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Branded Applications: Holy Grail or Graveyard?
Posted by Michael Lazerow on December 08, 2008 at 09:00 AM PDT
In today's Adweek, Brian Morrissey takes a look at branded social applications. He concludes that "Facebook apps from brands like Coca-Cola, Champion, Ford and Microsoft are as popular as desolate Second Life islands."
This story comes just a week after Bob Garfield wrote on the front page of Advertising Age that the app "may not be the holy grail, but it's arguably pretty damn grail-ish -- maybe the highest expression so far of online marketing in the Post-Advertising Age."
Are you confused yet? Don't worry. There's plenty of data to support both sides. When done right, branded apps are one of the more effective ways to market in the social networks. When done wrong, they fail miserably.
When I spoke to Brian about his story, it was clear to me that he was dead set on writing a piece on why apps were the newest brand graveyard. Frankly, I don't blame him. He has plenty of examples of apps gone wild. And plenty of others share his view. Soon after the first branded applications launched on Facebook, interactive agency Organic asked "Are Facebook Apps the New Brand Wasteland?" And it's no surprise that two companies that don't offer branded app solutions were quick to provide Brian quotes to support his position.
Branded applications fail for three main reasons:
1. They are not social: Branded applications work well when they are social. If they can be done better outside of the social networks, they probably
should be not be launched as branded social applications. At the core of the application should be interacting with friends.
2. They are too complicated: The best applications are easy to use. They have clear calls to action. They can be used with a few clicks of the mouse.
3. They are not marketed properly: Applications don't just go viral. Theyneed to be marketed. Without the marketing, the applications don't take off. Branded applications are ad units and marketing platforms and needed to be marketed as such.
It is very easy to launch a Facebook application. Because of that, many brands have tried to launch applications, many with limited or no success. But it takes the right team to create a successful branded application.
Brian lead the story with a Nike campaign that has 3400 users. However, I think it is also worth nothing that Buddy Media provided Brian the link to an application we developed for Reebok that currently has about 80,000 active users. Brian also could have mentioned Kidnap, an application for the Travel Channel conceived by ad agency Rapp, that is currently one of the top 10 game applications on Facebook. Spread virally through the social graph of Facebook, the game has more than 3 million players and average more than 1 million players a day. Far from the grave yard, I'd argue!
These successful applications are not alone. Buddy Media has launched dozens of campaigns for leading brands. The data shows real success in engaging users. In particular, users spent an average of 2 minutes and 35 seconds engaged with our branded applications per visit, or 75 times greater than the time consumers spend interacting with traditional banner ads and five times greater than the time spent watching a typical TV commercial. And 85% of our users returned for multiple interactions with our app-vertisements, with 56% of the total user base returning nine times or more.
While there is truth in both Bob and Brian's differing viewpoints and stories, the data clearly shows that branded social app-vertisements are here to stay as a central pillar of digital media campaigns.
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