Branded Mobile Applications - In the Trenches, Beyond the iPhone - Extended Edition

Parts of this post appear in the article “Branded Mobile Applications: In the Trenches, Beyond the iPhone,” in the Mobile Marketer Guide to Classic Advertising. This is the “extended version – blog cut.” The extended blog version pieces are in italics. Additions by Matt Gratt – reach him at Matt (at) Ondeego (dot) com.

Branded Mobile Applications: In the Trenches, Beyond the iPhone

By Ken Singer

Many said it couldn’t be done, but Apple’s iPhone proved that consumers will download and engage with a wide variety of branded mobile applications. The Zippo Lighter mobile application is a good example – it is the 13th most downloaded free iPhone app, with over 2.5 million downloads (Apple). Other applications offered for everything from ski condition reports to recipe finders to other branded mobile services for consumers have generated substantial brand utility, website visits, and even direct revenue. While brands making software services for mobile phones may seem strange, it reflects several current trends in marketing. No longer can brands “interrupt” consumers into attention, as Seth Godin and many others will tell you. The iPhone application needs to be of serious utility to consumers – often aiding them in enjoying the brand’s products. For instance, as a snowboarder, I love the North Face Snow Report app (and the many other ski report apps out there from different brands – REI, CLIF Bar, etc) – it enables me to find the ski resort with the best powder on a weekend pilgrimage to Lake Tahoe. Rather than trying to interrupt me while I consume media, the brand is instead reaching out and giving me a service to help me enjoy their products.

However, only 17 million consumers use iPhones, compared to the more than 50 million BlackBerry users (Walt Mossberg, AllThingsD, April 10th, 2009.) There are also millions more smartphones on Windows Mobile and other proprietary operating systems. In the United States alone, there are more than 75 million smartphone users – the vast majority are NOT iPhone users. Lots of others in the blogosphere (http://www.unstrung.com/blog.asp?blog_sectionid=626&doc_id=164642>) having pointed out that the iPhone is not dominant, particularly as you look across the world. In the United States, the BlackBerry Curve outsold the iPhone last quarter (http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-outsold-by-blackberry-curve-in-us-last-quarter-2009-5). The iPhone is a great device – it has a great user interface and has really pushed the mobile landscape forward – but many mobile developers, particularly those in the Silicon Valley, fail to see the world beyond it. For instance, today Adverblog (http://www.adverblog.com/archives/003879.htm) points out that while 98% of Creative Directors own iPhones, less than 2% of the world’s phone-using population will even be able to download “an app for that.”

With the recent launch of BlackBerry App World, Windows Mobile Skymarket, the Android Market, and countless other application stores, an easy-to-use distribution channel now exists for these phones. Together, they give brands access to over 45 million consumers, more than any major network on TV. These app stores represent the future of mobile marketing and provide an extraordinary opportunity for consumer brands to make an early mark in this emerging medium. Brands that got their apps in the store in the first 25 apps or so did phenomenally well – see Kraft’s iFood Assistant and Zippo’s Lighter app. These other stores are growing quickly, so the next big thing in mobile advertising will be apps for all smartphones, not just the iPhone. For consumer brands, the BlackBerry app store and others are untapped markets for reaching your consumer.

Best Practices in Multi-Platform Marketing

Making apps for other phones can be a little bit trickier than making apps for the iPhone. With the iPhone, there’s one platform and one distribution channel. There’s an SDK provided for you, and many agencies (and who knows how many vendors – apparently everyone who owns a Mac) have developed iPhone development capabilities and expertise. The iPhone app is the low-hanging fruit of mobile apps – you just have to hope it gets approved by Apple. With branded apps for other phones, there are a few more hoops to jump through – but the rewards can be exponentially larger, in terms of AdAge coverage, PR, and most importantly, downloads. Your favorite friendly mobile applications vendor (like Ondeego) can help you navigate the trickier waters of other handsets.

Before you begin developing your killer marketing app for the smartphones of the world, ask yourself who you are trying to reach. Your target demographic will determine your target handsets. Also, if you’re aiming at a wealthy, educated, professional demographic, then targeting BlackBerry and Windows Mobile smartphones make sense. If you’re aiming toward a younger, more urban demographic, less feature-rich handsets like RAZRs, KRZRs, and lower-end smartphones are more appropriate.

Once you know what handsets your target demographic is using, you can begin the task of selecting a distribution channel. The OEM app store for the devices you’re targeting is obvious, but you should add in the independent app stores (Handmark, Handango, GetJAR, etc.), and a Web-to-SMS portal from a microsite. There are also carrier application stores, but many of these require particularly arduous approvals and testing. Approval times should be accounted for as many app stores have non-transparent approval processes – they can range from days to months. Apple’s somewhat schizophrenic approval policy has become a favorite topic of the blogosphere (http://www.unstrung.com/blog.asp?blog_sectionid=626&doc_id=164642). MG Siegler from TechCrunch has made this a personal crusade (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/02/like-my-parents-in-1994-apple-find-nins-the-downward-spiral-objectionable/), and writes some great articles on it. Other app stores approval processes range from no process what-so-ever to elaborate and Apple-like to unknown. Always have a back-up plan – there’s lots of ways to distribute an application – and make sure you budget time for approval mishaps.

Something we didn’t get to in the article is QA, or quality assurance testing of your mobile app. It is pivotally important that your vendor tests your application on all of the phones he or she claims it works on. Real phones – not emulators. Make sure they also test it on all carriers they say it will work on. At Ondeego, we use DeviceAnywhere – a great testing service that lets you use real phones over the internet - to make sure our applications work on all handset and carrier pairs that we claim. (Disclosure: DeviceAnywhere worked with Ondeego to provide free hours to the UC Berkeley students developing mobile applications in our class at UC Berkeley. They’re a partner of ours.)

Marketing your application is also very important. To be effective, your mobile application should be part of a holistic strategy across multiple channels – not just an application. You’re launching a branded mobile service, and consumers have to find it to download it. Advertising on other mobile applications or websites can be effective, but blogger outreach and social media is the most cost-effective way to market your app. While there are many best ways to publicize your app, we’ve found the cheapest, most effective way is through blogger outreach. There’s a lot of device specific blogs and area specific blogs – ie you have a golf course finder for BlackBerry – you should reach out to BlackBerry bloggers and golf bloggers. The drawback here is that you have to have a good application that people will write about. (Then again, if you don’t, you may be barking up the wrong tree. Just having a mobile app isn’t enough – it has to have real utility to the end user.) Alternatively, if you have money, you can use ad buys on other mobile sites and applications – the main advantage to these is it targets users that already use mobile services. As is somewhat obvious, these ad buys cost money, while blogger outreach is free.

Considering a multi-platform mobile app? Come see the experts at Ondeego. We’ve launched marketing apps for large brands that work on most handsets on the market. Email sales@ondeego.com to set up your free consultation.

Note: All statistics are current as of this writing. They may change.