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.

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.

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.

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.

I wanted to highlight some of the advertising efforts that have gotten attention recently because of their creative use of technology. Video games, bands, major brands, and ad agencies themselves are all coming up with new ways to get attention online while typically leveraging the most popular social networks.

I placed the following examples into 4 categories: Social Media, Mobile, Interactive, and one honorable mention under Augmented Reality. Click on each example to check it out.

Social Media

The Protoype Experience

Prototype is a new game coming out (from Activision) on XBOX 360, PS3, and Windows. Sign in using your Facebook account, wait for it to load, and sit back and enjoy the game preview that’s customized with some of your Facebook data. It’s being described as the coolest use of Facebook Connect so far.

TRVSDJAM Mixtape

Simply connect using your Twitter account, post the auto-generated message with the #trvsdjam hashtag, and you get to download the new mixtape free of charge. Coldplay also recently released a free live album, but instead of a tweet, they just wanted your email address. What’s important to notice is how quickly good deals (especially free) have begun to spread now. Before it was mainly through forums, email, and instant messages, but now social networks are increasingly becoming the way most people share deals online.

It shouldn’t surprise you that this resulted in tons of links on Twitter and the hashtag #trvsdjam showing up in the trending topics for several hours. This also reminded me of another recent effort when Crank tried to take over your Facebook status. Advertisers have to be careful with this approach. Unless there is enough value in it for the consumer, the backlash against a campaign being considered spam can be brutal with the online crowd.

BooneOakley YouTube Home Page

Although this example is not advertising a product or service, it’s a genius way of an agency being creative with their own online home. Plenty has been said about this already but it’s a must see if you have not come across it yet. This is my new favorite agency website at the moment with a close second being Wexley School for Girls.

Quicksilver’s The Spot

I think they got this idea from the Honda Insight Let It Shine video on Vimeo, but that’s not important. This Quicksilver video got my attention (for long enough) to see that it ends with a skateboard being thrown at the screen. The shattering glass effect then shakes the browser window a few times which I had never seen before. I’ll take a shaking browser window over an auto-maximizing one any day.

Old Navy Supermodelquins

These Old Navy Twitter accounts might have been setup a while ago but I found out about them only after recently attending the Crispin Porter + Bogusky Digital Peepshow here in NY. Instead of just creating a general Old Navy Twitter account to push out deals and news, CP+B decided to take a different approach and created several accounts for the fictional store mannequins that are also featured in the latest TV ads. During the presentation, they mentioned Alex Bogusky does most of the tweeting for these accounts himself which I thought was very interesting :) I’m now following all of them, it’s like a comedic drama that takes place in my Twitter stream.

So lots of creative stuff being done with Twitter and Facebook. I don’t think that will slow down anytime soon since these are the two social networks where people spend the most amount of time right now. The introduction of Facebook Connect and Twitter OAuth has made it possible for digital agencies and brand marketers to create experiences like these instead of just the usual fan page or brand account.

Mobile

Digital iPhone controlled Ads

Although this idea is not something completely new, it’s the first I’ve seen with the iPhone. I don’t think many people will take the time to engage with these ads unless there is something in it for them (coupon, exclusive preview of product, etc). The linked article mentions “digital outdoor” but the ideal location for these types of ads will be indoor shopping malls. CBS has partnered with Westfield Shopping Centers so you should start to see these pop up soon at your local shopping mall.

One example of something similar to this was done as part of a campaign for NikeID in Times Square as Richard Ting, Executive Creative Director at R/GA pointed out to me. It also shouldn’t be long before more events and conferences create these types of setups allow people to play games or interact with live product demos.

Nissan Cube Accessorizer

Nissan created this iPhone app which lets you customize and build your own Nissan Cube. Essentially the same thing you could do online but now on your iPhone. What the app is missing is a way to share your customized Cube with friends or through Facebook once it’s customized. There isn’t even a way to save your car to bring in to a local dealer and order the exact configuration. Unfortunately, no matter how I customized it, I still couldn’t get it to even look somewhat decent. iTunes direct link is here.

Gillette uArt

I wouldn’t consider this a cool app but I wanted to mention it anyway. I downloaded the new Gillette iPhone app uArt because I thought it would be fun to see what I’d look like with different beards. I tried it out and within seconds found the app was a huge disappointment. A decent idea but the execution is terrible.

But I give Gillette credit for the recent How to Shave Your Groin video they put on YouTube that is already approaching close to a million views. Gillette is clearly putting some money toward unconventional marketing methods online and in mobile, but they need to work on the mobile part.

Overall, I had a lot of trouble finding good examples of branded iPhone apps, even with 50,000 in the store now. I do like the fact that more apps are starting to include Facebook/Twitter sharing options. The AP Mobile News app recently added this to their latest release so I can now use Facebook Connect and my Twitter account to share articles in less than 3 seconds.

Interactive

GTI Project

Although this VW site isn’t targeted toward the U.S. market, I still enjoyed this simple game because I am a car enthusiast and I’m always interested in anything VW/Audi related (I currently drive a Honda but have owned a VW & Audi). There is a leaderboard so if you’re competitive, it could suck you in until your time gets better and better.

There are probably a ton of other cool interactive sites that were just released, but this is just one that I recently came across after seeing a link to it on Twitter.

Augmented Reality

USPS Virtual Box Simulator

This was created by AKQA for their client, the United States Postal Service. It’s being described as one of the first practical uses of this technology. The first example using this technology that I came across was GE’s SmartGrid not too long ago which I thought was pretty amazing. I’m looking forward to seeing what else this can be used for like this video I found on YouTube.

Update: I came across a great blog post with 10 more great examples of augmented reality being used in recent campaigns.

Coming Soon

At the Digital Peepshow, Crispin Porter + Bogusky gave attendees a preview of a Facebook app they have been developing for their client Coke Zero. They partnered with the University of Illinois to license face recognition technology to create an app called the Facebook Profiler. The Facebook Profiler will analyze your photos and then find your look-alikes on Facebook (to promote Coke Zero tasting just like regular Coke). Keep an eye out for the app over the next couple of months and expect it to get as much attention as the Whopper Sacrifice app they released not too long ago.

Any other creative campaigns that I missed? Connect with me on Twitter @jsmakr or comment below.

Here are a few important Ogilvy-isms (concepts, tactics, or techniques) of his that caught my attention.

Never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your own family to read. (pg. 127)

Plain and simple, who likes to be lied to or mislead? Too many marketers and advertisers assume that their target market is not smart or internet savvy. The online resources available now for people to check the facts are massive. With large blogs like the Consumerist and millions of searchable, smaller personal blogs; nothing gets by anymore. False advertising attempts will be blogged and micro-blogged about while the more traditional word-of-mouth also takes effect at the same time. Then, the story will most likely be picked up by other major publications and media outlets.

If it doesn’t sell without sound, it is useless. (pg. 160)

Whoever decided it was a good idea to automatically increase the volume of commercials should know that it was a horrible idea. Because of this annoyance, I find myself muting the TV once a commercial break hits. I have already started to notice the same trend with online streaming shows. There may be no statistic for this, but I am pretty sure an ad viewer is probably 99% less likely to purchase whatever is being advertised if they find it annoying. Anyway, that’s not the point here when Ogilvy says sell without sound. What I think he means is keep the word count low, don’t sound too aggressive, and back up the sound with memorable images. That way if sound is taken out of the equation at least the images will stick.

Big ideas are usually simple ideas. (pg. 195)

I couldn’t agree more, especially when it comes to the mobile channel. In the rapidly growing world of mobile marketing, too many companies are trying to dive into it with elaborate, but often messy approaches. It’s very easy to start off with a simple idea then add on too many other factors which you might convince yourself are essential. They may be essential, but once you give anybody too many options, it starts to get too confusing and overwhelming which is a major turn-off.

The first phase of this campaign is designed to engage consumers and spark a new conversation about Windows – a conversation that will evolve as the campaign progresses, but will always be marked by humor and humanity.

I am sure CP+B knows what they are doing and somewhat expected this type of response. The more obvious product associations will come further down the line in this series so it’s still way too soon to measure if this campaign is actually effective in giving Microsoft a lift. Overall, I enjoyed this second one very much and didn’t mind sitting through the whole 4 and a half minutes of the uncut online version. I’m actually even looking forward to the next one now which I really wasn’t after the first ad. Did you catch the connection they made when Bill Gates is still trying to break in his new shoes? Very clever.

9. How would you characterize your ideas?

I’ve always been passionate about ideas that were simple and easy to understand because they were true. People could see the ideas and then see themselves.

This is always great advice in general when it comes to analyzing any business problem or idea. Entrepreneurs are commonly advised to think about whether they can see themselves using their product or service and also to reach out to family and friends during the initial research phase to see if they clearly understand their plans. Simple is almost always better.

10. What is your creative signature?

Advertising that speaks to the heart as well as the head. In a world of parity products and services, advertising that packs an emotional wallop definitely gives you a big edge.

His answer is specific to advertising and marketing. That emotional wallop, as he puts it, is very rarely missing from any great advertising or marketing campaign. If you are not in the advertising industry though, think about past achievements in your career and the general reasons behind why you were successful.

15. What criteria do you employ to judge the merits of an insight or idea?

I first look at it with my gut. How does it feel? Am I excited? Am I bored? Am I delighted? Once past that, I look at it on a business level. And determine whether it’s on strategy, whether it meets the essential objectives. And more important, whether it has the potential to lead to a great piece of advertising.

It’s important to note the order in which he first analyzes how he feels about the insight then moves on to the business details. Why waste time dwelling on an insight that your not excited about?

I would recommend this book to anyone in business or entrepreneurship, especially with a role involved in advertising or marketing. He goes over several examples of some of the most successful advertising campaigns he helped create and produce during his time leading the BBDO agency. Creativity and regular insights are essential in any profession and the advice above is only part of why he was so successful in advertising.