Commentary

Next Brand App Stage - Engagement Enhancement

Branded apps have gone through an interesting up-and-down history in just the few years of their existence. They were the must-have item for the first year or two of the Apple App Store existence. Agencies and development firms made a bucket-load on churning out apps because so many brands wanted to ensure they had a presence here.

One agency executive explained the phenomenon to me this way: Your client CEO gets onto a plane in first class when a fellow CEO whips out his iPhone to show him their brand’s app. You client has nothing to show in return. Executives being able to show off a brand’s app -- whether they were functional, called for, or even addressed a customer need -- was a key driver.

When most branded apps got panned or just ignored, the genre went through a trough of interest, especially as many companies began to shift focus to the mobile Web. But as app development has become smarter, brands that have succeeded on the platform discovered that the levels of engagement and the sheer volume of intimate data apps cast off about users can be an incredible payoff.

Now the challenge is keeping them engaged even when users don’t need the app for its core function. That was one of the takeaways I gleaned from yesterday's great kickoff panel at the Mobile Insider Summit.

Hotels.com’s Mobile Marketing Manager Matt Goynes was talking about how his app is revealing and sparking new behaviors among customers. More than half of bookings are occurring same day, for instance. Most are occurring within ten miles of the location. They are discovering -- and can now serve -- a need state very different from what they experience on the Web. The company also discovered that a strong Hispanic audience for the service they weren’t focused on before the app helped reveal it.

Matt made an interesting point about not pushing the app on users too hard at the mobile Web site. Just about everyone on the panel agreed that app users represent your most engaged customers -- but don’t press people too hard to come into that group. Goynes said let the mobile user do what they need to do on the mobile site. “You still have to innovate on the mobile Web,” he argues. About half of the mobile business for Hotels.com is coming from mobile Web, and it often represents one-time bookers. More often than not that users comes back a second time on the app because they have convinced themselves they will experience greater functionality there and be served better here.

What is a brand to do after the first 25 million downloads? Move to more things to keep them engaged in the app. The next stage is to broaden the offerings. And so Hotels.com will move next into things like offering more local information to travelers. “Give them more reasons to come to the app,” he recommends. “If you can give them something else to do, that is a service.”

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