With smartphones on the rise, apps are opening up a new revenue stream fro advertisers. Tony Foggett at CodeComputerLove looks at the opportunities and pitfalls of the new medium.
It’s been widely reported that Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of advertising giant WPP, has called mobile phone apps the “holy grail” for advertisers.
To add my own thoughts on app development and the opportunities mobile applications offer to marketers; yes, apps can offer a great way to build an audience and generate interest in a brand or product if part of an overall digital strategy.
But the market is experiencing an explosion of start-up companies offering standalone ‘out of the box’ apps, luring in marketers keen to get an app out there with low prices and fast turnaround. As a result, I’m seeing too many brands developing low quality apps that don’t really do a very good job, and which are scoring a bit of an own goal, gaining low ratings and negative feedback from users who want and expect more.
Firms are tending to make the same mistakes they did with their early websites and shop for their apps in isolation like they were some shiny thing they could buy off the shelf, and we’re actually getting calls from companies coming to us asking us to re-do apps that they’ve launched because they’re damaging the brand.
For us, it’s not about just producing an app ‘because an app is the holy grail’, but it’s about where the app fits into the customer journey, adds value and how it’s managed longer term. There is a consumer expectation with an app that it is relevant, useful and that the brand will continue to invest in them.
Apps can be a key consumer interface so some careful planning needs to go into their design and ongoing promotion. Remember, you’re not buying an app, you’re building an audience.
It’s also about the idea behind the app and being able to see that the app is going to get used, and that it is not just a quirky app idea that in fact no one will really want. Focus needs to be on “how can I use this technology/platform to really help my consumers and support the all-important value exchange that customers are looking for; how to build an extension of a product, and develop individual and niche apps that support the products when consumers are using them.
Another word of caution to marketers who’ve read about ‘the power of the app’ and are now rushing out to buy one, is not to forget the role of the mobile website in all of this. It’s business critical in today’s mobile world.
By Tony Foggett
Managing Director
Code Computerlove
www.codecomputerlove.com
