Can An App Make You Want To Laugh? MediaPost Publications
In two weeks in New York we convene a special edition of OMMA Mobile that calls attention to the promise and pitfalls of the emerging mobile app economy. A year ago, most brands were starting their agency meetings asking when their very own iPhone presence would be ready. Scores of failed and forgettable branded apps later, we are already moving into a more mature second stage of an app-centric mobile world. Many brands now recognize that the mobile Web, sponsored apps and leveraging in-app ad networks can be more effective than putting themselves out there as content publishers, mobile services, or (worse) wits.
At OMMA Mobile, the strategist behind one of the most successful branded apps in the iTunes App Store, Ed Kaczmarek, Director of Innovation, Consumer Experiences, Kraft Foods, will open the day. He will be joined later by executives from Coca-Cola, Zippo and Fandango to discuss how truly well-executed branded apps really can get you closer to the consumer.
But for the most part, branded apps have tended to cry for our attention. There is a kind of cloying tone to many apps, as if they are trying just a tad too hard to get us to like them as something more than disembodied corporate entities that really just want to plump up their profit margins. Oops, did I just say that out loud?