Commissioning Apps - An Entertainment Category Checklist

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