Giving New Meaning to Sponsorship's Applications
Posted: 6/9/2009 10:47:23 AM by
Carrie Urban Kapraun | with 0 comments
I love my Google G1 phone and I especially like browsing the Android marketplace for new applications (apps). I know I am not alone in this, especially among iPhone users. Recently, IEG’s Jim Andrews posted a blog item discussing the introduction of the “Countdown to Copenhagen” app from the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid committee, the first bid city to use the technology.
According to Apple, over a billion apps have been downloaded by iPhone and iTouch users. Some of the most popular and entertaining apps are the most inane. I checked out the top paid apps for the iPhone and in the top five are FMyLife Pro and The Moron Test, whose names say it all. My guess is that the novelty of these types of apps will wear off and the ones that stick around are the ones that offer convenience or information.
More directly related to sales, marketing and sponsorship, there are several apps that allow the user to scan a bar code for a product at the store and comparison shop online and at other area retailers. If it hasn’t happened already, the next step would be for marketers to deliver offers via the app to users, or possibly point-of-purchase displays will drive smartphone users to a product’s Web site to download a coupon or sign up for a promotion. Smartphone/mobile marketing really plays well into the recency theory of advertising/marketing; a reminder at the right time is a more effective way to influence behavior. Similar to radio advertising or point-of-purchase marketing, smartphone marketing can capture a person when they are ready to make a purchasing decision.
So how have companies been using apps for marketing and sponsorship? As discussed in a Wall Street Journal article, some companies are creating their own apps, like Zippo’s personal lighter and Burger King’s iBurger. Some are going the more traditional branding/advertising route on apps such as Where, and for some, it is an additional opportunity to be recognized as a sponsor in connection with a property. I would be interested to hear if and how your organizations are tapping into mobile marketing and if you have explored application marketing. Also, I would like to know what the hesitations or challenges are that you are facing.
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Filed under: digital media, new media, activation