Mobile apps must offer useful information

Matt Ambrose for Buckingham Design Associates (BDA) has considered what brands need to know about marketing with mobile applications (apps).

Nearly two years after release, it seems as though Iphones are becoming overloaded with gimmicky apps that get deleted after only two days.

This is particularly true when the app has been created as part of a marketing campaign.

Last year, I commented on why Iphone apps were at the top of many brands' Christmas wish list.

Ever since Stanley Works released its virtual spirit level, brands have been pumping out mobile apps on an industrial scale.

To be fair, it is easy to understand why.

A recent Wireless Expertise study estimated the number of smartphones sold per year worldwide will rise from 165 million to 423 million by 2013.

So, finding a way of integrating mobile into the marketing mix is becoming essential, rather than an optional extra.

The problem for marketers is that the smartphone market is already swamped with apps.

In fact, there are already more than 85,000 different apps just for the Iphone, following a gold rush of developers hoping to make their fortune.

With this level of competition, one of an app's key aims should now be to stay on people's mobiles and be something people will use regularly.

So, are brands going the right way about it? Or are they at risk of annoying people fed up with gimmicky mini games? Well, according to research by mobile analytics company Flurry, the apps people use most frequently and for the longest period are those offering them useful information, rather than novelty mini games.

Mobile apps should give people what they want - useful info.

In a study of user retention of 19 different types of apps over 90 days, Flurry found that gimmicky apps (labelled as entertainment) and games ranked poorly for retention, as shown in the chart above.

This study suggests that if brands want their apps to be used regularly and stay on people's mobiles, they need to be apps providing useful content.

There's a growing consensus that brands need to become publishers if they want their marketing to appeal to consumers hungry for information and dismissive of advertising.

So, as well as harnessing the ability to pump out news, industry insight and product advice on their website, brands need to start doing it through mobile apps too.

Gimmicky apps might get five minutes of fame.

But according to Flurry's study, it is apps people find useful and use regularly that will stay on their mobiles and keep them engaged with a brand's marketing.

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