THE RACV member magazine, RoyalAuto has travelled far beyond Victorian iPads to be rated among the world’s best magazine apps by the authoritative iMonitor scale.
The iPad app, developed and designed in Australia by RACV and Oomph HQ, was one of only three Australian titles out of 25 worldwide to achieve the top five gold star certification from iMonitor, which tracked more than 8000 magazine and news apps from 70 countries over the course of 2012.
RoyalAuto was awarded a perfect score for the app’s interactivity, ease of sharing articles via social media and video content. The app’s design and ease of use were also rated highly, scoring 4.5 out of a possible 5.
RACV manager member communications and RoyalAuto publisher Alison Dean said receiving such an accolade during the first 12 months of publishing via the iPad app was a tremendous result.
"We've always had fantastic content in the paper magazine, and to see how well it can translate to an iPad platform is a credit to all those involved,” Dean said.
“We've been able to utilise the full potential of the iPad with this app, and it is great to see RoyalAuto ranked among the top 25 news and magazine apps in the world.”
Dean said the iMonitor result backed up the endorsement readers had given the app.
"We have an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 on iTunes. We’ve also been the number one travel app on Newsstand at various times, and on average we sit between third and fifth,” Dean said.
"Our users say things such as 'engaging’ and 'beautiful’. We’re delighted that our readers find our app so easy to use.”
RoyalAuto is published in house by RACV for its members, and its core content of travel/leisure, motoring/mobility, competitions, events and member benefits has made it the highest-circulating magazine in the state, and the highest-circulating monthly magazine in Australia.
It has been published on iPad using the Oomph app publishing platform since September 2012.
Oomph CEO Keith Ahern said he was proud his company's work was being recognised internationally.
“With Oomph we set out to build a simple, smart way of creating interactive content that pushed the iPad to its limits. We wanted pages to come alive and tell stories in new and interesting ways. For users, we wanted them to think – this is how an iPad magazine should be,” Ahern said.
The scores for the iMonitor certification can be vieweed here.
