Sep

28

Proof that it’s the year of mobile

Filed Under Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Mobile | Comments

Yes, that’s sarcasm in the title. Here’s the latest: over 85,000 iPhone apps available, 10,000 apps for Android devices, 80 for Palm, and who knows how many for BlackBerry (update: someone heard me, it’s 2,500 apps).

As of right now, there isn’t a Brands category in any of these app stores and I don’t foresee that ever happening (wouldn’t really make sense anyway). As more big brands release mobile apps, it’s becoming harder to keep track of who is doing what.

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So I created a Google spreadsheet to try and organize all these apps in one place. I’ve decided to only focus on the iPhone for now, but should be moving on to the rest soon if there is interest. I’m also probably missing a lot of apps right now but this will, of course, be an ongoing (and hopefully collaborative) effort.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE GOOGLE SPREADSHEET

Some trends

  1. Out of the 200+ apps listed so far, only about 15 have an average rating of 4 stars or better
  2. AndroLib shows 64% of all Android apps are rated 4 stars or better. Are branded apps in general worse or just on the iPhone? As soon as I build the Android list, we should have a better idea
  3. In general, it’s pretty obvious the total number of ratings should be a good indicator of the apps overall popularity (not downloads)
  4. The biggest category by far is Lifestyle, News being the second
  5. Brands are consistently improving apps because I rarely noticed an average overall rating that was lower than the latest version’s rating
  6. Not surprisingly, free dominates branded apps (about 90%)
  7. Top 5 most rated apps: Facebook, Zippo, Barclaycard, Weather Channel, and Google

Update: Steve Smith from MediaPost’s Mobile Insider wrote a great article titled Your Brand App Hit Parade that references my spreadsheet. Make sure to check it out if you didn’t come from there.

Please let me know what branded apps are missing by using this form or send me a reply on Twitter @jsmakr with the brand/app name.

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Sep

17

Suggested users by @jsmakr

Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, Mobile, PR, Social Media, Twitter | Comments

It’s obvious Twitter’s suggested user feature is not so great because it knows nothing about your interests. Below is a list of people I currently enjoy following because they have many years of experience in the digital marketing, advertising, social media, and mobile industries (all Screen shot 2009-09-17 at 9.35.10 PM‘d by me). If you have similar interests, you should be following them too.

Check it out and maybe create a list of your own. If you do, please send me the link or consider tagging it with the hashtag #mysuggested. It doesn’t matter what day you do it.

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In no particular order:

@dberkowitz – Senior Dir, Emerging Media & Innovation at 360i
@Malbonnington – Managing Partner @BBHLabs
@paulisakson – Head of Strategy at space150
@spikejones – Chief Firestarter at Brains on Fire
@bogusky – Chairman of CP+B
@flytip – VP, Executive Creative Director at R/GA
@workforfood – Associate Creative Director at R/GA
@Shivsingh – VP & Global Social Media Lead at Razorfish
@Steffan1 – Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Euro RSCG Chicago
@bud_caddell – Strategist at Undercurrent
@mikearauz – Strategist at Undercurrent
@colindrummond – Cultural + Business Insights Dept at CP+B
@eyecube – Global Director, Account Management at Taylor PR
@lynneluvah – Director, Social Media at FastCompany.com but will soon be Senior VP Social Media, The Advertising Research Foundation
@IanSohn – SVP, Marketing and 360° Digital Influence at Ogilvy PR
@bastholm – Chief Digital Creative Officer at Ogilvy
@heyitsnoah – Head of Planning and Strategy, The Barbarian Group
@faris – EVP Chief Technology Strategist at McCann Erickson
@scottfrog – Chief Executive of StrawberryFrog
@awolk – Blogger, Creative Strategist, Consultant
@Armano – Senior Partner at Dachis Group
@jowyang – Partner, Altimeter Group
@dmklee – Executive Creative Director at TBWA\Digital Arts
@its_amber – Dir of Digital Strategy, Naked Communications
@rachelpasqua – Dir of Strategy, Emerging Technologies at iCrossing

Just a handful of the agency accounts that I currently follow and find very interesting:

@BBHLabs, @Wexley, @RGA, @BrainsOnFire, @AgencyNil, @razorfishee, @bigspaceship, @firstborn_nyc, @NakedNY, @ogilvydigital, @hillholliday, @booneoakley, @modernista, and of course where I currently freelance @mslworldwide

And don’t forget about:

@AdweekDotCom, @tweetfreakblog, @adage, and @agencyspy

I haven’t been a huge fan of Follow Friday lately because 140 characters simply isn’t enough. Many people send out several tweets in a row with just @usernames – who actually clicks through to each? In a blog post, you have the freedom to include as much info as you want and you can update it as often as you want as things change.

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Sep

14

6 CEO apologies on YouTube

Filed Under Branding, Customer Service, PR, Social Media, Videos | Comments

YouTube has had many unexpected uses through the years, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted it would be used for public CEO apologies. Who wouldn’t agree that it’s one of the many great ways for a major brand to respond quickly to negative PR online?

Below are 5 (update: now 6, thanks Consumerist) CEO video apologies that I found on YouTube after doing a quick search. A couple of these examples were also mentioned in more detail in a book called Tactical Transparency (pg. 100-104), which is what led to this post.

Domino’s

In case you haven’t already heard, this video was posted shortly after a unappetizing video was posted by two store employees which quickly went viraaaaaal and led to a PR crisis for Domino’s. The apology by CEO Patrick Doyle currently has 754k views, which is by far the most out of all these examples.

JetBlue

The second largest number of views (currently at 361k) belongs to a video posted by JetBlue’s former CEO David Neeleman after the company had a very bad week. This apology mostly got positive responses because it seemed to be the most genuine and unscripted. This apology letter was also posted on the their website.

KFC

KFC President Roger Eaton had to try and calm people down after a free meal coupon was promoted on Oprah and things quickly got out of hand. The original apology video has been removed since then and KFC did a really good job of making sure the it was off the internet (please let me know if you find it). Since I cannot embed the video, here is a screenshot instead:

kfcscreenshot.

Mattel

It wouldn’t be a toy company if they didn’t have to recall their toys at one point in time. Unfortunately for Mattel it was three recalls in just four weeks. The original apology video by CEO Bob Eckert was also removed but this study on believability below highlights the original clip while showing the results of the study.

Maple Leaf Foods

Summary: a major food processing company that had to apologize for bacteria in their food products which actually lead to people dying. It has only received 74k views so far probably because it’s the lowest profile brand out of these 5 but I’m still surprised because it seemed like a very serious health and PR case.

(Update) American Airlines

The Consumerist was kind enough to point out another apology that I missed from American Airlines’ CEO Jim Goodwin. This one is short.

Other

Two honorable mentions which would have definitely made it to this list if they were also in the form of video apologies: Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos apologizing after the remote deletion of Orwell’s 1984 book from all Kindles and Motrin’s ad targeted toward mom’s that badly backfired. Instead all we got was this short message board post from Jeff Bezoz and a short written apology from Motrin posted on its website.

Any others that I missed? Leave a comment or let me know on Twitter @jsmakr.

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Sep

8

Mobile observations in Cairo & Istanbul

Filed Under Gadgets, Mobile, Travel | Comments

I recently spent a week in Cairo and a week in Istanbul and I wanted to highlight a few of the things I noticed with current mobile trends in these two major middle eastern cities.

egyptnokia

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Cairo

  • By far, most people carry Nokia but the latest models are rare.
  • Most people are on prepaid accounts: data usage is charged per KB and texts are charged per sent/received instead of having a monthly allowance so people are overall careful with their usage.
  • I used local provider Mobinil while there – 3G coverage was widely available and speeds were great (even around the pyramids).
  • The iPhone is available on two local carriers (with MMS support) but considered very expensive.
  • Somehow even though Egypt is still behind on widely available and affordable broadband internet access, most people are on Facebook and actively using it (mainly through mobile access). Minimal Twitter use as far as I could tell.

Istanbul

  • Same as Cairo: saw mostly Nokia handsets being carried, a majority of which are Nseries devices.
  • I used local provider Vodafone Turkey and got ZERO 3G coverage the entire week (even though customer support told me to make sure I turned on 3G in the settings during activation). This was around the entire city and even some areas outside of city center.
  • The iPhone also available in Turkey on two carriers but along with BlackBerry’s not nearly as commonly used as here in the U.S.
  • Staying in a hostel, it was interesting to see everyone accessing Facebook & Gmail during downtime via laptops and sometimes their phone on the hostel’s WiFi.

Other Tips

If you have a GSM phone, travel frequently, and like to stay connected I highly recommend you unlock your device and use local carries like I did. Besides the iPhone, I believe most carriers will help you unlock a phone before you travel. The fact that prepaid accounts are the norm here and in some foreign cities makes it very easy to walk into any major carrier’s store once you arrive with your passport and within 10 minutes you have a newly activated SIM card. And you will avoid being charged “affordable” international roaming charges. When possible, just use Skype to make much cheaper international calls back home over WiFi (or 3G with some extra work on the iPhone).

I honestly don’t see the iPhone being a dominant device in Egypt and think it will take a while before it’s big in Turkey. This recent Fast Company article highlights Nokia’s efforts on how they plan to remain a leader in these global markets. What I witnessed in Cairo and Istanbul verified what I have always been hearing and reading about when it comes to their global dominance outside of the U.S.

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