Social Gaming: An Intro for Advertisers

farmvilleSocial gaming is big…really big. To give you a sense of scale, here are some facts about the most popular social game, FarmVille:

• More people currently play FarmVille than have ever played Tetris
• There are more FarmVille installs on Facebook than there are twitter accounts
• FarmVille has more monthly active users than the population of France

In other words, if you don’t know much about social games, you’re missing out. Fortunately for you, this post will give you some background information on these games so you can have a great answer when your boss asks why you aren’t advertising on FarmVille.

What are social games?

Social games are simple, easy-to-play games that people play with their friends on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. They are similar to online casual games, but with significantly more social elements.

More specifically, social games have the following characteristics (thanks Ayogo):
• Simple to figure out, play, and advance levels
• Easily set aside and picked up later, with progress maintained
• Free or relatively inexpensive for basic gameplay
• Played on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace
• Highly integrated with your social network, with social activities being a key component of gameplay
• Virtual currency is often used, which can help you achieve more in the game by paying money or signing up for advertised offers

Currently, two of the most popular games are FarmVille (where players manage a farm involving harvesting crops and raising livestock) and Mafia Wars (where players complete jobs to advance their criminal careers).

Why are they so popular?

There are a few obvious reasons why they are popular: they live on a platform where people are already spending a lot of time (i.e. Facebook or MySpace), they involve the player’s friends, they are fun and easy to play, and they don’t require much time or attention to make progress.

There are also psychological benefits that make them appealing to players. The CEO of Zynga (the largest social game developer and creator of FarmVille) thinks social games have been successful because they:
• Make players feel like they’re playing with their real friends
• Offer ways for players to express their personality
• Reward players for being part of a sustained experience

In addition to these reasons for the popularity of social games, there is another key driver of their success – relentless viral promotion. Social game developers have mastered the art of spreading the word about the game through social networks. When you sign up for the game (and at most milestones during the game) you are asked to push out notifications, invites, reminders, and requests to your Facebook page and to other friends. These viral features are highly integrated into the game and are one of the key components in the design of the game. The promotion is so extreme that many Facebook users have even complained that there are too many status updates coming from these games.

The most popular social games are also heavily cross-promoted. For example, in the highly coveted area above the gameplay section in FarmVille, Zynga doesn’t sell advertising space but has their own banner with links to their other games. This, along with Zynga’s estimated $50 million a year spend on advertising within Facebook, keeps these games top of mind for many Facebook users.

Who plays social games?

Every day, more than 65 million people are playing social games. Players generally skew younger and female, but different types of games appeal to different demographics. Here are some stats for two of the most popular social games:

FarmVille (80 million active monthly players)
• 60% female, 40% male
• 18-34 yrs old
• Average session is 33 minutes
• Most popular time to play is 8-9am

Mafia Wars (25 million active monthly players)
• 30% female, 70% male
• 18-34 yrs old
• Average session is 20 minutes, twice a day
• Most popular time to play is 8-11am

How do social games make money?

There are two ways that games make money – advertising (both branding and lead generation) and direct payments.

It’s true that you can play most games for free, but if you want to progress more quickly, it will cost you. Most of the games rely on you earning virtual currency to perform better. You can get some of this virtual currency through regular gameplay (like harvesting crops in FarmVille), but you can also use your credit card or paypal to purchase virtual currency with actual money. Note that we are not just talking about a dollar or two, the default purchase amount in FarmVille (shown below) is $50!

fv1
Note: In FarmVille, $50 dollars will get you a manor, a few barns, and a whole bunch of chickens.

The other way to get virtual currency in these games is by completing advertised offers.

farmville offers
Note: Completing one offer will get you the “Farm Cash” equivalent of between $5 to $50 of real money.

These offers often involve signing up for a subscription based service (usually with a free trial) like Netflix or a book club. There has been some controversy around this practice, though, because some of these offers have been somewhat “scammy.” For example, an offer might have the player fill out a simple survey and have the results sent to a mobile phone number. Unbeknownst to the player, the fine print states that the player is actually signing up for a monthly service that will automatically be billed to their phone account. There have been many complaints of unsavory lead generation practices like this one. One study even found that a quarter of all players have felt misled by an ad or “special offer” from a social game.

Fortunately, the large game developers have been cleaning up their act recently on these type of offers (because of pressure from Facebook). It’s actually a very interesting story about how these tactics came to light and the repercussions they caused - you can read more about it here.

How can advertisers leverage social gaming?

The main opportunity for advertisers is running lead generation ads - where players sign up for something (or take some action) in exchange for virtual currency. Branding ads are not as prevalent because banner ads around the game are mostly used by game developers to cross-promote other games.

If I could give you one piece of advice about running lead gen ads in social games it would be “proceed with caution.” The issue I have with these incentive-based ads is that many players probably aren’t interested in the service they are signing up for. They are simply using it as way to get virtual currency without having to pay actual money.

Just imagine how many people are signing up for free trials and then quitting before they end. And think about other people who sign up for a subscription service with every intention of canceling, but simply forget to cancel at the end of the month. They are going to be quite upset a few months down the road when they notice the recurring monthly charge that they have been billed. Seems like this system generates a lot of bad leads and could even hurt the brand if consumers feel misled by the offer. Of course, companies with sophisticated analytics like Netflix must be finding that it’s cost-effective for them to continuing advertising within social games. But if you don’t have the robust analytics to back up your investment in these ads, you may want to stay clear of them.

Recently a new type of ad, more focused on branding, showed up on FarmVille. Microsoft placed a display ad for their Bing search engine on the main page of the game. Players could click on the ad to become a Facebook fan of Bing and receive free virtual currency (3 Farm Cash) in return. During the single day that the ad ran, Bing’s Facebook fans increased from 100,000 to 500,000. Impressive, right? Yes…but are these “fans” really fans of the brand? Probably not. I’m unconvinced that it’s a good strategy to do whatever you can (essentially bribing people) to get more Facebook fans.

In any case, social gaming does offer advertisers the opportunity to reach many people who are quite willing to sign up for offers in exchange for virtual currency. I’m sure there will also be new advertising models emerging as the social gaming space matures over the next few years. You should certainly keep your eye on the space and consider whether or not it makes sense for your brand.
2010
03/08
POSTED BY
John Boese
CATEGORY
gaming
TAGS










Write comment

Crowdsourcing: Getting others to do your work for you

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be an alien researcher with SETI or an investigative reporter for The Guardian in the UK? Well, now is your chance. Both are turning to the public for help with a project - one that is better performed by thousands of amateurs rather than a handful of experts. This is part of a growing trend by companies of reaching out to the masses for help with their projects and for advice about their products and services. It is also something that marketers should start thinking about for their own business.

crowdsourcing-cartoon1What is Crowdsourcing?
Crowdsourcing means outsourcing tasks that are traditionally performed by employees to a group of people or community through an “open call.” It is using the collective intelligence of many to either find the best solution to a problem or help perform tasks that would be overwhelming for a handful of people. A perfect example of crowdsourcing comes from the source of this definition, Wikipedia. Thousands of volunteers collaborated to produce over 14 million articles – and turned the encyclopedia market on its head in the process.

As a marketer, how can I benefit from it?
Generally speaking, there are three areas where crowdsourcing can benefit marketers: developing ideas for new or existing products, engaging consumers with an activity related to the brand, and generating creative ideas for advertising.

Developing ideas for new or existing products
Think of this as a modern day suggestion box. Consumers tell the brand what they can improve upon or what new products or services they should offer. The ideas are then voted on by consumers and the most popular ones are implemented by the company. The most successful examples of this type of crowdsourcing are Dell’s IdeaStorm and Starbucks’ My Starbucks Idea. Both of these sites let users make product/service suggestions, rate other people’s suggestions, and track the implementation of the most popular ideas. They’ve also both been quite successful. My Starbucks Idea has had over 180,000 registered users, 80,000 ideas submitted, and 50 of those ideas implemented in-store and Dell’s Ideastorm has had over 130,000 votes cast on more than 2,500 ideas.

Engaging consumers with an activity related to the brand
Instead of using the crowd to improve a company’s product or service, some brands are using it simply as a way to engage consumers and make them feel more connected to the brand. One recent example is Pepsi’s Refresh Project. Pepsi is allowing consumers to submit and vote on ideas that will make a positive impact in their community. Pepsi is awarding more than $20 million this year to fund the best ideas that will “refresh the world.” Chase Bank ran a similar program. They teamed with facebook to let users decide which charities will receive money from the Chase’s corporate philanthropy fund.

Generating creative ideas for advertising
If you’ve had enough of working with ad agencies, then this option might be for you. In this type of crowdsourcing, you bypass your ad agency and have consumers create your ads. This usually takes the form of an open competition where the winner(s) gets a cash award for either generating the concept of the ad or actually developing the completed ad. Doritos has been successfully running a Super Bowl Ad competition for years. Their crowdsourced ads consistently rank in the top five of Super Bowl ad polls and have earned the creators up to $1 million in bonus money for their stellar in-market performance. If you are apprehensive about the time and effort required to create a platform to run a crowdsourced project, don’t worry. There are companies who specialize in setting up these types of campaigns that can get you running in no time. Companies such as crowdSPRING and Idea Bounty will run the campaign right from their website and they generally receive more than 100 entries per campaign.

Go ahead, give it a try
The next time you have a project that you think could benefit from some fresh ideas, consider crowdsourcing. The collective intelligence of the masses may just bring you a great product idea or creative concept that you never would have discovered on your own.
2010
03/01
POSTED BY
John Boese
CATEGORY
crowdsourcing
TAGS











3 comments

Do you have banner blindness?

It was the largest eyeball I’d ever seen. It just stared at me. So I stared back…somewhat confused and slightly annoyed. What else could I do?

big-eye That was the last straw. The ginormous expandable banner ad on cnn.com took up my entire screen was blocking me from reading my story. I had enough. I was tired of internet ads using every trick in the book to get my attention. It was time for them to go.

After a few clicks, I installed a plugin on my internet browser and was AD FREE! And we’re not just talking about blocking pop-up or expandable ads, it removed every single display ad from every single web page. It reminded me of the early days of the internet before advertising took hold. No more floating snowmen or hit-the-monkey games. No more confusing ads that look like the page’s content. No more expanding ads that I can’t figure out how to close.

With over 10 million daily users, Adblock Plus is the most popular plugin of any category for the Firefox browser. It’s been around for years and is free, easy to install, and works quite well. As I started surfing the web in my pristine, ad free environment I wondered…how effective are display ads in the first place? Think about it…when’s the last time you actually clicked on an ad?

This brought up a few questions I set out to answer: Do people even look at banner ads these days? Who in the world actually clicks on these ads? And most importantly, are display ads effective at all?

Do people look at banner ads?
Usually not.
eyetrackingJakob Nelson, noted as “the world’s leading expert on Web usability” by U.S. News and World Report, ran eyetracking studies that showed users rarely look at display ads. Researchers even came up with a fun term for this discovery, “banner blindness.” They also found that in the few instances where ads do get a lot of attention, low-brow tactics are often employed. These tactics include making the ad look like part of the publisher’s content or including a picture that will catch a man’s “wondering eye” (i.e. showing cleavage or other alluring body parts). For advertisers not willing to sell their souls for a few eyeballs, don’t expect consumers to take much notice of your ads.

Who actually clicks on these ads?
Not many people.
Comscore found that only 16% of internet users click on display ads and only 8% of people make up the vast majority (85%) of all clicks. And the people who click on these ads aren’t the most desirable segment for most marketers. The demographics of clickers skew towards those earning less than $40,000 a year. If you are relying on clicks from these people to determine the effectiveness of your campaign, you are barking up the wrong tree.

If hardly anyone looks at banner ads and even less people click on them, are banner ads effective at all?!?!
It turns out that yes, they can be.
Research from Dynamic Logic and comScore bear this out. Dynamic Logic’s most recent MarketNorms report shows that display ad campaigns generate an average lift (between control and exposed groups) of 1.5 percentage points in brand favorability and 1.2 percentage points in purchase intent. Even though people aren’t staring longingly at ads for minutes on end, this data shows that ads must be positively effecting their brand perceptions in some way (either consciously or subconsciously). Now, if you are a research methodology snob like I am, you may question the accuracy of Dynamic Logic’s studies which rely on cookies (which many people regularly delete) and which recruit participants through banner ads (skewing the sample towards people who notice banner ads). However, comScore has solved these methodological issues with their own research product, Brand Metrix.

Brand Metrix studies use a panel (people who sign up to be research participants beforehand) who agree to have special software installed on their computer to track all of their internet activities. And when I say all, I mean all - all display ads, visits to the advertisers or competitors web sites, search words entered into search engines, etc. ComScore also takes care to closely match the online behavior of the control group so that they resemble the exposed group in every way (except, of course, for exposure to the ad). After running over a hundred studies, comScore found that display ads are, in general, quite effective. On average, participants exposed to display ads had an increased likelihood to visit the advertisers website (+46%), conduct a search using the advertiser’s branded terms (+38%), and buy the advertised brand either online (+27%) or at a retail store (+17%). Not bad for something that people supposedly don’t pay much attention to.

What does all of this mean?
People don’t pay much attention to display ads. However, this doesn’t mean they aren’t effective. Research has consistently shown that the messages in display ads are getting through to the audience and affecting their future actions. But advertisers should be careful about doing whatever it takes to get noticed. Ads that beg for attention by interrupting and interfering with the user experience may do more harm than good. It’s true that they may get more clicks, but at the cost of alienating users and fostering negative perceptions of your brand.

I still don’t know what brand was behind the enormous eyeball staring at me on cnn.com. However, if I do find out then I guarantee you that whatever they are selling, I’m not buying.
2010
02/22
POSTED BY
John Boese
CATEGORY
display ads
TAGS









Write comment

Cloud Computing; Mostly Sunny With A Chance of Rain

cloudcomputeIf I asked you, “What does cloud computing mean?” how would you answer me? Funny, because I recently asked some people around me, both personally and professionally, and I received a bunch of different answers. I have to say, my all-time favorite was, “Isn’t that when you, like, take a laptop on a plane? Kind of like the Mile High club, right?”. Now, as bizarre as that may sound, I guess they weren’t that far off. That said, it stands for something a little more complex than simply “computing on a plane”. In fact, I truly believe that this is the future of computing as we know it.

Alright, cloud computing. I guess to sum it up in a nutshell, it is a way for people to take advantage of services and media without having to “own” the systems and/or software which they are leveraging. Wow, that sounds like a lot of techno-babble bologna! What does it mean? Ok, imagine that you have just purchased a new computer. Now, as we all know, most computers these days don’t come with a whole lot of useful software to get your day to day work done. You go to write a document or open a spreadsheet and you realize you don’t have any Office productivity suite installed. What are your options? Well, you are going to have to go to a local reseller and purchase your own licensed copy of, say, Microsoft Office to install and use on the computer. BUMMER! Have you ever priced an Office suite? It is $300 at it’s cheapest (if you are a student) and $799 at it’s max (if you are a power business user). Oh no! So, now the cost of your cute little $300 portable just shot up to $1,000 in a matter of seconds. NIGHTMARE! Now, if you are crafty, or as my mother like to say-”frugal”–you just might be cunning enough to go and search out some of the free alternatives like Open Office’s “Open Office”. This is a moderately inexpensive solution and may give you what you need, albeit not exactly Microsoft Word or Excel. So, it seems we have solved our problem, no? Cheaper software when you need it most.

But wait! Let’s take this scenario and see how we can bring it over and put this solution in “The Cloud”. So, here we are with our very same $300 lappy. We still don’t have anything we can use to open up these documents that we desperately need to finish editing. In addition, the idea of spending $799 or even $30 really has us bummed out because, well, let’s face it, we just don’t want to spend the money! What to do? Well, let’s see. Oh, hey, if you are lucky enough to have a GMail account the answer is pretty much solved. Google offers something called “Google Docs“. This is a free service for those that already have a GMail account. All you have to do is log your GMail account, click on the “Documents” button and VOILA! You are magically transported to a place where you can upload all of your Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents and work on them at the same time! WOW! Not only was that easy, but it was FREE!! Now that $300 netcutie we just purchased is actually becoming more valuable no?

“Well, what if I don’t have a GMail account? I don’t want to open up a GMail account when all of my email is actually going somewhere else! That’s a pain!”

I totally hear you. And you know what? You don’t have to! There are other services out there that do exactly the same thing. My personal favorite is Zoho. There you can not only use office productivity suites, but they have an entire infrastructure built so that you can do invoices, calendars, to-do lists and much, much more. Again, you need to sign up for an account (membership is free) but you don’t have to change your email address to do it. AWESOME!
Now, obviously, this is just one scenario where “The Cloud” can actually save you not only a lot of time, but also a lot of money and headaches. If cloud computing were only about office productivity suites, the idea would have fallen by the wayside quite some time ago. That said, what else can we do in “The Cloud”?

File Storage
Recently, there have a been a host of companies springing up offering online storage of user-generated content. They all pretty much do the same thing. They allow you to put the files that you use the most every day or want to access every day in a secured area somewhere where you have access to them through either a web browser or an application on your mobile phone. Some of these companies are MyDocsOnline, Box.net and, my personal favorite, DropBox.
Online Backup
Here is a BIGGY!! How many times have you been out on the road and, for whatever reason, your laptop just quits running! You take it into the shop only to find out that you have a hard disk failure and everything you have been working on is now gone. Worse yet, you need to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,500 - $3,000just so they can retrieve files that may or may not work!! EW!

Some companies, like Mozy, have realized that a safe and secure backup may be just the thing that saves your neck in a crunch. Now, all you have to do is pay the $100 it might cost to get a new hard drive installed, download the backup software onto the new hard drive and BOOYAH–you are right where you left off before your machine decided to take a holiday. Of course there are many other companies that offer similar services. Point your browser’s search engine to “Online Backup” or even “Online Disaster Recovery Solutions“. You will be rewarded with 10 - 100 pages of different companies who would be happy to help you out.
Photo Sharing
Alright, this is another one of my personal favorites. I am pretty confident that most of you reading this have already been able to take advantage of the myriad solutions available online for sharing photos. These sites are GREAT! They allow you to throw up your photos and share them out to family and friends as well as allow you to look at them on your mobile device. Some of these services include; Flickr, Kodak, MobileMe, Photobucket and Snapfish, to name a few.
Note Taking
I am sure some of you are asking, “Why would you separate out Note Taking when you’ve already talked about Office Productivity suites?” and you would be right in asking. You see, to me, there is a drastic difference between actual word processing and simply jotting down a collection of notes/ideas either from a meeting or when I am generating ideas for blogs. For me - it is much more convenient to do away with all of the formatting involved with word processing and just get down to the basics for these tasks. Evernote is a free service that allows you to have about 40MB of Notes (which is a lot considering a general note is about 30k *1024k = 1MB) uploaded every month. If you want to splurge for the $45/year service, you can upload up to 500MB/ month… not bad. Evernote is available on both PC & Mac as well as iPhone and Blackberry. This service also allows you to share out notes with members of a team so that they can make changes and add commentary as well.
Music Streaming
As much as I hate to say this, no article on Cloud Computing would be complete without mention of an online streaming music service. It may not be a big thing to you, but I know it is for some people. These sites allow you to have a compendium of different kinds of music and listen to them on the go. Currently, the most prolific of all these sites is Pandora. There, a user can make “playlists” and have an ongoing cycle of the kind of music they like to listen to playing all the time.

Business Applications
This area is actually one we use every day and probably don’t even realize that we do! The idea behind bringing Software As A Service, more commonly known as SaaS, is to give less responsibility to local IT offices while at the same time, providing necessary business functions. SaaS also helps IT organizations lower their annual cost of operations dramatically by allowing users to connect to business services without actually having to have staff available to maintain hardware and software problems that may occur with the system. A good example of this is the commitment that Microsoft has most recently made with the National Science Foundation allowing them to use their cloud computing service to help with growing numbers of computer data.
When all is said and done, like any other technological break-throughs, there are always going to be some “less-than-sunny” days. Take, for example, the recent scandal where Microsoft lost almost every Sidekick user’s data. That was incredibly painful, not only for the users, but also Microsoft. Kudos to them, however, for being able to retrieve all of those user’s data. My faith has been restored!
Whether you are a current user of “the cloud”, or you have contemplated becoming a user, I really believe that cloud computing is here to stay. Those of us who have made the transition early (hint, hint) will be better-prepared when the revolution actually takes hold. Nobody can accurately predict when wide-spread adoption of this kind of technology is really going to grab hold of the masses. All I know right now is, well, I’m pretty well on my way to being prepared. Are you?
As an experiment, pick just two aspects of your daily life and see how you can use cloud computing to make your life a little easier. Feel free to use some of the examples I have put up here, or, better yet, find some of your own solutions for things you use every day. It’s fun, it’s fast and it’s convenient.
2010
02/17
POSTED BY
jeffrey.bonacci@ogilvy.com
CATEGORY
cloud computing
TAGS


















Write comment

Foursquare…it’s more fun with friends

foursquare-webosJust what the world needs. Another mobile application. And this one is a doozy. It claims to be a social network, microblog, game, and city guide all rolled up into one. Ummm…this can’t be any good, right?

What exactly is this thing called “Foursquare?”
The basic concept of Foursquare is simple: it helps you locate your friends. You and your friends tell the application where you are throughout the day (i.e. at a certain restaurant, bar, store, etc.) and everyone can track each other’s location.

But what if you have no friends (or at least none that are on Foursquare)?
Don’t worry. Foursquare has other ways to keep you entertained – in the form of badges, points, and tips. (This is how the game and city guide aspects of the application come into play.)

foursquare-tips-2 Badges are small icons that you get on your profile after you’ve “checked-in” to certain places (i.e. told the application where you are). For example, if you check-in to three different karaoke bars within a month you will get a Karaoke Badge. There is not much you can actually do with these badges, but once you get a few I guarantee you’ll want some more (for a list of badges and how you get them go here).

Points are earned each time you check-in to a location or add a new venue into the Foursquare system. As with badges, points don’t really get you anything except possibly a warm and fuzzy feeling of accomplishment. However, there is a leaderboard listing the week’s highest scorers among your friends, which can give you some serious bragging rights in the foursquare world.

Tips are pieces of information that you leave at a location after you’ve visited. For example, at a restaurant you may leave the tip “try the crusted salmon” or “don’t get the chili.” Friends who go to the restaurant later will see these tips when they check-in. Think of it as a short and sweet version of yelp.

That’s all well and good, but why should I care?
With only 400,000 users Foursquare may be baby in the social networking world, but its growing fast…really fast. In the past two months, traffic to Foursquare’s site has increased three-fold. They now get over one millions check-ins per week, yes, you heard me, per week.

Companies have been taking notice. The blogs are all a buzz with Foursquare’s recent partnerships with Pepsi, Zagat, Tasti D-lite, Warner Brothers, Bravo, and HBO, among others. There are also hundreds of local businesses that now give their loyal customers discounts through Foursquare. Something is certainly going on here.

OK, but what does this all mean for ME?
If you’re a small business (think bars and restaurants), Foursquare offers a great way for you to reward your loyal customers. Through the Foursquare site, you can offer them a “mayor special” - a discount given to the person who visits their establishment the most during a certain time period. Of course, you can also create and promote other types of loyalty programs in addition to the one offered by Foursquare.

For larger brands, leveraging Foursquare is more challenging. Foursquare doesn’t yet have the scale to reach a mass audience. However, because Foursquare is currently a media darling, it could be a great way to generate buzz and PR. Aligning your brand with a hot, new social app may help you engage your mobile savvy target in a way that makes you seem “in the know.”

But what if your brand doesn’t have physical locations to use? Don’t worry, there are still opportunities to leverage the app. For example, Pepsi ran a campaign where they donated 4 cents to a local charity for every point New Yorkers earned during a certain timeframe. Even the Bravo TV network is getting in the game. They are offering badges and prizes to users who check in at Bravo-tagged locations themed around their various TV programs.

I’m still not convinced…is this really something worth trying?
Well, if the social media and mobile thought leaders are right, Foursquare could soon be as popular as twitter. Wouldn’t it be great if your brand was actually ahead of the curve on this one? Well, now is your chance. Instead of waiting a few months until everyone is on the Foursquare bandwagon, why not take the lead and create some buzz around your brand today!
2010
02/16
POSTED BY
John Boese
CATEGORY
mobile apps
TAGS









Write comment

Successfully Market An iPhone App

Marketing for iPhone apps is similar to marketing other products, although the marketing tools available have expanded recently - especially in the area of social media. The steps are still the same: develop a product that your customers need or would like to have (iPhone app), create and deliver a strong marketing message to attract a following, and continue to develop new products/features and upgrades to retain existing customers.

Step 1: Develop Key Value Proposition

What sets your iPhone app apart from all your competitors? Why would your target audience want it? You have to come up with ways to be unique. There are three key questions that you should attempt to answer as you define your iPhone app’s unique value. The answers to these questions become the basis of your marketing process:

1. What’s unique about your iPhone app? List all the features and functions that are unique to your app. This list will help you develop a marketing message for your app and keep you focused during app development.
2. Who is your target audience?
3. Who are your competitors?

Step 2: Deliver Your Message to your Targeted Audience

Demand for your app is created when you help a prospective customer see that you have a solution to their problem.

Delivering your message happens when you create powerful descriptions and visuals for your app on the AppStore and on your app’s own website and email distribution list. You must think in terms of showcasing your app on the AppStore and on a corresponding website/email. The email communications and website can be used to show videos of your app, provide additional screen shots and other content. Always display a “download now” button prominently on your own site that directs to your app on the AppStore.

Social media marketing can help you generate buzz for your app. Take a look at using Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social media tools to help get the word out about your app.

Step 3: Marketing Your App

With the right message and the right audience combined with the right marketing tools and methods, you can create marketing campaigns that will be extremely effective in reaching your ideal audience.

For every app you see – there are hundreds of thousands more that you don’t. While interactive content discovery is, for the most part, driven organically, the initiation of mass access to the content through intermediary media (blogs, newspapers, content aggregators, word of mouth) is only ensured through a strategically planned approach that includes both paid and unpaid media tactics targeting your audience. Paid awareness (mobile display ads, in-app ads) then become not only a driver of adoption/download but a highly unique showcase of the brand. Organic seeding is effective as well as public relations.

- Maria Mandel
2010
02/11
POSTED BY
John Boese
CATEGORY
mobile apps
TAGS


1 comment

QR codes have arrived!

qr-codeThe Weather Channel has thrown down the gauntlet.

In a bold move to increase awareness and acceptance of QR codes in the US, they have done what any self-respecting marketer would do to generate mass awareness – they put it on TV. That’s right. The Weather Channel is actually displaying QR codes on TV during their weather broadcasts!

What do you get if you scan the QR code that shows up on the TV screen?
The Weather Channel’s weather app, of course!

Now, you may be asking yourself, “who would actually take the time to scan this on their phone?” Apparently to The Weather Channel, it doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter that a majority of people don’t even know what a QR code is…or that the app is only for the (relatively) small Android market…or that users need to have already installed a QR code reader on their phone just to be able to scan the code. None of this matters because bold moves aren’t about doing what you already know will work, they are about taking a risk and trying something new.

If all of this makes you think that The Weather Channel is some sort of all-knowing guru in the mobile promotion space, think again. While they may have very popular weather apps for both the iPhone and Android, promotion of these assets on their website is comparatively archaic. Case in point:

Question: What sort of innovative goodies to do you think you receive if you click on the “mobile” link on www.weather.com and give them your mobile phone number? A cool application, funny video, or engaging mobile game?

Answer: Nope…just a text message with a link to www.weather.com. The same www.weather.com that you were already on in the first place. Ugh.

Also, you would expect the first company to put a QR code on TV (that I’m aware of) to have QR codes on their website. Ummm…nope. In fact, I couldn’t even find a mention of the Android app anywhere on the site!

All of this makes you wonder why they put the QR code on their TV broadcasts in the first place. Unfortunately, their seemingly schizophrenic approach to promotion between their TV channel and website is all-too-common with emerging media campaigns.

Someone, somewhere in the organization had a really innovative idea and had the power to push it through key decision makers. But the effort was done in isolation and was not part of a larger integrated strategy, and without additional support it ended up having less-than-stellar results. This poor performance then leads to skittishness about trying something new in the future.

This vicious cycle of poor execution resulting in poor performance and future risk aversion is what I call “the emerging media death spiral.” I just hope The Weather Channel doesn’t fall prey.

__________________________________
Update: 2/10/10

android-qrWhile spending an inordinate amount of time on weather.com today because of the blizzard, I spotted a QR code! It appears no where near the mobile section of the site, but instead pops up occasionally at the bottom of the local forecast page in place of a small banner ad. Ugh.
2010
02/05
POSTED BY
John Boese
CATEGORY
2d codes
TAGS







Write comment

The iPad: Unicorn or Frankentop?

ipadIt seems that nary a day goes by without everybody’s favorite fruit company coming up in the media somewhere. As of late, if you have had ANY interaction on the web, you have been pounded with the constant goings on of Apple’s new Tablet. Well, as of yesterday, they have unveiled what they believe to be the next entrant to the computer market; the “iPad.” So what is this mythical, unicorn of a frankenbot? Technically, it is a 1/2 inch thick slab of aluminum and glass, running a new “Apple A4 Processor” at 1GHz, that gives you a 1024 x 768 (either horizontal or portrait mode) multi-touch display, a non-physical keyboard that pops up when you need it, access to your music, photos, internet (minus an implementation of flash mobile), while doubling (read that as quadrupling) as an e-book reader and basic spreadsheet/document/presentation preparation device…uhh…tool. Really? I mean, REALLY??

Ok, so for the rest of the human population out there that really isn’t up on all the techno-babble, what the hell is this device? That is really hard for me to say. I want to tell you it’s an e-book reader on steroids-because, well, it is. I also want to tell you it is Apple’s replacement, or idea, of what a netbook should be-but it’s not. To call this device an over sized iPod is nothing more than moronic and an insult to all of the engineers at Apple who have worked so hard, for years, to pull this together. Ok, so…what is this thing then? More importantly, should I, or anyone for that matter, plunk down the $499-$829 that Apple is telling us it will cost for this device; and if I do, will I have buyer’s remorse? Well, that is a valid question, but one that is very difficult to answer. I have had no less than 30 people ask me what I think of this tablet. “Did you like it?”, “Will you get it?”, “What does it do?”, “Should I get one?”. All I can tell you is that you have to look at a few of things before you leap in and buy this new piece of Apple Kit. I truly think the deciding factors are A) Do you need a portable device? B) What can you live without on that portable device? C) What are you going to use a portable device for? D) Do you need to stay constantly connected?

This unit is, by no means, a laptop. Let me just say that again for all of you. This unit is, by no means, a laptop. You see, laptops come with an absurd amount of hard disk space. This device, at it’s BEST, has 64GB. A laptop also has built-in USB, Ethernet, CD, FireWire (on some laptops) and even a camera card reader or PCM/CIA slot. This device does not, though you can buy accessories that have some of that capability. Most importantly, you can add up to about 8GB of RAM in most laptops nowadays, whereas thing device…well, I don’t even KNOW how much RAM this machine has. A laptop is also a real computer. That means you can have multiple applications open at the same time and move back and forth between them easily. You simply cannot do that on this device. One app, one focus, one task at a time. Now, that said, it certainly is capable of a lot of different things.

How do you work? I know that I have a desktop, a laptop and an iPhone. For all of my big tasks, I use the desktop. There is just too much power in that box of mine to overlook and not use for, say, ripping my media and/or putting together some of my home movies and retouching most of my photographs. Besides, I’m the kinda guy that likes to sit at a bona fide computer and work when I have really serious work to get done. My laptop – well another no-brainer. I use this guy when I’m on the road and I know I’m going to be taking a ton of pics. I can upload them to the laptop pretty quickly and do some very minor adjustments on the fly. I also use it to make sure that while I am out on the road, I keep in touch. So, email – critical. Web surfing – critical. I also use my laptop for presentations at work. They are, granted, few and far in between, but I do present – thus the need for a portable machine. Now, my iPhone. Ha! Ok, I’m one of those slobs who uses his iPhone for just about anything I can so I DON’T have to carry around my laptop when I don’t want to. Yeah, I have given the iTunes ecosystem a pretty big chunk ‘o my paycheck since it’s inception. And you know what? It works for me most of the time. People make fun of me for taking notes on the iPhone, but hey – it works really well (for me) and, thanks to applications like Evernote and Soho Notes. I can make sure that everything I am typing on the iPhone also reaches my desk as well. So, all of THAT said, I am seriously looking into buying one of these new devices, and here is why.

As I just stated above, I use my iPhone for just about everything nowadays. I have already purchased several applications that allow me to do work on the iPhone as well as many applications that let me take my “experience” outside. One of my favorite apps is eReader Pro. Yeah – I have been using the ePub format for my books for almost 4 years now. I love it. Up to this point, I have LOVED reading on my iPhone. I find myself reading more now than I ever have, mostly because I am carrying around all of my books with me all of the time. So, eReader Pro – check – let’s take that big screen. I have also purchased two applications that let me take notes no matter where I am and transfer that information back to my desktop with relative ease. One is Evernote and the other is Soho Notes. Now, for me to use the iPad for this is just a no-brainer. It will be FAR easier for me to take notes on a (roughly) 10 inch screen than it is for me to use my iPhone, so I am excited about this feature. I have also bought myself a subscription to Dropbox. Now, for those of you that haven’t checked this out yet, I STRONGLY suggest you take a look. This little goodie gives me the ability to put things in “the cloud” and retrieve them at will. I can also share things with friends, providing they also have an account. I love this app and it has saved my butt on several occasions. Now, since they have an iPhone app – boom – I have access to the same documents on my (presumed) iPad. Another thing I have going for me is I am an avid MobileMe user. Yeah, I have the whole experience as well as a family pack so I can stay connected to my family (read that as close friends). Ever since Apple introduced the full iWork suite in 2006, I have been an avid user. I was really excited to see that they are taking that to the iPad platform as well. Now, I feel pretty comfortable that all of the documents I have created over the past 4 years will be easily readable as well as editable on the iPad. Productivity – check.

So, ask me now. How do I think the iPad stacks up out there in the big, bad world against all of the Laptops/Netbooks/e-Readers? Well, for me, I think it’s going to do just fine. I live in the cloud. I really do. I am one of those rare people that does just about everything I can away from a traditional desk, and I like it. With all of it’s limitations and problems, I truly think cloud computing is the way of the future and I have fully embraced it. Because of this fact, the Apple iPad is pretty much a solid piece of technical kit for me. Now, will I get rid of my laptop? No way – I do too much on it to get rid of it. And, let’s be honest, there is still a lot of stuff that an iPad will never be able to do for me. Will I buy an iPad with 3G access? Hmmm…I have an iPhone, and there is WIFI everywhere, so, for me, no. I won’t bother with the 3G, mostly because I (personally) don’t need it. All of this taken into consideration, I am definitely buying one because it works for me and the way that I already work. So, there, that is my official answer. It works FOR ME, so I’m buying one. Will it work for you? I dunno. You have to ask yourself all of the same questions I did. You need to evaluate how you work and how you are willing to work with an iPad if you bought one. If you think you can manage living on the bleeding edge of technology, in the cloud, separated from the chains of your desktop, and are willing to spend the money to buy the productivity tools you would need to maintain that lifestyle, I say “GO FOR IT”! If you the idea of that kind of lifestyle scares the holy bejesus out of you…uhm…I’d steer clear.

- Jeffrey Bonacci
2010
01/28
POSTED BY
John Boese
CATEGORY
ipad
TAGS



Write comment

Is your ad watch-worthy?

tivo_logoI’ll admit it. I’ve done it. And I’ll do it again.

It’s just too easy. A simple touch of the button and the TV ads zip through in a blur of squiggly lines and fast moving people. Then suddenly I’m back to watching what I actually WANT to see.

I know that I shouldn’t be skipping ads, because you know, that whole advertising pays my bills thing, but I’m human just like you. Oh DVR, why do you tempt me so?

Of course, there are some ads that I enjoy watching. Especially if they give me new information or make me laugh. Which brings up a good question:

Given the ability to skip TV commercials, which ads would people actually choose to watch?
Fortunately for us marketers, this isn’t just some hypothetical question. Tivo has the answer.

During CES, Tivo unveiled the “Battle of the Consumer Electronics Brands.” In this study, Tivo compared the TV ads of competing brands to determine which were more likely to be watched rather than fast-forwarded through. Here are some of the winners and losers:

slide12


What made some of these ads more watch-worthy?
Unfortunately, Tivo didn’t specify WHY these winning ads were watched more. However, a previous research study gives us a clue. In this study, Tivo worked with with a biometric research firm, Innerscope Research, to monitor the heart rate, breathing rate, and sweat levels of people as they decided which ads to watch or skip. They found that the most watched ads were the ones that were the most emotionally engaging, especially when those ads were able to draw the viewer in within the first few seconds.

What does this mean for advertisers?
It’s no surprise that people like ads that engage them on an emotional level. However, this research is a reminder to all of us about the importance of providing a benefit to the consumers who view our ads. Whether it is giving them new information, a warm & fuzzy feeling, or a laugh, when creating ads we need to think about what will make people decide to watch our ads in a world when they no longer have to.
2010
01/19
POSTED BY
John Boese
CATEGORY
dvr
TAGS

Write comment

You can be FAMOUS!

If you’ve ever dreamt about seeing YOUR face on a billboard in Times Square, now is your chance!

Kodak is giving everyone their 15 minutes of fame (well, actually only about 10 seconds, but who’s counting). Kodak teamed with Aerva, a leader in digital signage technology, to allow people to upload their picture to Kodak’s giant digital display in Times Square.

kodak-with-me-2


How it works

1) Email a photo to kodak@aerva.com
2) You will receive a confirmation email that the photo is approved along with a code to activate the photo on the display
3) When you are in Times Square, simply text the code you received to 51340 and you’ll see your photo!

What if you aren’t in NYC?

All is not lost. There is a webcam from earthcam.com that points right at the Kodak screen! You can also zoom in to get an even closer view.

Congrats to Kodak and Aerva on finding a unique way to engage consumers with their digital signage. In the battle for attention in the uber-cluttered Times Square, Kodak found a great way to stand out from the crowd.

2010
01/13
POSTED BY
John Boese
CATEGORY
lab activities
TAGS

1 comment