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Last Post: 16-07-2008

Marketing, Content and Mobile Applications

Author: Sergio Llorens

I guess if you are reading this it is because you are from the sector, you know us, you are one of my family members. So if you meet these requirements you may already know that everyone is speaking load about applications: content publishers, mobile operators, digital marketing agencies, classic media publishers, developers, IT consultancies,…

Well, everyone is right. All of us should be doing things with applications. Why?

-Handset manufactures and mobile operators are pushing Smartphones into the market.

-They are also releasing a great number of Application Stores: OVI (Nokia), App World (Black Berry), PALM, Android, Vodafone, Telefonica, etc.

-iPhone application store has proven to be a good platform to distribute applications (let’s see how sustainable would be in the long run)

-Content providers and publishers are discovering new ways of reaching their audiences

-Brands have discovered the power of mobile marketing and the power of simple and value added applications to strength ties with their customers

We are still on the growing part of the typical life cycle curve of a product but we all need to be there because millions of clients are waiting for smart applications.

Clients! We would love to know them better, we would love to know what they want and when, and we would love to know how much our product is worthy for them. I don´t have (still) these answers but I read interesting things about the iPhone users in the US (Source: Nielsen, report 2008). Although each market is different we should read between lines to understand our customers in local markets.

- 67% of iPhone users are male

- 55% of users are under 35 years (compared to 34% of all mobile subscribers). We know a bit more on this.According to the latest information there are as many >55 users than users ranging between 13-24 years.Interesting for brands targeting senior population, isn’t it?

- iPhone users are more affluent compared to all mobile subscribers. This is very interesting for brands.

- 68% use wifi to browse and use applications (so at home, at work). That explains the big difference of navigation usage of iPhone users.

- iPhone users watch more videos than other mobile users


Building an app (if you control all related technical issues) may be easy to do. We have seen a bit of everything: rights and wrongs, as usual in all business. Let’s see only some tips about nice things we have found on applications related to brands (advertising apps)

We don’t like:
- Applications mimicking the web page
- Applications only describing products and services (but less information and less features than the web)

We like:
- Applications being an extension of your product or service
- Applications offering simple things: content for instance. A simple blog will suffice but more things can be done to create a hook between brands and audiences
- Risk: brands who take the risk of associating mobile applications or utilities to their brands even if it’s not directly related to the “physics” of the brand but to the “emotions and values” of the brand.

At the end the key point is to find the hook: a nice service or simple content that adds value to their audiences. Please pay attention in the next months and you will see many examples of brands becoming content publishers. Don’t take me wrong, I am not saying Beyonce will launch a new album with Cocacola (or maybe yes, who knows).

Thanks for your reading.

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