Commissioning Apps - An Entertainment Category Checklist
Post on 05-Dec-2014
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ABC Digital Business
Commissioning and Building Apps An Entertainment Category Checklist
ABC’s commercial mobile development
2005 - 2009
ABC For Kids
-World first pre-
school mobile
channel on
3 Mobile
2010 2011 2012
News, kids and
entertainment
content
syndicated to
multiple telco,
media, and retail
partners
iOS:
Beached Az
ABC For Kids
iOS:
Phillippa Finch
Spicks Quiz
Angry Boys
Bananas in Pyjamas
iOS:
Bananas in PJs
Randling
Android:
Story Cloud
Source: App Annie 2012
Australia not a small market for apps - 6% of paid market where UK is 8%. Nevertheless, difficult to be profitable.
• Loved and trusted Australian kids brand
• Over 400k accumulated users
• 49,000 uniques per month
• 10% conversion – iTunes click-throughs
Commercial Success
• Huge viral hit
Commercial Success
• Huge viral hit
• Young male audience
• Early technology adopters
• Eps, Game, Sound board
• Inexpensive build
• #1 in Paid Entertainment
• Good engagement:
• 14,000 sessions June
Critical Success
• 14,000 sessions June
• 422 avg daily users
• 10mins avg session
time
• IAP quiz packs very popular
• High dev costs affect
profitability
• FREE at launch
• Over 50k installs in 1st Month
• Simple but feels rich
• Uptick in other Bananas apps
as customers explore
• Better ratings when free –
price big factor in customers’
perceived value equation
Critical Success
App Install Trends
Installs follow very similar trajectory regardless of pricing strategy. Apple promotion creates large spike at launch.
In App Purchase behaviour over same period
The checklist for commissioning apps
Photo credit: Art Alahay
1. Have a clear idea what you want to achieve
• What behaviour do you want your audience to exhibit on encountering your brand in this space?
– Who are they? What will THEY want from your brand?
• Engagement via digital channels?
– Keep it simple
– Consider the app part of your marketing budget and scale – Consider the app part of your marketing budget and scale
development accordingly
– Include snippets of free content
• Brand awareness?
– Choose a cheaper channel
– Where you have more control over findability
• If you do want to generate revenue for the brand, go in with eyes open...
2. Choose a business model that makes sense
for the medium
FREE
• Most popular with
App Store
audiences
• Possibly even more
important than
quality??!
FREEMIUM
• Make sure you have
enough “mium” to go
with the free
• Teaser content drive
to paid content
• In App Purchase
• Run FREE sales
PAID
• Works in some
instances
• Needs a large
addressable audience
(global)
• With the means
to market to them• Run FREE sales
on app and still
monetise
• IAP content
MUST be
meaningful and
desired
• Content owners could
consider global
licensing to 3rd parties
along with other
content
3. Control costs tightly
• Native app dev very expensive compared with the potential for direct revenue
• Look for Minimum Viable Products that will satisfy audienceaudience
• Sacrifice notional equity and partner with your developer for a revenue share
– You can share IP, or retain IP
and split revenue only
• Added advantage -- developer more invested in the product, rather than just the project – can lead to better outcomes
Engaging development partners on
a work for hire basis...
• Dedicate your own product owner or producer to the project
– Give them decision-making authority and responsibility
• Look closely at development partner’s project management processes and practice
– Dedicated producer/PM is critical
• And QA practices • And QA practices
– Ask for detailed test plans as one of the deliverables
– Do they automate testing?
– Use an online tracking tool for bug reporting.
• Agree number of rounds of changes you can have for your budget
• Include analytics implementation as a deliverable
4. Reserve budget for post-release and
measure user behaviour
• Spend time determining the audience behaviour you will measure early on in the build
– Step through your app wireframes to do this
• Implement and test the analytics before release• Implement and test the analytics before release
• Don’t spend all your budget getting to launch – release with an MVP
• Do spend time interpreting the results – you’ll learn where you should be putting the rest of your budget
5. Remember your app is a product, not a project
• Monitor user behaviour
• Optimise the app based on user behaviour and feedback
• Actively manage app pricing and promotions
• Actively use social media
if every app is a startup –if every app is a startup –
viral is your main driver
of growth
The Checklist Recap
1. Have a clear idea what you want to achieve, how you want audiences to act
2. Choose a business model that makes sense for the medium
3. Tightly control the development costs (and/or consider rev share partnerships)
4. Reserve budget for post-release and measure user behaviour
5. Remember your app is not a project, it’s a product. Resource its ongoing management.
Thank you
@mslissa
Melissa Firth
ABC Digital Business
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