What App Publishers can Learn from Oreo and Nissan
Remember Oreo in 2013, when a simple Tweet made them the winner of the Superbowl? Or how about Nissan when they posted their car with crowns on the seats, relating to the Duchess of Cambridge, who was expecting her second child.
Responding to current events and trends has traditionally been a fantastic way for brands to connect with their customers, but does personalization have to stay with advertising alone, or is there a way to bring that personal touch to all your digital assets? Even more importantly, does this personalization matter?
While nearly half of the respondents in this survey claimed that their website was where they saw the highest level of personalisation occurring — in our modern multi-device world — there must be other ways to deliver a personal product to your users. There are more tweets, posts, websites and mobile apps popping up than ever before. Last year alone, almost500.000 new iOS apps launched. This is pretty amazing when taking into account that this was the total amount of apps only two years ago. Until now more than 102 billion apps have been downloaded, resulting into over $45 billion dollars in revenue. In 2016 it is expected that more than 1.3 billion smartphones will be sold, more than 3 times as much compared to personal computers. Comscore recently published their annual “U.S. Mobile App Report”, showing that mobile usage increased notably, while desktop usage is shrinking. Nowadays, we spend more than half of our digital media time on mobile devices. Yet, it is astonishing that almost half of the interviewed marketers cited their website as the main channel for real-time personalization, while only 9% think the same about their app.
Another survey shows that the majority of mobile app developers would actually like to be able to create personal experiences for different users. Yet, only every tenth developer actually makes use of personalization tools. Sure, most of them focus their time on keeping the app working and guaranteeing that the communication with their users works properly — but maybe that’s just because they haven’t found the right tool to personalize.
Besides, another obstacle marketers and publishers are facing is timing. They are simply not able to just change their apps spontaneously because of Apple’s app approval. The process is dependent on many factors and currently it takes about 8 days on average to get an app approved. A great example of actually doing so is Snapchat. Imagine if other frequently-used apps like Instagram or Foursquare would completely personalize their app towards specific user behaviour in real-time. How cool would it be if your favorite app actually has the interface of your favorite team and Foursquare telling you where the championship celebrations are going to take place.
That would just be the beginning. Imagine every app on your smartphone is personalized towards your current preferences and offers unique features and specials. Imagine each app on your iPhone (and probably soon Galaxy phone) gives you 3D touch options depending on your behavior and needs. This imagination is not far-fetched at all. In fact, app publishers and marketers already have the possibility of personalizing mobile apps at any time — without coding, without App Store approvals. Just like Bonin Bough or David Parkinson took real-time marketing to the next level, more and more mobile analytics companies will specialize in real-time mobile app engagement. In this VentureBeat article Scott Valentine recently mentioned that “relatively few have invested much in mobile app personalization”, but with a growing number of app publishers acknowledging the need to further interact with their users, it is going to be very interesting to see how mobile applications will look like in the near future. Well, I can’t wait for the next Superbowl to come…
