Top 10 Branded iPhone Applications - Utility Marketing

After going to Ad:Tech I got inspired yall. I heard about the future of marketing being utility marketing. Creating services which help your customers. I was told that I would find this nirvana on my iPhone, in the App store. So I did a bit of searching for branded Apps. I found that there was a limited amount of offline brands creating apps, those that did create Apps nicely fited into four categories;

Utility- The brand helped create something that would help people in their life, it was not directly related to the product that the company sold.
Extension -This was Application that supported the current product offering. In a number of cases reformatting content into an App.
Entertainment - This was when brands created games and in a way sponsored the 'good times'
Apps for Apps sake - This was when a company knew they had to have an App but didnt know what to make.

Top 10 Branded iPhone Apps.

Proof that I did my research and I don't read your emails

1. World Nomads Language Courses (Utility)
Learn French from your phone. I like this extension they are giving value to people with this application. Something all travelers need and when they come to think about Travel Insurance hopefully World Nomads will be top of mind.

2. Surf Report – Oakley (Utility)
Offering the grommits a chance to find the surf report = gold. They have also given you the opportunity to stay in contact with Oakley sponsored riders.

3. Carlings iPhone Beer (Entertaining)
A game where you wobble a beer down a bar and then get to drink a virtual beer. Hint: You can entertain friends kids with this one for hours and at the same time turn them into future Binge Drinkers.

4. Volkswagen Polo Challenge (Entertainment)
Reminds me of that game you used to play on your gameboy where you would chase the car and you could never get past the second level! What was the name of that game? Yeah, this game is that except your driving your ex-girlfriends car.

5. ESPN Cameraman (Entertainment)
Wow this game sounded awesome, I can fulfill my life long dream of being a Paparrazi! Turned out to be, spot the difference game! :(

6. ANZ Banking (Extension)
What a sweet app, I enjoyed this throughly, especially the part where they asked me to put in my banking deets. Oh yeah that is right I am with Commonwealth Bank. But if I did have an ANZ, I would be able to transfer money between accounts and view transactions.

7. ABC (Extension)
Now I can listen to Triple J when I am walking home! This is awesome! I don't even listen to Triple J but if I ever did I would so use this App.

8. QANTAS(Extension)
Learn when your flight has been delayed by 3 hours, find where the QANTAS lounge that you are not a member of is in any airport in the world.

9. Pinks Funhouse –Sony Music (Extension)
I think this will become quite common (not angry woman singers empowering 14 yr old girls all round the world but Musicians having apps), you can buy the songs, see pictures and keep up to date on the latest Musicians news.

10. Spin the Coke (App for Apps sake)
In 2006, I went to a Ja Rule concert, it was pretty much awesome, until he got to his slow song, Ja - 'If yall feeling me right now raise your lighters, if you dont have a lighter, raise your mobile phones!'. And with that 5,000 14 year old girls raised their phones.
Okay this App is a bottle that you spin, so when you are at that crazy arse house party and someone suggests a game of Spin The Bottle, and there are no bottles around, you can pull out your iPhone and save the day! Thanks Coke!

Notables
Disney World Webcam
If Michael Jackson was ever to create a iPhone Application, creating an App that had a video stream of kiddies playing with fantasy characters would have to be pretty high up there. This app allows you too see the lines for rides, weather and a map! Sweet!

Betty Crocker Mobile Cookbook, QANTAS, BMW Z4 , Quantum of Solace, , Weather Channel

From Online Ghetto (4chan) to Civilised Communities (Facebook)

Lately, I have been doing a bit of discourse analysis (looking at the conversations that take place) for brands in social environments. One thing I have noticed is the quality of insights is dependent on the channel alot of the times.

I believe that there are two traits that affect how civilized a community will be online, the opportunity to be anonymous and the chance of offline interaction.

We expect brands to act civilized all the time and I think that they can struggle with having valuable conversations when consumers are not playing by the same rules.

Brand guardians must remember that further down the path of uncivilized communities the value of peoples opinion and feedback becomes less reliable because people are not accountable to their words.

Unicorns get all the babes!

Okay, 3 quick Adspace Pioneer related updates;

1. There is some dood in Melbourne who is doing some crazy street art, is it our ol graf mate from Sydney.


2. I have been able knock one thing off the list of 10 things I want to do in Marketing before I die. My dad has always wanted to travel across the states in a Muscle Car, so for his birthday I bought him a ticket to come to US with me and drive from Chicago to LA on May 8th.



3. The full story from Boxxybabee comes out, I kinda of miss her.

Misunderstood

The problem with the written word is that it is so easy to be misunderstood. I fall into this group, whether it be my posts, twits or emails.

How do you deal with being misunderstood online? What do you do to ensure that you are not misunderstood in emails/blog posts/twits?

One thing I have started doing is using emoticons. I find them really important in helping to communicate tone maybe the 14yr IM loving Julian Cole was onto something.

7 traits of Cool Kids Online

Just like in school the cool kids start trends, Online is no different, the cool kids start global memes such as Lolcatz, to getting bizarre words on Twitter Trends #fisting or to being the most viewed on Youtube. There are some common traits that cool kids online share in common.

1. Cool kids have alot of friends
Friends are different to followers here is a great article describing the difference (HT Gav)

2. Cool kids will pick up technology really fast.
They will usually be an early adopter and understand the unspoken rules of the technology.

3. Cool kids hang out with cool kids
Cool kids will hang out in the same areas, they will help to bump friends trends. This helps to push their own memes when they need. 4chan is living proof of this.

4. Cool kids can remix
Can remix and have friends who can remix; be it words (tweets) or pictures (lolcatz) which help to carry a meme.

5. Cool kids rock at asynchronous conversation
Cool kids are really good at writing online, they are confident and can paint scenarios/stories with words/images better than your average.

6. Cool kids meet offline
Cool kids look to every opportunity to meet up with friends offline as they understand the power of connecting offline.

7. Cool kids live an online lifestyle
To be able to do all of the above you must be consistently connected, there is no 9-5 with this technology, it is constant and a part of their lives.

Why should Marketers care about the cool kids?
If I was also looking for a Community Manager for my brand; I would definitely be looking for someone who display some if not all of these traits.

If I was in the selection panel for Best Job in the World these would also be on my shortlist of traits needed.

Can you think of any other trends that cool kids online show?

The silver bullet to going viral! Friendship

This week, all I am going to talk about is friendship!

People say there is no silver bullet to going viral but there really is….it is friendship.

Friendship is different to networking/relationships because you can know someone but friendship is about going out of your way for someone.

I have done a number of things on this blogs that were along with other reasons motivated because I wanted to help my friends out.

The Samboys Chips video was not that remarkable, I think the way that all my friends (Nat, Andy, Nicole and some Twit bros) helped spread the word, really illustrated the true power of friendship.

Let them entertain: Vloggers and Disclosure

The top 12 Youtube Vlogger are entertainers;


They are like Demetri Martin, they entertain for a profession and when a brand wants to align with them it can sometimes look really good.
Such as the Martin + Microsoft = 'Clearficiation' series


They are like Hilltop Hoods, who are entertainers who have commercial deals with brands, in particular DC (they have to wear DC at every show). However, you do not hear them mention this during one of their shows.


They are peformers...They put on a show...They act.

John Laws does not act, he is seen as news source an information source.

They are definitely not like Rene Rivkin, Rene gave financial advice that people trusted. When he had a vested interest people's money was at risk.


At the end of the day in my opinion;

-Vloggers need to disclose any commercial deals. I think that it should be on their profile homepage, I don’t think it needs to be on the video.



-The best Vloggers will put their community first. If there is no fit they will not engage in commercial terms, no matter how much financial or other value they stand to gain

Mark Pollard asked me a good question yesterday;

Show me an example of a good whisper campaign?

I think you could extend this to show me an example of a good campaign using Youtube stars which is either whisper or full disclosure?

UPDATE: 12:20PM 25/02/09
I ask and they answer

Examples of Good Branded Campaigns;
I beat you and KevJumba

Fred and Zipit

Blog TV and number of famous Vloggers

Thanks Nat for the examples, if anyone has any more please share.