was on hand to share research findings from the agency this year. Here's a few usage data points: Reasons for buying—women want portability; men want the latest gadget Over 50% said several times a day 2 out of 3 share with 2 or more people 63% Almost half are downloading free apps Tablet owners download an avg of 18 apps Men are 40% more likety to buy apps 65% of those …

Remember the scene in Woody Allen's classic "Sleeper" in which he wakes up in the oh-so-distant-future and winds up in a cocktail party where attendees pass around the "orb," a devices that gives drug-like pleasure to all the people touching it? That's what tablet computers, or least iPads, are like today, according to The Hyperfactor Chief Derek Handley. Speaking on a panel at OMMA Tablet Revolution, Handley was trying to explain the power of tablets to a real skeptic - me - and used the example of people who were gathered at a cocktail party who had to touch …

Considering the vast majority of video consumption, for instance, still takes place on TV, how much should marketers actually put behind tablet campaigns or other projects? For the most part, the panelists agreed spending is mostly still at the experimental level. For Coldwell Banker, the appeal of tablets is not only as a new ad platform but a new way for people to handle real estate transactions. He points to the prospect of an app that could take users through the home buying process from initial search to closing a deal. MediaCom's Sloan Broderick also suggests the tablet has value …

For a newer generation, touch is interaction, says Rachel Pasqua, VP of Mobile at iCrossing, and mother of a few touch-happy kids. (Not just a kid issue, however, by a show of hands, just under 50% of OMMA conference attendees have attempted to touch a non-touch-friendly screen.) Touch, however, doesn't represent a tablet's real value, according to Derek Handley, co-founder and CEO of The Hyperfactory. Neither does it have anything to do with a "cool" or "novelty" factor. Rather, it's all about sharing, says Handley. "It feels like a shared device," he said. It's o mistake, he adds, that tablets …

Time to get touch-feely. The first panel of the day led by MediaPost Editor Joe Mandese takes a hands-on look at the importance of the touch interface on tablets and other devices. Is it really key to boosting engagement and building into branding strategy? The panelists including execs from Coldwell Banker, Razorfish, and iCrossing agreed that touch is the way digital interaction is going, especially for upcoming generations that just assume touchscreen functionality in devices. Rachel Pasqua of iCrossing noted that in working with Hearst in developing magazine apps, the idea of reading static pages really disolves because of the …

No, not even according to one of its biggest proponents, Fidelity Investments' Chris Needham. That's a problem, because Needham told OMMA Tablet Revolution attendees that tablet advertising is "300% more expensive to advertise on" than on "similar properties on the Web." "Clearly, it is not 300 times better," he admitted, adding that that lack of "efficiency" is one of his major concerns about tablet based advertising.