Editorial Articles

Success in mobile apps is often attributed to innovation and breakthrough technology. Yet the most valuable element in any app is the thought and discipline which goes into making a mobile-specific experience. Dominic Pride, Founder and MD of The Sound Horizon, explains how app strategy is the bedrock of success.

"So this new mobile app of yours - just what does it do?"

If you can provide a crisp, one-sentence answer to this question, it's likely that your application offers significant value for your customers and your brand. If you can't, then yours could be among the thousands languishing in the lower ranks of the app store charts.

These days, a brand's decision to create mobile apps is made against a backdrop of breathless headlines reporting the billions of app downloads, or consumer media showcasing today's must-have application. Factor in corporate vanity and the need to appease the iPhone 4-toting CEO, and it's easy to believe that every day without an app is a day of lost opportunity.

It's true, your customers now expect a mobile app on at least one platform. But if your brand expects to build lasting, meaningful customer value and engagement, then it's vital to take time to define and refine your app strategy and purpose the moment your app project gets the green light.

For well-resourced brands with a content heritage, the temptation at this stage is to open the digital asset store cupboard and start repurposing. But the success of an app is determined more by what's left out than the breadth and depth of what goes in.

Will your app empower your customers to respond to their urges at the point of frustration, inspiration, or curiosity? Are you letting them use mobile downtime to be productive? Are you enabling new behaviours which exploit mobility, location awareness and connectivity?

Short-circuiting intangible app strategy can appear to save valuable project time for the more concrete outputs of planning, designing and building your app. Yet your entire investment depends on developing the right concept. With the appropriate time, environment and approach, you can ensure that a single vision of the app emerges which will translate into clear consumer messages for launch.

One useful tool for sanity-checking your app or service is to consider how the 3 Cs - Content, Context and Community - will come together in your offering.

Content
Traditional media brands often believe that making their content available on mobile can command an investment of time or money from the customer. Content will always be at the heart of any property, but its value will be diminished if it's the only element of your app.

Context
The time, place and device on which a user will access your content will have a bearing on how you present it. Mobile real-estate is limited by the size of the screen, and the user's attention span is constrained between calls, messages, social media and real-world distractions.

By contrast, the smartphone content experience is enhanced by location-awareness, accelerometers and touch screens, which enable innovative ways of interaction. 

Community
Even the most sophisticated multimedia phone is primarily a communication tool. Interactions with friends in the contact list or sharing to social media are instinctive on a device already used for voice, text and email. Social features also offer users the ability to share their enthusiasm for your brand immediately at the point of inspiration.

The next six to twelve months will be a 'twilight zone' for mobile media. Audiences are deserting traditional WAP portals, but brands and services are still wrestling with the challenge of scaling across new, handset and OS-driven plays.

A clear vision and killer use case will ensure your messages flow consistently across these new channels, and convince all customers to download and engage with your new app. 

Dominic Pride, Founder and Managing Director, The Sound Horizon
Twitter: @thesoundhorizon