abc digital metro screen v2
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ABC Digital Business
Commissioning and Building Apps An Entertainment Category Checklist (and Cautionary Tale)
ABC’s commercial mobile development
2005 - 2009ABC For Kids - World first pre-
school mobile channel on
3 Mobile
2010 2011 2012News, kids and entertainment content syndicated to multiple telco, media, and retail partners
iOS:Beached AzABC For Kids
iOS:Phillippa FinchSpicks QuizAngry BoysBananas in Pyjamas
iOS:Bananas in PJsRandling
Android:Story Cloud
Source: App Annie 2012
• Loved and trusted kids brand• Over 400k accumulated users• 49,000 uniques per month• 10% conversion – iTunes click-throughs• 50% conversion rate to purchase
Commercial Success
• Huge viral hit• Young male audience• Early technology adopters• Eps, Game, Sound board• Very inexpensive build
Commercial Success
• #1 in Paid Entertainment• Good engagement:
• 14,000 sessions June• 422 avg daily users• 10mins avg session
time• IAP very popular• Struggle to make profit –
dev costs too high
Critical Success
• FREE• Over 50k installs in 1st
Month• Simple but feels rich • Good feedback when free
Critical Success
Download Trends
Download Trends
In App Purchase behaviour
Golden rules...Or
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
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 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• You can run
FREE sales on app and still monetise
• IAP content MUST be meaningful and desired
PAID
• Works in some instances
• Needs a large addressable audience (global)• With the means
to market to them• Content owners
consider global licensing along with other content
3. Control costs tightly
• Native app dev very expensive compared with the potential for direct revenue
• Look for MVPs that will satisfy audience
• 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 – Ask for detailed test plans as one of the deliverables– Do they automate testing?– Use an online tracking tool for bug reporting.
• Be realistic about the platform / version combos you'll support• 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• 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
– 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.
Thank you