Cover Story
Planet of the Apps Mobile apps have allowed brands new and interesting ways to connect with a new breed of consumers who want to be entertained and informed, writes Geoff Barker.
about participation; we ask people to send, share, enter, swap, talk about and invest personal time
public’s tweeting of their hashtag – if they couldn’t generate enough tweets, they wouldn’t be allowed
or information to a brand, in return for some
to move!
tangible value. None of this has changed; the big game changer is the medium in which we
Each charity would receive a €10k donation from Electric Ireland, with the team that generated the
deliver incentivised conversations. Instead of the
most public tweets receiving an additional €20k.
old interruption model to gain the attentions of consumers, app platforms now create environments
On top of the charitable donations, the winning team’s public representative would receive a year’s
where only true value, ideas, entertainment and
worth of free electricity from Electric Ireland. The
innovation are given the time of day. Value-added
Facebook App tapped into the native functionality
experiences are installed on our terms, onto our favourite devices and into our lives, and each one
of Facebook’s sharing and posting, serving as a recruitment tool for the public, mapping the team’s
further shifts the relevance of promotional marketing
progress and hosting the huge amount of content
remember when software apps used to be confined to your desktop computer – and
front and centre for businesses that recognise it. In 2011, we saw a variety of high profile marketing
created. It brought the fans of Electric Ireland right into the action by mapping the real-time progress
cost upwards of €300! Software could do
I
campaigns using apps to deliver value to the
of each team from a geo-tracking mobile app,
amazing things in the hands of the right people; create things that had never been seen before, like
consumer in ever more creative ways. Last summer saw the Ice Cold Index smartphone app from
which also allowed the team to upload video and photo content remotely.
Pixar’s animated, anglepoise lamps, and dinosaurs brought to life in industry-defining movies like
Budweiser offering digital coupons for reduced price pints as the temperature soared. You can see
The Facebook app aggregated all of the content created over the two days and kept
Jurassic Park. The consistent surge of Moore’s Law (the exponential increase of computing power over
why Ireland was a safe bet for a controlled budget on that one! This kind of real-time engagement, spontaneity and limitless reach is so unique and fresh
those following the action up to date on their favourite team. Serving as an online campaign hub in the manner of a microsite, the app built a
time), combined with ever-smaller computer chips has seen software apps jammed into just about
to app development; it demands attention from new audiences that may not have interacted with
wider audience and offered an alternative support mechanic (other than Tweeting) for the teams.
every corner of technology: not just on phones, TVs, social networks and media streamers, but in fridges, alarm clocks and soon enough, on your
promotional marketing in the past. Furthermore, using push notifications through an app effectively sends direct brand messages into the pocket of the
So who were the winners? The charities, plus the member of the public who won the year’s electricity, and each team’s celebrities (whose
windows at home. If the new Google glasses are anything to go by, you’ll soon even have apps literally in front of your eyes. This is why apps are
audience, dramatically increasing the amount of interactions the brand can have with them over the life of a campaign. Communicating with a potential
profiles increased), but clearly Electric Ireland as well. Their Facebook likes rose by 65%, and their Twitter followers by 75%. One tweet every two
so popular now; they provide fun and function for our lives in our most personal areas of technology, and they go wherever we go. It’s also why apps
customer isn’t just limited to a one-off competition or coupon; it’s now continuous, anytime, anywhere. Along with smartphones, promotional marketing
seconds 50,895 Electric Ireland branded tweets were generated and endorsed re-tweets from Lance Armstrong, Jedward and Westlife had an
are such a good fit for all areas of marketing, especially promotional marketing. Promotional marketing has always been
apps are also seen frequently on social media platforms. Just like mobile phones, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are now mainstream communication channels, and fertile ground for imbedding promotional activity. Last year, Electric Ireland ran a technically innovative campaign converging Facebook and mobile apps with content aggregated from Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. Electric Ireland wanted to provide a kind of social philanthropism, creating an opportunity for the public to participate in the goodwill of Christmas charity, without personally having to donate financially. By creating a currency of branded social media mentions, people could donate to good causes through the simple act of a tweet. Three teams were assembled to represent three Irish-based charities, and each team was assigned a campaign hashtag. The teams had to drive from Dublin to Galway and back again, powered solely on the
estimated reach of over five million. Both of the campaigns mentioned demonstrate the power of apps to create personal brand experiences for people, entertaining and engaging those that choose to participate. They add value to people’s lives, not only through the chance to receive free or discounted goods, but in creating shared experiences and promoting talk-ability with friends, both face to face and virtually. This kind of brand interaction is what defines promotional marketing, and with the advent of cheap app development, we now have new mechanisms to create relationship, making brand and product awareness more fun, and more relevant to peoples’ lives. With every new app platform that pops up, new functionality becomes available that’s unique to that SDK (software development kit). The convergence of new technology twinned with bespoke app development allows for new and exciting ways to connect with an ever more fragmented audience, expecting to be surprised, entertained and given new experiences. Geoff Barker is digital creative director, Tequila Ireland. This is part of a series of articles in association with the APMC.
42 | IMJ MAY 2012
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