Consumers are now faced with over 100,000 applications on the iTunes App Store leaving brands with the dilemma of how to get their offerings noticed.
It’s paid dividends for digital savvy brands, but has left their more traditional counterparts in their wake.
In these relatively early days of the platform there’s still no clear recipe for success for mobile marketers who aim to have their function or entertainment tool with consumers round the clock.
Things continue to pan out in what is largely a hit and miss affair. But there are still lessons for marketers to learn from the more successful apps.
According to a new report from Adweek.com, ‘utility’ remains key, that is, offering something of value to consumers.
So for example Lancome’s app helps women choose make up, while Zippo has launched the Virtual Lighter that simply gives users a digital representation of a lighter and has been a soaraway success amongst concert goers.
The publication has also listed some of the most successful brands apps it feels best fulfills the promise of utility to provide some focus and pointers for marketers.
We’ve listed them, with Adweek's assessment, below.
Amazon Mobile
Amazon’s “wildly successful app is a compulsive shopper's dream. It includes a new experimental feature called Amazon Remembers that could end up being huge: Users snap a photo of a product seen on the fly and Amazon then tries to match the photo to something in its store.”
Bank of America Mobile Banking
“BofA sets the bar with an easy to use banking tool. It offers balances, bill paying and an ATM finder. Competitors Chase, Wells Fargo and Citibank have similar apps, but BofA edges them out.”
Kraft iFood Assistant
“Not only has Kraft nailed its audience by providing real utility thanks to its recipe and shopping tools, it's developed -- as have other brands with paid apps -- a side business, charging users 99 cents. That so many shell out for it puts the iFood Assistant in a league of its own.”
The North Face Snow Report
“The ski apparel maker knows what its active target demo wants: the location of good powder -- without having ads shoved at them in the process….relegating its logo to the corner of the screen.”
Pizza Hut
It points “the way towards the possibilities of mobile ordering. The app uses entertainment -- users shake the phone to add sauce to wings, for instance -- to make ordering a fun experience. While not without its detractors, the app boasts hard-core fans and has generated over $1 million in sales for Pizza Hut.”
Virgin Atlantic Flying Without Fear
“Released earlier this month, Flying Without Fear is Virgin's first stab at a mobile app. It doesn't hurt sales that the app, with its high price point ($4.99) got Virgin coverage in dozens of blogs and news outlets.”
Volkswagen Real Racing GTI
“The game itself is a smash hit. The realistic graphics get rave reviews and the brand integration has had little backlash.”
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