Heir App-arent: Branded Apps are replacing the website as a way to extend Brand Experience

Posted by Dean Power on 6 April 2011 | 0 Comments

Tags: Mobile apps, mobile brands

I’ve always been kind of a geek – but like many others lately I’ve learnt to embrace it. I shouted down the inner voice cautioning me over what I call OVB (Overtly Geeky Behaviour) last Friday when I joined millions of other fanbois around the western world who clamored for the new iPad.

Apart from brand loyalty, the process reminded me of the lengths people will go to for what they perceive to be new or ‘bleeding edge’. Later, flicking through the numerous applications or ‘apps’ available in the App store, I saw that companies are no exception, and are keen to be seen as vanguarding the movement. Apps grew out of a need for mobile utilities and entertainment (editable shopping lists on-the-go and turning your phone into a lightsaber), but we now have an increasing number of companies’ viewing it as a platform for expressing brand values.

Audi’s app ‘Audi A4 Driving Challenge’, which recorded 370,000 downloads in the first 2 weeks of it’s launch, demonstrates the way a companies are extending customer experience of their brand to apps. Others offering something similar include Volkswagen’s Polo Challenge, and Ferrari’s GT Evolution. In these ‘adver-gaming’ apps, models are customised and run a series of race courses to test ‘precision performance driving’. The key is in the way ‘precision performance driving’ is transferred from a brand quality to an accessed ‘experience’ on a mobile device. Fusing entertainment and brand values is definitely getting more hands-on!

Until recently, a website presence was seen as an added dimension to communicating brand awareness. Now it’s seen as essential and is used less and less as an ‘add on’, it looks a lot like the app is evolving to the same level of ‘must-have’ necessity.