BlackCube Media |
We do mobile apps. |
As a content creator, the first thing you have to do before riding on the monster that is a mobile app, is to think through the objective of building an app in the first place.
An iPhone app, as of today, sits within a repository of 140,000 other apps in the App Store. No doubt there are categories for a methodical search, but the reality is you are competing with 70,000 or so cool kids, 20,000 or so wannabes, 10,000 wallflowers and another 10,000 or so geeks plus a handful of groupies. So how does your app make an impression at the party?
Here’s the deal. You don’t.
App Store users are iPhone, iPod and soon-to-be iPad owners, which by profile – hail from the tech-savvy sort. They are intelligent as they are digital savvy, very connected to a parallel universe called social media and because they have access to the forever-fanning tentacles of this online medium, they criticise everything. They look beyond creating an ‘impression’. They question and antagonize on what YOU, yes you (don’t look back!) can do to enrich their busy lives.
An app has to be something that delivers value to these fussy users. Yes that word. v.a.l.u.e. The cooler brother to the otherwise boring word, substance.
If an app is treated as a (mobile) distribution channel to the television or film property per se, it has no value in it. It is basically an expensive DVD being dressed as an app, sold in a store where people don’t usually look for a DVD in a first place.
The app has to deliver value that will be of use to the user. Your audience. The very people whom you create your content for and think about endlessly when pouring over the script breakdown, the story treatment and how many minutes you can afford to put that clip on CGI.
An app is primarily new content, one that is achieved through creative process and quality development and backed by solid, robust code. It goes beyond having a nice splash screen and gorgeous colours. It is one where for every touch, the user grabs a slice of satisfaction, only to find it addictive and wants to experience it again and again and again. It is a classic case of convergence between the app developer and the producer.
For starters, think of creating value in your app for a television or film this way. It is:
The last value element has always been my personal favourite because today’s audience loves ownership. They no longer want to be fed with entertainment, but want to participate. Give it to them, before you lose them.
