Emerging Category
There’s A Sponsor For That: App Developers Strike Partnerships
Properties should view developers similar to the way they do media partners: providing a necessary service that can also be leveraged to add value to sponsorship packages.
10/15/10: While telecommunications has long been one of sponsorship’s most active categories, the widespread adoption of smart phones has spawned a small but quickly growing new category of sponsors: wireless application developers.
Although a large number of properties have created or paid outside developers to design custom apps, companies such as Applitite LLC; jacAPPS; and Mobomo, LLC are going beyond just being vendors to rightsholders and have recently partnered with festivals, marathons and other types of events to develop co-branded apps.
The developer receives sponsorship benefits in return, and often the property positions exposure through the app as a benefit available to other corporate partners.
The apps feature a myriad of property-specific content ranging from maps and schedules to GPS services that let fans check the progress of a marathon runner.
For example, Mobomo this year came on board as a new multi-year sponsor of Arlington, Va.’s Marine Corps Marathon, while Applitite sponsored the Chicago Blues Festival and New Orleans’ French Quarter Festival presented by Capital One Bank. In addition, JacAPPS has sponsored the Detroit Int’l Jazz Festival for the past two years.
Sponsorship activity on behalf of app developers is expected to grow as more consumers use the technology and more businesses and organizations want their own apps.
Research firm In-Stat expects worldwide app downloads to total 8.6 billion in 2011, up from 5.5 billion this year and nearly triple the 3.03 billion downloads in 2009. In-Stat expects downloads to total 16.9 billion in 2014.
Consumers who download apps had an average of 27 applications on their phones in September, up from 22 in December 2009, according to The Nielsen Co.
Owners of iPhones use the most apps, with an average of 40 on their devices, up from 37 last December, while Android owners have 25 apps (up from 22 last December), followed by BlackBerry owners with 14 (up from 10).
What App Developers Bring To The Table
Similar to media partners, app developers—most of which are small, upstart firms with limited marketing budgets—do not typically pay cash for sponsorship deals.
However, they supply expertise to create apps that enhance the attendee experience and serve as a source of new inventory that can add value to sponsorship packages.
Applitite’s iPhone app for the French Quarter Festival featured a schedule, food options and a sponsor recognition page.
“The app helped bring us into the social media world and it was a good platform to provide additional exposure for our sponsors,” said Heather Twichell, development manager for French Quarter Festivals Inc.
The developer received exposure on the event’s Web site and other benefits in exchange for the app.
Similarly, Comcast Bite of Seattle producer Festivals, Inc. included a sponsor recognition page on a new mobile app for the food fest.
The app—developed by moBistro, Inc.—was downloaded more than 1,000 times the first week it went live.
“I don’t think a lot of people understood the benefit to our sponsors until we saw the number of people who downloaded it,” said Anisa Ishida, Festival, Inc.’s sponsorship coordinator, who spearheaded the partnership.
In some cases, developers and properties agree to share revenue derived from the apps, whether through fees to download or sponsorship/ad sales. But for those developers interested in sponsoring, the primary goal for these types of partnerships is the exposure they bring; otherwise they could simply provide apps in return for the right to keep all revenue.
One of the goals for Applitite in developing an app for the Chicago Blues Festival and earning sponsorship benefits was to build its presence in front of the festival’s owner, the City of Chicago, and its Mayor’s Office of Special Events.
The strategy paid off. “After the Blues Festival, the city hired me to develop apps for the Chicago Jazz Festival and Taste of Chicago,” said Philip Berman, Applitite principal.
Case Study: Mobomo And The Marine Corps Marathon
The cornerstone to Mobomo’s MCM partnership is RaceMate, an iPhone app featuring an animated course map, interactive pace calculator and runner locator.
The app costs $1.99 for the basic package and $2.99 for an upgrade featuring the ability to track multiple runners.
The sponsorship provides Mobomo a platform to reach a targeted audience, as well as gain a point of differentiation from other app developers, said Barg Upender, the company’s founder and CEO.
“There are more than 250,000 apps on the market, and it’s hard to get recognized. A marketing partner like the Marine Corps Marathon lets us directly reach customers who will use the product. We build the technology and they do the marketing—it’s a powerful combination.”
From the property’s perspective, “until this app was developed, runners and fans had to rely on a text-message service that never worked perfectly, or logging onto the Internet to get timing data that is only available every three miles,” said Marc Goldman, the marathon’s marketing/sponsorship manager, who spearheaded the relationship.
The October 31 event is promoting the app through multiple channels, including MarineMarathon.com, email blasts, expos and other events leading up the race, as well as Facebook, Twitter and other social media efforts.
Mobomo, which created the app within five weeks, hopes that 10 to 20 percent of the race’s 30,000 participants and 100,000 spectators will download the product.
“The mobile app world is a high growth market, but there are still a lot of unknowns,” Upender said.
In the future, the marathon hopes to incorporate sponsors into the app, said Goldman. “This is not a static product. It will have multiple evolutions over the year, and will look completely different next year.”
Mobomo plans to strike similar deals with other marathons and events, Upender added. “We are definitely interested in other events. We are excited about anything that involves locations and events.”
Tips For Properties Below,
IEG SR offers advice to properties interested in working with mobile app developers.
Ensure the app is relevant to the audience. When brainstorming the features of an app, properties should identify features that enhance the attendee experience.
“They should ask themselves, ‘What is missing in terms of communication or experience that this technology can offer?’ That’s the first thing you need to identify,” said MCM’s Goldman.
Properties should offer apps that deliver more than just a mobile schedule, he added.
Have ideas in mind prior to contacting a developer. Properties should determine at least the general direction in which they want to go prior to contacting a developer. That includes ideas on how sponsors can be integrated into the app.
“There are so many ways you can go,” Ishida said. “App developers say they can do anything, so you should have a good sense of what you want before you meet with them.”
“I didn’t meet one developer that said something couldn’t be done,” echoed Goldman.
Gain feedback from sponsors. Properties should involve sponsors early in the app development process to gauge their interest in tying into the applications.
“I think event organizers would be surprised by how many sponsors are thinking about apps,” said Paul Jacobs, vice president/general manager of jacAPPS, a subsidiary of Jacobs Media, a media research and consulting firm. “If you can get a sponsor to commit to presence on the app upfront, you’re making a profit right off the bat.”
Consider other stakeholders when negotiating deals. Festivals, Inc. struck its in-kind partnership with moBistro by providing the developer access to restaurants that participate in Comcast Bite of Seattle. The developer specializes in developing mobile apps for restaurants.
“It ended up being a mutually beneficial relationship,” Ishida said.
Sources
Applitite LLC, Tel: 773/465-2777
JacAPPS, Tel: 248/353-9030
Mobomo, LLC, Tel: 202/550-5982
Festivals, Inc., Tel: 425/295-3262
French Quarter Festivals Inc., Tel: 504/522-5730
Marine Corps Marathon, Tel: 800/786-8762