Snazzy Apps with Utility

AdWeek posted their list of what they deem the most successful iPhone apps. Ranking at the top are brands that utilize mobile marketing by offering something… get this… useful. Placing an extension of your brand in the palm of your customer builds a pretty tight relationship, considering people act like a fish out of water when they forget their cell at home. Overall, equipping your customers with a tool instead of mere entertainment (although that doesn’t hurt) will cause them to actually rely on it.

A perfect example is Amazon Remembers, Ranked No. 9 in the App Store lifestyle category. A user takes a picture of the newest gadget his or her daughter wants for Christmas and Amazon tries to match it to an item in their store. It’s an experimental feature at this point but since well over half of it’s users rate it 4 or 5 stars, I would say the frugal shoppers are rejoicing!

As a fellow foodie, I gotta love the Kraft iFood Assistant. Everyone can use a little helper when it comes to cooking, so the 99 cents they charge seems like nothing when you get quick access to 7,000 recipes. The iFood Assistant ranks No. 53 in the App Store lifestyle category (paid apps).

The No. 1 music app in the App Store is none other than Pandora. Users create a personalized radio station that streams music and even takes your preferences from your online account. This proves to be incredibly convenient when a user can avoid loading up the iTunes playlists with music that can get old, fast. This every-changing radio stream keeps the music fresh and in your ear buds anywhere you go.

These are just a few examples of apps that fulfilled their promise of utility, but there are plenty who missed the boat. Check out AdWeek’s iPhone Apps Put Brands in Hands for their full list of noteworthy apps and other missed opportunities.

Socialnomics

A YouTube video was recently passed around our office. This is not an uncommon occurrence; we all enjoy a good giggle now and then. But this one had a much different effect. It was actually rather scary. Not scary in the “Boo!” kind of way, but more scary in a professional, “this is unbelievable!” kind of way. Maybe even more so for those of us in the over 40 category that tend to nervously tremble and perspire as we try and navigate our way through the unfamiliar terrain that is Social Media.

To a generation that grew up thinking the only way to reach a market audience was through a comprehensive mix of radio, TV, and newspaper, this new information on social media is mind blowing. This video speaks of the time it took those dinosaur mediums to reach 50 million users: radio…38 years. TV…13 years. The internet took 4years. IPOD took just 3 years to reach 50 million users. In comparison, Facebook recently added 100 million users in less than 9 months!

Is this possible? Really? How can this be?

Well, the video goes on to say that if Facebook was a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest! Number 1 would be China, number 2 would be India, number 3 the United States and number 4 would be Facebook!

Oh, and it’s not just Facebook that people are paying attention to; Twitter has also taken the world by storm. There are two celebrities (Ashton Kutcher and Ellen DeGeneres) that have more followers on Twitter than the entire population of Ireland, Norway and Panema! In China, QZone has over 300 million users. Wikipedia has become more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica, posting more than 13 million articles.

The title of the video is “Socialnomics”. I watched it the first time and was intrigued. I watched it a second time and was amazed… OK, and slightly terrified. I watched it a third time and felt compelled to share it with all of you. Take a peek for yourself….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVXKI506w-E


So, is social media just a fad? I’m thinking it’s not only here to stay, but it’s redefining the way we think about the world as we know it.

FTC Cracks Down on Bloggers

Last month, the FTC issued a new set of guidelines concerning bloggers’ endorsements of goods and services. Savvy marketers have been sending “power bloggers” products for trial and review for quite some time – a good move on their part, given Jupiter Research’s finding that 50% of blog readers seek out product information on blogs.

In a nutshell, the new FTC guidelines advise bloggers that they could face an $11,000 fine if they receive free services, goods, or money and write about the goods or services without disclosing their “material connection” to the company. Facebook and Twitter also fall under the guidelines, leaving one to wonder how to make such a disclosure AND endorse a product in 140 characters or less.

Companies have long employed “under-the-radar” methods to get cultural influencers to endorse their products - think of a retailer sending an actress this season’s “it” bag in hopes that she’ll be photographed carrying it (spurring thousands of women to make a purchase). Will these celebrities now have to disclose the nature of their relationship with the designers they wear on the red carpet? With the uptick in product placement on television shows, will the FTC extend their disclosure guidelines to this and other “non-traditional” media? It seems that television programs have fewer reasons than bloggers to be concerned with the validity of the claims they make – is anyone else skeptical of the Biggest Loser’s promotion of Extra gum as a viable snack substitute?

While I can see the value in the FTC’s intentions, I think their 81-page rule book creates more questions than it answers (and I’m not alone in my sentiment). The scope of the blogosphere is tremendous – the WSJ reports that more than 20 million Americans author a blog, and 1.7 million profit from it. Given these statistics, just who will be tasked with enforcing these guidelines?

Bloggers have such tremendous clout because they’ve made a point of being transparent and honest in their product reviews. Though the appeal of receiving free products could lead some to write glowing reviews of everything that comes their way, a smart blogger would realize that a slew of favorable reviews of “bad products” would seriously undermine their credibility with their readers. And, at the end of the day, a blog without an interested audience holds no appeal to advertisers and marketers.