ADO hosted this event at Oct 3, 2011.  We had more then 300 participants and 36 Brand Marketing Mobile Apps  were submitted.   The event was in cooperation with Mobile Monday NYC, NYC mobile Apps, and NYC Mobile.   Also, we had a special guest from ROVIO Angry Bird’s CMO Peter Vesterbacka! The event was closed with a special performance from Erin Barra.

Those are some apps which ware submitted.

Winner is

* Ray Ban http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ray-ban-never-hide-u.s./id426128456?mt=8

From the team!
Ray-Ban NEVER HIDE is an immersive brand experience which connects Ray-Ban’s audience with the Never Hide campaign. This app engages users on multiple levels by allowing them to consume, create, and share Never Hide content. Imano worked with Luxottica Group’s agency, Vizeum, to integrate the app’s functionality with Ray-Ban’s global Never Hide campaign.

Designed and developed by Imano

Thank you for the sponsors and participant!

http://www.mediacrossmedia.com/mxm_series/nyc/oct_03_2011_brand_marketing_mobile_app_show-off/

Over the course of the last several years, Apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry and even Symbian paved the way for the strong value proposition of the optimized mobile experience for brands, publishers, developers and content creators. The closed App Store ecosystem created a business model for these App owners to make money in a way never before possible within the “Walled-Garden” environment of the Mobile Operators.  These solutions were driven by Device side owner of the business (Apple, Google, RIM and others) and the day AT&T “drank the poison pill” and let Apple have full control, set into motion a unique new mobile world order that changed the position of the Carriers.  However, the caveat to these closed Application marketplaces has been the ability for discovery and marketability of Applications- a problem sorted out in the internet world with Google search

Today, many have seen HTML5 the next big hope in the future of the Application business.  As most of the mobile browsers today house-Webkit (the open source mobile safari browser).  The promise of an Application solution that can work from the browser across all the devices is an exciting possibility.  This evolution is moving fast and it is being driven by Google and in my opinion part of the grand master plan for domination. Google has been using HTML5 to make a compelling case for device-specific views (the same website but mobile or online depending on the screen size.  The strength in an Application world driven by HTML5 is that it lives by the same discovery guidelines of the internet and there is no question this is the strength of Google or the Online Market leaders.

Just this last week, was a big day for HTML5.  Facebook made a big announcement around their initiatives for HTML5 Apps as part of their mobile framework.  Since the launch of the iPhone and the iPad, all eyes have been on the HTML5 evolution vs. Flash as well as the development of mobile web apps vs. native apps.  Even though there has been some time before the fragmentation settles, it looks like we are now at a turning point for a stronger evolution of HTML5 Apps in the ecosystem.

So is this the chance that Carriers are waiting for? AT&T seems to be pushing big for the evolution of HTML5 (Link to other article).  DoCoMo did a great job over the last decade with building out a dedicated mobile web framework called “iMode” that had a separate parsing and billing mechanism for both official and non-official sites with Carrier billing.  This type of structure would work with the HTML5 opportunity, giving strength in the Carriers ability to have an Application marketplace across all devices by pushing the requirements in the Handset manufacturer’s Browser.  However, Facebook is embarking now on a similar strategy via the web and ubiquitous across all handsets.  So if the carriers attempt to engage in this strategy, there is a strong opportunity for them across all of their own devices sold, but they will need to move fast and with some elements of differentiation.  Google and Facebook are coming strong from economies of scale and extending their strong user base to mobile.  The question remains whether an internet-based HTML5 Application marketplace run by Google, Facebook that crosses all carriers and handsets vs. one driven by a Carriers that only reaches just their family of handsets,  going to be compelling enough for web developers? . Carriers may need to think out-of-box and build more mobile cross-channel media relationships ( such as the TV, Radio, Agency, News, Retail) to give them a potential content and commerce position tied to their existing strengths of billing, pre-packaging, location based services, mobile wallet and point-of-sale marketing awareness.

( Some reference Articles)

InfoWorld May 11, 2011-  HTML5 not yet solving the Mobile Dev problem

IntoMobile June 18, 2011- AT&T creates a HTML5 dev center in Israel

Wallstreet Journal  Jan 5, 2011-  AT&T plans to create the most advanced HTML5 toolkit

If you are a website owner, you need to be getting geared up for Mobile.  In the recent Business Insider Report, they shared some of the statistics for their own site on Mobile [ See Picture].  

We at ADObjects, Inc have been working with a variety of companies offering  mobilization services, and we  found for all of our clients similar data to what is seen at Business Insider.  You can expect between 10~20% of your existing traffic to now be from Mobile devices. Generally speaking we have found that the traffic from mobile browsers has been from 60~80% from iOS devices, with Android under 10%, but for this business users where Android devices have cannibalized much of the Blackberry market to take  close to 20% from the 10% in the past.

Come and See Matthew Snyder, Founder/CEO ADObjects at CMW March 12, Toronto

I wanted to share my thoughts on the importance of mobile for the fledging music industry. YoY, CD sales are going down and down, and digital is growing, but not at the rate of what the CD business created for the industry. With digital piracy just existing as stronger then every and p2p networks offering the convenience, availability and breadth of content, this new industry form is something of constant debate.

The Mobile App

However,  I bet my money on mobile!  It has been discussed that the App is the next frontier and form of media format that gives a variety of options in addition to the music and video content that can be charged to the end-user as simply as one-click.  This has been constrained a bit as Apple is keeping these reins so strongly close to their chest that  true App innovation of delivering Mp3′s and other content as a convenient distribution channel over the quick and easy p2p networks is just at its infancy.  This was proven true with iTunes and the delivery of  ”ala carte” content as a viable option over the p2p networks where users were in fact willing to pay for content if the delivery was right. More and players are entering the game with the music download businesses to compete again the almighty Apple, and now that the playing field is evening out between Apple, Nokia-Microsoft, Google, RIM for the next gen Smart Phone devices, this new model will clearly present itself as in the next year as the most efficient way to categorically sell content via applications and not just store-fronts.

The proposition was validated with users going and buying content via an iTunes app, but for an artist to have their own App to sell music directly is part of this overall formula.   This type App merchandising and marketing will evolve and potentially drive Apple to explore more options then just the delivery via the iTunes store.  Instead of going to a store to searching for it,  the vast array of better user interfaces and offers will multiple this App experience.  The package of all the peripheral offerings ( video footage and music video’s, interviews, freebies, t-shirts, collectors items, etc…) associated with the Application as well as the ability for users to to be part of mobile dedicated fan list.     The App can breath life to the true culture and personality of the artist as the content can link to the real-time social networks and create opportunities for direct conversations back-n-forth. Fans have the opportunities to explore more then just the music, but the entire life-style and “taste-maker” trends of the Artist for just about any context ( places, fellow artists, and philosophy).  Even the charitable movements can be explored with “Gifting” as we saw with Pearl Jam and Oceans which is just the beginning of the entire business dimensions.   The App can live not only by a limits of distribution like for a physical CD, but can be delivered virally via those Fans.

Flattened by the Long-Tail ( both content and other business areas)

So in some ways with this total fragmentation it is hard to see where that $8~10 Billion completely migrated to? Direct sales of CD’s was one of the only options besides performances to have a connection with the music and the artist, and the actual CD Jacket was the starting point where Artists shared their culture to communicate with Fans in the 80′s and early 90′s.

Besides the overall business of the Music Industry being hard to grab onto for the labels, management and publishers of the past, what we are seeing is a new revolution of more and more music with more and more talented artists making their debut with hopes of that  chance to make it into the spot-light with their fans.   This opportunity is greater then ever, but much more verticalized and more focused on micro-communities around each artist that support the life-line of that artist through performances and merchandise.

Recently, I saw an Artist called Jerry Cherry, at Rockwood in NYC.  He is a mix of an Iggy Pop and quintessentially New York artist sound. What amazed me was the loyal following that he had at the performance and his dialog and show with the fans- truly entertaining.   It was that tight moment between him and the audience that was an emotional connection that just cemented in my mind that this was the “Soul” of this new music business.  More shows, more engagement with fans  is what an Artist needs to be positive  about as an entertainer  if they are to make a living  in this new era.   He was selling his CD’s at this venue and in fact sold a couple of them.    This is an angle that I see as the growth of this business;   much more long-tail  and concentrated in nitch verticals.  Performances are the fertile ground for artists to create that emotional attachment that can lead to a business strategy that is inexplicably linked back to mobile. Why mobile?  Because we all have it in our pocket, with intelligence to give us more and more.  Today, we can shoot images like a professional photographer, take video like a film maker, create mix-mashes of memories, and access web content when the moment is right during that music experience.

Selling those CD's at the Venue

The Mobile Moment…

I  like the analogy of a digital dessert. Even after a large meal, when the waitress brings around that dessert tray, that  sugary, creamy delight is hard to resist and make that impulsive buy of  several $$$ in that moment.   Like the dessert business is a long-tail, location specific business that bridges that final emotional connection between the chief and the consumer,  The Artist needs to think this way as well with the mobile channel being that waitresses serving tray…  So Jerry Cherry ( no pun intended as it is a dessert sounding name) instead of selling those CD’s can sell that mobile digital dessert.

[ AD] Canadian Music Week- Register Today  March 9~12th Toronto Canadian Music Week 2008- Rebirth of the Music Industry [ Video]

Of course that Mobile Moment is tied to location based services and social media. We all check-in with Foursquare, Facebook places and bring our entire social network into that moment for that instance.   It is the moment when a Butterfly flaps its wings and can create start to a Hurricane in the Gulf.  Artists that give birth to that experience for fans to share that moment is the new paradigm of distribution that can has become of the internet that we live with today.

ButterflyCream

About a year ago I had the epiphany around this concept and have been building a “war chest” of features, concepts, prototypes with my partners over at DiscoverRock , BloomEffect and others.  The goal is about how to make this a reality for artists to make money in this business.  Nothing is formally launched yet, but the seeds of this idea to bring new-revenue streams for artists has been something I have been working on as a hobby in my spare time.  We have started this with several artists and working on this platform ( No launch date to announce yet) but rather a strategy and concept we feel could lead to the next-gen business model for the long-tail of this industry.  The goal would not be to re-invent the wheel or create another mobile app platform, but to bridge all those developers and streams for this kind of  mobile tidal wave this is amongst us.    Please email us at info@butterflycream.com or @BFlyCRM

Come and See ADO at Canadian Music Week

We have entered 2011 and I have to say the first decade did fly by rather quickly for us in the mobile industry.   I am a big fan of JWT and their things to watch deck.  I thought I would share it and highlight the top 10 in my mind for those realigning and creating a  mobile strategy this year.

Here are some of my favorite links to either help you through the Thanksgiving Holidays or just Apps of Thanks!

1) Top Thanksgiving Survival Apps ( PCWorld)

2) 5 Apps to be Thankful for if you are Flying this Thanksgiving ( RRW)

….more Apps for traveling

3) Some of the top iPhone Thanksgiving Apps ( MacWorld)

4) Great music to listen to over the Holidays ( CareyOtt)

5) Top Apps for Cooking (Blog)

6) Epicurious App

7) Vegetarian Cookbook App

Given the fact that Apple is a true leader in the music industry and in many ways started a great process for artist and labels to make money selling tracks via iTunes as opposed to the illegal p2p downloads ( Lime wire and others still alive), one would think that they would look to the future with the Radio industry as well.

Many companies ( i.e. CBSradio)  have been releasing and bringing amazing  internet radio to the mobile world, but why limit this? What is the real logic? Is it because it is difficult for them to extract revenues from the radio feeds integrated with Advertising?

This announcement today was again a shocking bit of news that really needs to be looked at.  When we think of AM/FM Radio’s from the past, we do think of mobile devices ( Either mobile in the car, or that portable Receiver that we all used to take with us to the Beach, the Base Ball Game.

I myself with my boutique strategic consultancy was amazed by this announcement. Why not let a single radio station build up its own App with a variety of  their own offers and direct consumer value propositions.  Is it like telling an artist they can not launch their own App unless it is a music app with hundreds of other Artists.  Radio stations deserve to grow their own brand in this era of fierce competition and let the market decide.  I am still not clear on their logic and maybe this post can bring some debate and discussion to really understand why this is good for Apple, their customers and the industry.  I am a true believer in cross-media convergence of Radio in a variety of forms.  I do see the value of having Radio Apps with hundred of stations, but in the programming world and with this new era of personalization, having one-station that can evolve to a true personalized station for that fan base in my mind only makes sense.

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Apple bars ‘all single-station radio apps’ from iPhone
‘They’re like fart apps,’ howl Jobsian minions
By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted , 24th November 2010 21:13 GMT
Apple is now barring all single-station radio applications from the iPhone and iPad, insisting that “single station apps are the same as a fart app and represent spam in the iTunes store.” So says Jim Barcus, the president of DJB Radio Apps, an outfit that has long helped build iPhone apps and other mobile apps for radio stations across the country.

According to Barcus, Apple began rejecting single-station radio apps on November 10, declaring that it “will no longer approve any more radio station apps unless there are hundreds of stations on the same app.” Barcus can’t see the logic. “[Apple doesn't] understand that radio stations are in fierce competition,” he tells The Reg. “[Apple] just wants all radio stations to be on one big fat app, and that’s just not going to happen.”

Barcus is now broadcasting his gripe via an article in Radio Magazine, urging radio station owners to complain directly to Apple and Steve Jobs. “I think after enough broadcast professionals complain and make Apple aware of the fact that radio stations are in fierce competition with each other and listener loyalty makes the listener want to only listen to his favorite radio station, Apple may change this rule,” he says.

Good luck with that, Jim.

As Barcus points out, Apple’s recently introduced App Store guidelines say that “developers ‘spamming’ the App Store with many versions of similar apps will be removed from the iOS Developer Program.” Although Barcus acknowledges that the apps he helps build for radio stations are similar, he says that each station has its own Apple developer account and that each app is named and tagged according to the station’s call letters and location. “If you search on ‘radio station app,’ you’re not going to see these applications,” he tells us. “This isn’t like you’re getting spam. It’s not like keying in ‘Fart app.’”

He also points out certain inconsistencies in Apple’s stance. “Every Pizza joint can have its own app. There are more than 900 flashlight apps. More than 3,000 apps that do maps,” he says. “But radio stations cannot have their own apps.”

Barcus has emailed Steve Jobs directly to appeal for a change of heart. But Jobs upheld Apple’s stance with typical brevity. “Sorry, we’ve made our decision,” Jobs replied.

Fart-app-like ‘spam’ aside, Apple could be angling to offer some sort of radio tool of its own. “This may be about money,” Barcus says. Rumors have long suggested that Apple is building its own FM radio app for the iPhone, and later versions of the Jesus Phone include an FM transmitter and receiver hardware.

Currently, this hardware goes unused. At the moment, apps must tap radio stations via the net, and there are myriad apps that do so. National Public Radio (NPR), for instance, offers an app for listening to hundreds of affiliate stations across the country, and ESPN offers a similar app for tapping some of its affiliate stations. ®