Disqus
In a follow-up post to the one I wrote about entering the competition itself (here), Smaato (a leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company) has announced the winners of the Smaato Mobile Advertising Awards 2009:
• Overall iPhone category winner: Waze
• Overall Mobile web category winner: Flirtomatic
• Overall Apps category winner: Aloqa
• Microsoft Phone category winner: SPB TV
• Motorola Android category winner: Aloqa
But more interesting for me were the trends that were distilled from the entrants in to the awards:
1) Location, location, location
With success seen from location-based apps from Smaato Award Finalists such as Waze, Aloqa, Lucky Magazine (NearbyNow) and Yoose, the app enthused public is demonstrating that they are curious about socializing with other people using the same app, in the same geographic region. People who use these apps are engaging with local promotions or meeting up for coffee, even saying hi to each other as they pass in the street.
2) Brand building with apps
Among the thousands of apps available, many brands have stepped into the arena, extending their reach to involve the app hungry audiences around the world. We see GAP, Lufthansa, Barclaycard (by Award Finalist Fishlabs) and more leading brand marketers worldwide, all as excellent examples of how to connect with brand fans by developing useful apps that reflect a brand’s mission or extend their services to ubiquitous mobile devices and smartphones.
3) Profitable Fun
At the heart of the more successful app developer’s mission is increasing attention toward how to build sustained growth and profitability with different monetization options, such as SPB TV. For added monetization mobile developers are turning to mobile advertising solutions, such as options provided by Smaato.
4) Apps are the new fashion accessory!
Pop cultural media is increasingly paying attention to what apps fashionable people are downloading, and often feature interesting apps that are on-trend. At trendy bars in cosmopolitan cities people can be seen exchanging tips about the best apps to use in daily life, or just to have fun. Among the most popular we see Twitter applications such as Zensify and MoTweet, and urban guides like Buzzd or Geodelic Sherpa taking center stage. Greatly designed mobile utilities can be real life helpers like “Little Helpers” for tracking expenses.
5) Beyond the app
Increasingly, mobile publishers are building social networking and other conversational features to add value either within apps or on the mobile web, like itsmy or Flirtomatic. We see examples of API platforms being widened to build a bridge that takes an app beyond being something you only use on a mobile phone, to integration with the traditional online world. In the advent of the 2010 soccer world championships, reach on the mobile web is achieved either globally by goal.com or locally by Lance! in Brazil.
In a follow-up post to the one I wrote about entering the competition itself (here), Smaato (a leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company) has announced the winners of the Smaato Mobile Advertising Awards 2009:• Overall iPhone category winner: Waze
• Overall Mobile web category winner: Flirtomatic
• Overall Apps category winner: Aloqa
• Microsoft Phone category winner: SPB TV
• Motorola Android category winner: Aloqa
But more interesting for me were the trends that were distilled from the entrants in to the awards (after the jump):
1) Location, location, location
With success seen from location-based apps from Smaato Award Finalists such as Waze, Aloqa, Lucky Magazine (NearbyNow) and Yoose, the app enthused public is demonstrating that they are curious about socializing with other people using the same app, in the same geographic region. People who use these apps are engaging with local promotions or meeting up for coffee, even saying hi to each other as they pass in the street.
2) Brand building with apps
Among the thousands of apps available, many brands have stepped into the arena, extending their reach to involve the app hungry audiences around the world. We see GAP, Lufthansa, Barclaycard (by Award Finalist Fishlabs) and more leading brand marketers worldwide, all as excellent examples of how to connect with brand fans by developing useful apps that reflect a brand’s mission or extend their services to ubiquitous mobile devices and smartphones.
3) Profitable Fun
At the heart of the more successful app developer’s mission is increasing attention toward how to build sustained growth and profitability with different monetization options, such as SPB TV. For added monetization mobile developers are turning to mobile advertising solutions, such as options provided by Smaato.
4) Apps are the new fashion accessory!
Pop cultural media is increasingly paying attention to what apps fashionable people are downloading, and often feature interesting apps that are on-trend. At trendy bars in cosmopolitan cities people can be seen exchanging tips about the best apps to use in daily life, or just to have fun. Among the most popular we see Twitter applications such as Zensify and MoTweet, and urban guides like Buzzd or Geodelic Sherpa taking center stage. Greatly designed mobile utilities can be real life helpers like “Little Helpers” for tracking expenses.
5) Beyond the app
Increasingly, mobile publishers are building social networking and other conversational features to add value either within apps or on the mobile web, like itsmy or Flirtomatic. We see examples of API platforms being widened to build a bridge that takes an app beyond being something you only use on a mobile phone, to integration with the traditional online world. In the advent of the 2010 soccer world championships, reach on the mobile web is achieved either globally by goal.com or locally by Lance! in Brazil.
I think that’s a pretty astute assessment of the trends personally – anyone object vehemently??
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
