How many application launches this year have made you genuinely excited? How many have you followed from conception to pre-deployment with such a fanatical energy that if it were an iPhone launch, you’d be queuing up outside your nearest Apple store right now?

My guess is not many.

Well for me, there has been, and tomorrow (October 20th 2011) marks it’s mass market launch. Whale Trail by ustwo has been in development for some time now (6 months), and thanks to their CHIEF WONKA Mills, its journey from conception to launch has been very public. Now Mills is not known as a marketer, but this launch is supported by an intelligent marketing and promotional strategy. We have had a chance to glimpse at everything from character design to first play videos; understanding every twist and turn along it’s development path as if we are part of the team.

What this has done is establish an emotional attachment between a select number of people and the game. You feel as though you have watched a child grow, and are now excited to see the next stage of its progression. It’s first day at school if you will.

By using Twitter, Youtube, Instagram and Facebook to name but a few, ustwo has harnessed the power of social platforms to do what many believed only video could do: emotive communication. Ultimately, even though Mills has been reaching out to just under 5000 followers, and the 100+ people fortunate enough to play test the game before release, he now has an army of fanatics who will gladly spread the word and advocate Whale Trail to the respective social circles. And you know what, even if the game was shit, people probably still would tell their friends to download it.

The problem is…Whale Trail is actually brilliant. Using the well adopted endless runner format, and taking it to an even more premium level, alongside with a fantastic soundtrack (by SFA legend Gruff Rhys), and gameplay that’s guaranteed to drag you back in with, dare I say it, an Angry Birds-esque addiction.

Whale Trail is an utter delight for the senses, and have complete confidence that this could be the next major phase in an incredible journey for the app development and user interface studio.

So as if you were ever in doubt, if there is one thing you need to do once it is live, is head to the app store, search ‘Whale Trail’, part with your disposable income, and spend the next few months indulging in a love in with Willow the Whale.

I promise you…you will not regret it.

Besides, an angry bird ain’t got shit on a flying whale…

Links

Whale Trail demo video
Whale Trail by Gruff Rhys music video
CHIEF WONKA mills Twitter

Well we did see the next generation, but maybe it isn’t as significant of a jump from the current generation as many wanted. The iPhone 4S is almost exactly the same form factor as it’s predecessor, but the emphasis from Apple has been made on what’s inside as apposed to some beautiful new aesthetic.

Now I have seen some ridiculous comments made on Twitter and blogs that I would like to address first. Firstly, the insinuation that this is ‘Tim Cook’s fault’ is nonsense. This handset would have been in planning for a LONG time, and Steve Jobs would have been well involved in it’s development. This handset is no accident or slip up from Apple. Its a conscious decision! Secondly, the claim that Steve Jobs quit because he was too embarrassed about this iPhone launch is utter utter bollocks. Seriously.

Anyway, so Apple launch the 4S and not the 5. Why is this do we think? Well here is what I think.

Apple is well aware of what is happening in the smartphone market. Android has demonstrated that smartphones are no longer the niche proposition only available as toys for the affluent consumer. EVERYONE now wants touch screens, app stores and decent mobile web browsing. Smartphones will soon become the mass market proposition, and handset manufacturers will be challenged to produce the next generation of ‘super’ smartphones to re-create the divide.

So how does Apple adapt to this environment? They have the likes of HTC and Samsung snapping at their heels with increasingly great hardware, and brilliant exploitation of the Android platform. Well let us not forget that the iPhone 4 continues to be the world’s best smartphone, that still has nothing getting too close to make Apple uncomfortable.

With handset upgrades more often than not dictated by the network operator/carrier, the 18-24 month cycle is becoming increasingly common around the world. Now this isn’t a major worry for Apple, who never struggle shifting handsets, but surely their sales could improve even more if they aligned themselves with the natural renewal cycle? Makes sense to me.

Alongside this, many people touted an iPhone ‘Lite/Nano’ which would be a cheaper version to appeal to the mass market. Well ya know what, Apple will NEVER release a cheaper product, when they can extend the shelf life of their preceding products. The iPhone 3GS is a fantastic handset, supporting a decent version of iOS. Now that the gap doesn’t seem as large between itself and the iPhone 4S, the 3GS suddenly becomes a valid, affordable alternative iPhone. There is your iPhone ‘Lite’ right here. I have seen it here in the UK for free on a £15 a month contract. How much more affordable and mass market do you want?!

So although the tech press and pundits aren’t happy, the people are. And regardless of who moans and complains, people will talk with their feet and their wallets. I personally believe the iPhone 5 is ready and waiting. NFC, wallet and all. But is the consumer ready for it yet? No. Apple will wait for the rest of the industry to show its hand before sending it to market. You just watch.

The mind still boggles at how people can moan about a phone which now essentially makes your camera redundant, and GIVES you a personal assistant. Demanding bunch aren’t we…

But for mobile applications, as one of the youngest mainstream media, success has yet to be truly be defined. For games developers it is ‘relatively’ simple. Downloads equal revenue, and ultimately, profit (although not necessarily sustainable). But what for brands? Many brands have launched themselves into the app foray without the slightest consideration for what they want to achieve. Downloads is often banded around as an indicative measure of success, but what do downloads really show?

Well I have taken it upon myself to explore this and many other success metrics for mobile apps, hopefully with a view to enlightening an industry which in my eyes, is being tarnished by applications without success metrics defined, and thus affecting the quality of the ouput. I have established 2 core categories; primary and secondary.

Primary metrics

1. Frequency of visits – As with all of these metrics, frequency does not just mean ‘as many/much as possible’. But dependant upon the use case of your application, frequency may be related to ‘times a day’ or even ‘time of day’. If your application is a utility which you expect people to use every day before they go to work, success may be defined as ’5 visits per working week’. Alternatively, your app may focus on targeting a specific activity which happens infrequently throughout a month, but you want to encourage this activity to occur more frequently using the application. This is where this ties into the next metric.
2. Length of engagement per visit – So how long do you expect people to use your application for per visit? As long as possible I am sure, but does a longer engagement translate to success? Smartphone owners spend on average 45 minutes a day within apps, so how much of that time do you want to capture? The thing is, applications serve a variety of purposes, but roughly speaking, they are either used to save time, or waste time. If your app has been designed to save time, you will judge your success on shorter engagement times, whereas for apps designed to waste time, you would more than likely want to see people spending a much longer time with your content.
3. Active users – Combine frequency of visits and length of engagement per visit, and you land upon this ‘uber-metric’. Active users are your ultimate sweet spot. These are the people using your application exactly as you wish for it to be used. And whether that means less than 30 seconds every day, or 45 minutes once a month, this engagement is real success. With this particular metric however, you cannot pass judgement until a good few months after it has launched. As research has shown, between 20-30 days after an app has been downloaded, the number of people actually using your application can drop as low as 5%. So just because you have a lot of active users within the first few days, sustaining this is what really counts. In the long run, this could become DAUs (Daily) or MAUs (Monthly), dependant upon what your app intends to achieve.

Well for the new movie ‘Limitless’, they have decided to promote a web link with an offer code. Not very mobile you might say. Well they have tried to cover for this. Considering 85% of mobile users in the UK have a camera phone, and of course does not require a web connection, they have included an image of a mobile device containing the words “Take a picture of this to remind yourself later”.

So its not exactly a seamless mobile experience, but what it does is offer is the opportunity to use your mobile to record details and then follow up when you are by a computer (for which almost anyone can do too).

It won’t win awards for innovation, but it gets the thumbs up from me for thinking about the user experience in this scenario. Its actually a very cool piece of creative too, so keep an eye out for it Londoners

Update: James Whatley has written an awesome post about this ad over on his blog. READ IT.

The evening outline is as follows:

“The Chartered Institute of Marketing is calling on marketers to examine where digital marketing may be heading in the next few years and asks leading practitioners how they think companies can thrive in the digital marketplace, whilst making sure they get the right levels of return on investment (ROI) from their activities.”

I myself will be delivering a 15 minute presentation on the changing landscape of consumer behaviour and how businesses can use mobile technology to reach and retain new customers (working title). Hopefully it will be a really informative session, not only targeted at local businesses, but provide some relevant insights for marketing to a modern, tech-savvy audience on the whole.

The list of other speakers is great (to be revealed soon), so all in all should be a great education for newbies, and an expansion on current knowledge for a few veterans. I want to make it as relevant as possible to the local area (Dorset!), so if any businesses or agencies have mobile case studies they think would be worthwhile taking a look at, feel free to get in touch!

In the mean time, get over to the event page here and sign up to attend! Looking forward to seeing a few familiar faces.

Blackberry

Blackberry have always had a stronghold on the US market, but thanks to the increasing success of their Enterprise integration, as well as the explosive growth in the 16-24 age group thanks to Blackberry messenger (BBM), they now have a significant market share in the UK too. In fact, in the 13-24 age group, Blackberry adoption has increased by over 400% in the UK.

Whats more, not only are they exploring alternative form factors for their devices for broader appeal (e.g. The Torch is their first slider touch/keypad device), they are attempting to attract developers to harness their strengths and spread their services accordingly (e.g. BBM API set to launch Q1 2011). And to top it all off, early indications suggest their first tablet, the Playbook, is going to be a real winner.

Samsung

One thing Samsung have never struggled doing, is selling phones. They have consistently been in the top 3 manufacturers in the world, with significant presence in the US, Europe and Asia. They have always had great hardware, but their operating system selection has always been debatable. Unlike Nokia, when significant OS launches such as Android and Windows Phone 7 came along, they swallowed their pride and accepted they could increase their reach and reinforce their foothold in smartphone market share by embracing new partners.

They now have a delightful handset in the Galaxy S, which is selling phenomenal amounts globally, including almost 8 million in China alone. They have also been the second into the tablet foray with the Galaxy Tab, utilising the flexibility of Android to deliver a decent piece of kit. Samsung definitely on the ascendancy into 2011.

HTC

What can we say about HTC! Just a few years ago a relative unknown in Western markets, now, with thanks to a brilliant new brand identity and a hefty marketing strategy, its making a real splash in the smartphone market. Adopting Android appears to be the best move HTC ever made; acting as a vehicle to get their hardware into the hands of a whole new range of consumers.

The Desire HD is an object of utter beauty for example, and not only demonstrates the power of the Google OS, but the quality of hardware HTC continue to produce. Even though they don’t use their own OS, they add their own little touches with their Sense UI and services, which help establish a sense of familiarity in a world where the consumer doesn’t are about the brand of OS.

All in all, if there are 3 manufacturers to watch over the next 12 months, these are the guys!!

Who has heard this in a conversation, or brief, or spec before?

“We are targeting the youth market, so whatever we make needs to be cool”

The term itself is contradictory. More often than not, it is used by an ageing old school marketer, who thinks cool defines what ‘young people’ like.

I know so many different types of ‘cool’, which is why the term creates confusion.

Jude law is fucking cool. A good looking bloke, with good fashion sense, clearly got the chat, and he is minted. He is traditionally cool.

One of my very best friends is a whole different level of cool. His past jobs include “Medieval Jouster” and “Blackjack Croupier”. He knows the Countries song off by heart. He loves the Blues Brothers and does some of the strangest stand up comedy I have ever seen. He is in his own right ‘cool’, but is a mile away from being like Jude Law.

What I suppose I am trying to say, is trying to find the cool solution just won’t fly. Doing a Facebook fan page, creating an iPhone app or launching a Twitter feed doesn’t cut the cool mustard.

The fragmentation in the youth market is quite significant, but by changing the way we think about cool, we more often than not can identify an obvious solution amongst the foray of cool ideas.

Throw ‘cool’ in the bin.

Its just called resonance.

• Kicking off for us is the brilliant Andy from MobiThinking, with a post about Mobile awards. What do they achieve? How should they be judged? With some great advice about submitting for mobile awards, it is also a chance to highlight MobiThinking’s listing of mobile awards and recent winners case studies.
• James Roswell over at The Fonecast writes about the Wholesale Application Community’s mission to take on Apple’s App store. Some big claims made, but with so many operators on board, I don’t doubt them at all! Check the post out here.
• Foursquare goes from strength to strength almost every day, and as the number of users increases, making sure you conduct yourself in the correct fashion is important as not to a) embarass yourself, or b) reveal information you do not want to. Eric over at MobileSlate gives you an insight into the cardinal sins of Foursquare, many of which I expect some of you have already done!
• C. Enrique Ortiz offers a great, succinct insight into reasons for the mobile boom, and how businesses, models and practice will continue to change. A particular favourite because it has a venn diagram
• Peggy Anne Salz interviews the brilliant Alan Moore about engagement marketing, and how mobile completely changes the way we should understand and conduct marketing communications. In this podcast, the common themes of permission and the relationship gap are explored in greater detail and offers a welcome change to the rest of the text only carnival submissions!
• And last, but not least, in true Tomi style, is a lengthy yet captivating piece about understanding the smartphone market by Mr Ahonen. Tomi tackles many common questions and arguments discussed by the industry, and addresses them head on. Grab yourself a cup of tea and a few biscuits for this one!

So thats it, that your mobile reading for this week! I hope you enjoy it all, and please do not forget to share this with your peers

Next week is currently hostless, so if you would like to take up responsibility for the hundreth time, or make your carnival debut, be sure to get in touch with Peggy Anne Salz.

Bye bye for now!