Do You Need an App?

Did the unveiling of the Apple iPad get your marketing department thinking, “Uh-oh, now we really need an app!”?

Not so fast. While Apple has great credentials in disruptive technology, the iPad is not exactly priced to move; the version that can connect to the Web via 3G as well as WiFi will start at $630. That should keep marketers from feeling its impact for a few years.

But even without major traction for Apple’s new tablet, the app economy seems poised to shift into high gear. New research assembled for app store GetJar predicts that global app downloads for all phones will grow from 7 billion in 2009 to almost 50 billion in 2012. According to this projection, paid mobile apps will bring in $17.5 billion worldwide by 2012 — making them a bigger revenue source than CD music, forecast to earn $13.8 billion globally by then.

That’s just for paid apps; but ad-supported free apps will also expand from 12% of the global market to more than 28% in two years.

All of that seems to make it more likely that your brand does in fact want to investigate a mobile app.
But agency leaders offer some tips to keep in mind:

• Apps are a mobile marketing tactic, not a strategy

  Ask yourself if the app is integral to the way you want to engage your users. “Mobile marketing is communicating to consumers in an uncluttered, personal way,” says TJ Person, SVP of mobile strategy at GMR Marketing. “Sometimes that means an app, but it could call instead for an SMS or [interactive voice response] campaign.”

• Think cross-platform integration

  The Weather Channel has had success by offering both a mobile and a desktop app, says Rob Weber, co-founder and business development vice president of agency W3i. “They got in early to command a leadership position across a variety of platform and operating systems. They get wherever their potential fans are, not just the 15% to 19% using smartphones.”

• Aim for apps that are marketing tools, not high-tech ad channels

  “[Mobile apps] are always-on brand touchpoints that can market around the clock,” says Ian Wolfman, CMO of agency IMC2, which launched Pizza Hut’s iPhone app in 2009. Yet CMOs very rarely involve themselves in the development or deployment of apps.

HIS ADVICE: “If a CMO doesn’t belong to the target group for an app, send them a phone with the app already loaded and instructions. And send another one for their kid.”