Getting an ROI from Mobile Apps - You'll need xPlatform, xDigital OS and an xMarketing Strategy

For much of the past decade using a cell phone as a corporate sales and marketing platform has been nothing more than potential. That's all changed in a heart beat and if you don't have a strategy today you are already guilty of burning money and wasting opportunity for your company and your shareholders.

Many smaller entrepreneurial companies such as Cellcity have been banging the drum about the potential of mobile as part of a unified digital landscape but few would listen. In a presentation in 2008, we even had one distinguished multimedia leader tell us "mobile was dead" - good call!

But we kept banging the drum. Phone vendors kept producing better and better hardware and software and we kept making better and better applications and the consumer's appetite grew and grew.

Initially led by Nokia and Blackberry, the real leap forward started with the advent of the iPhone and then exploded with competition from a host of other hardware vendors.

But the real change is coming from the application developers such as Cellcity who are evolving to help bring true digital solutions to the mobile with out disregarding the importance of the many other elements required to make a mobile strategy a success. We have several customers who initially were mobile focused but have increasingly become holistically digital focused as they see the potential grow.

There are many starting points a company can make. An iPhone, a Blackberry, a Nokia strategy. It'a all good, depending on the market you are in. But to reach all of your customers, its imperative that your solution can be available cross any platform.

Cellcity xPlatform, capability enables companies to do just that. To reach 100% of your potential customers who use a mobile phone. But it's not an easy thing to achieve.

And xPlatform it's not a WAP solution, the world won't be ready for a pervasive WAP until 4G is available worldwide. That's still 12 to 24 months off. WAP or browser based apps wont load pages fast enough using 3 or 3.5G to satisfy the user and while it is tempting to try, we are yet to see an example of success. That doesn't mean WAP should not be part of the xPlatform strategy. It should and must.

However, true xPlatform means creating an App that is portable to any other mobile platform, where maintenance is easily managed across all platforms. Without a long term maintenance capability, xPlatform would be too expensive to maintain.

The next component to be considering is a total digital strategy. When we speak about an xDigital Platform we are speaking about uniting a strategy across web, WAP, App, and for those with the capability across TV and other digital ready internet accessible devices. The growing access to a host of digital hardware platforms means Apps can now be accessed from a wider number of devices than ever before.

Imagine placing an order for a pizza on your TV using a remote control and then adding to the order via the same app resident on your phone as you walk to your car and then receive a welcome message on a TV screen at Pizza Hut that has detected your location as you walk into the restaurant. What's more, because the system knows your history it offers you relevant up-sell promotions by sending a coupon code to your phone. The integration capability is a reality today, the only thing missing is the go-to-market strategy.

To get there, companies are going to have to ask whether they want to participate by developing their own capability or rely on the platform of others.

All of the major mobile vendors are preparing platforms, service providers such as Google and Yahoo are preparing platforms, Telcos are preparing platforms, but few have the vision to bring all elements together.

The final missing component is in marketing and advertising. Ad agencies are have been dreadfully slow in adopting digital strategies. Appalling at advising their customers to go digital (because of the wide held belief in the ad industry it threatens their revenues from TV and newspapers). Nothing could be further from the truth.

Marketing is as important as the making of the app itself. whether mobile only or xDigital, marketing to the consumer is crucial. A strategy to get your mobile app to #1 in the market should be part of your initial plan and should be 80% spent on below the line strategies where you can reach out and interact with your target customers and spread virally with a shared strategy across media devices.

Thank you.
Dannie Francis
CEO Cellcity Ltd

Thanks Nokia

really appreciated the free app, thanks !!

if anyone is interested, Nokia is converting blogs to apps and putting them on the OVI store.

great way to get an instant app. not that i expect anyone will be searching dannie+francis to look for my app on the OVI store (except my Mum).

but not a bad marketing initiative from the folks at Nokia. is this a sign there are new smart initiatives on the horizon?

you could also find me on www.cellcitycorp.com

cheers

dannie

BB BBM

I'm excited about it, i just have to get everyone using a BB to be REALLY excited about it. we have to take down the borders. no more proprietary anything. Let the Mexicans in, take down the wall, open your doors.
no need for me to write, i just read pretzel logic. check this out http://www.pretzellogic.org/blog/2010/05/31/rims-bbm-the-iphones-achilles-heel/