Today, one of the ways brands can best insinuate themselves into con- sumers’ lives is through web and mobile applications that either
deliver a diversion or a genuine utility through experiences that can- not be replicated in other media.
FedEx’s Launch a Package Facebook app, for instance, enables users to send virtual goods—photos or links or other digital curios— to other Facebook users. The items arrive in a FedEx box that the recipient opens.
In its first two weeks, the app had 258,000 total installations on Facebook profile pages, and more than 15,000 active users who sent 1 million packages—helping it land the number one spot on Facebook’s Most Activity rankings.7
Say what you will, but while the app may seem frivolous, it does provide brand reinforcement that’s dead on to FedEx’s positioning and value proposition—reinforcement that occurs every time a package is sent or received. In fact, according to eMarketer, brands are spending well over $40 million a year developing such apps.8
Nationwide Insurance has created an iPhone app that is essen- tially a mobile accident kit to help its customers in the event of an accident. Among other things, the app calls emergency services in the event of an accident, helps the user collect and exchange insur- ance information, stores the user’s insurance and vehicle info for easy lookup, takes and stores accident photos, converts the user’s iPhone into a handy flashlight, helps connect with a local Nationwide agent, and more (see Figure 2–5).
“Content and functionality are the new creativity—it’s not about whether you have a whiz-bang rich media banner running,” Andy Bateman, CEO of brand consultancy Interbrand New York, tells me. “Are you doing something that’s actually helpful and useful to people?”
Not that it always works.
Without a doubt, many Facebook and web apps have short shelf lives, as enthusiasm hits hard, and then ebbs just as quickly, in a pattern that can be described as a precipitous bell curve.
The problem is that most apps are overly complicated and ill fit- ted to the flit-away nature of social networking sites—and because
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most are merely interruptive ads in an unwelcoming venue.
Even FedEx’s fun little app quickly lost steam. Within six months of its launch, it was attracting only 1,500 users per month.9
Still, while apps made specifi- cally for social networks present their challenges, even some of the most esoteric web utilities are generating excitement among users around the world. But you have to know how to do it right.
Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo has a utility called the “Uniqlock”—a web clock that has become a worldwide phe-
nomenon on social networks, user desktops, and the iPhone.
The clock runs year-round, 24/7, and features video of dancers as they pirouette, plié, and otherwise move their bodies to communi- cate the time of day—hands or legs positioned to show high noon or 3:45 P.M., for example. It’s all set to fun music, and the video is always timed to show off seasonal fashions. The web and widget ver- sions of the clock have been viewed over 68 million times in 209 countries.
Additional activities are rolled out each season. The brand’s recent Uniqlo Christmas Grid, for instance, enabled folks to modify the Uniqlo logo, twist it, divide it, combine it, and mix it around— all of which is then displayed with actions from other users around the world into a quaintly mesmerizing display. Within days of its launch, 116,345 people from 118 countries had added their touch to the grid over 65 million times.
FIGURE 2–5. The accidental innovator: Nationwide’s iPhone app provides true utility when its customers need it most.
And just look at the popularity of iPhone apps like Target’s. In the runup to the holiday season, Target launched a free iPhone app that visually turns the familiar Target logo into a snow globe every time you shake the phone. When you do, you receive gift ideas and information on how to buy the gift at target.com or your nearest phys- ical location. There is even a gift list you can check off once you’ve made the purchase.
“You could customize whether it’s [a gift] for a teenage girl, or Dad or whoever, and then you shake it, and suggestions for that person for the price range you selected come up in the snow globe,” says Bedecarré of AKQA, which created the app (see Figure 2–6).
Carnival Cruise Lines has had great fun with these kinds of apps as well. It recently rolled out “sidewalk aquariums”—interactive screens built into store windows—that enable passersby to use their mobile phones to design their own digital fish to populate the aquar- ium. They can even come back and feed their fish or just hang out with their new digital pets. The idea: Reinforce Carnival’s position as a brand that brings fun to life.
We’ll talk a lot more about apps of all kinds throughout this book. But in general, whether it’s technically a widget, an app, or a utility, the idea can be applied to many kinds of amazing new experiences. FIGURE 2–6.The Target Gift Globe iPhone app puts gift ideas in the palm of your hand.