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If you build it, will they come?

Submitted by Ashley Puderbaugh on Thu, 02/23/2012 - 2:47pm
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custom publishing

By Cam Bishop, CEO

As a creative agency, Ascend Integrated Media has produced more trade show and event-related material than any other similar agency or service in the world. We’ve been doing this for 30 years now.

That history involves developing and publishing show daily newspapers for more than 700 associations, event and trade show owners. That’s more than 2,200 editions when each event or trade show averages a two- to four-day publishing cycle. We’ve published event daily newspapers for as many as 10 consecutive days, as we did at the Sundance Film Festival.

Coupled with that, each year, we create and deliver some 300 or more exhibitor guides, event programs, show directories and catalogs as well as city guides, membership directories, maps, media and exhibitor kits and other collateral print material.

But as we enter the digital age, our publishing work in the digital and mobile world has grown exponentially. Interestingly enough, none of this new work in digital has been at the expense of print work. To the contrary, it all has been completely in addition to print and a complement to print products. Print and digital media truly do go hand in hand and all the research, especially as it relates to the medical and health care community, points to the fact that that is exactly what users and readers want and expect. As we say here, it’s about delivering content “when they want it, where they want it and how they want it.”

However, a problem readily arises, as we’ve seen with many other digital and mobile vendors serving the trade show and event market. Those vendors simply want to hand over a digital product to their customer — the trade show or event client — to populate with content and make it available to the audience without any sort of promotion surrounding it.

From what we are seeing, this rarely works. It is not a good value for the show/event owner. Time and time again, we have seen that just because you build it and make it available — whether it’s a WAP, native app, website or digital directory or guide, seldom will they come and rarely in any number that is meaningful for the event or any company that might choose to spend their marketing dollars on-site or app advertising or sponsorship.

That’s why we advise our clients that every digital product needs to include an audience-development strategy. The digital product and the audience-development strategy are simply inseparable if the goal is to maximize use of the digital media.

For our clients, audience development covers a diverse range of tactics from email blasts, links, website buttons, event signage, event material advertising and text messaging programs, and we advise our clients to begin promoting the existence of these digital resources sometimes many months in advance of the event. Even including information on the availability of digital media in initial registration materials. Perhaps even more important, asking attendees to provide cellphone numbers and to opt in to show-specific text messaging. Traffic stats prove that some combination of these audience development actions is a highly effective process.

For your next trade show or event, if you plan to use digital media as a communications tool and value-added service, be sure to ask yourself, “If I build it, will they come?” 

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Tablets: The New Frontier

Submitted by Ashley Puderbaugh on Thu, 09/29/2011 - 1:06pm
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Tablet custom publishing

By Scott Harold, Vice President of Digital Media

The launch of the iPad gave birth to an entirely new platform in computing and end-user access to content. By the end of 2011 there will be approximately 40 million iPads in circulation, according to IDC.

In addition, IDC reports that this channel has seen year-over-year growth of more than 300 percent (second quarter 2011 versus second quarter 2010). The tablet market also has seen new entrants into the Market. Android and BlackBerry both have released competitors to the iPad, although the iPad remains heavily favored, with almost 70 percent of the market share (see Table 1).

Table 1

As publishers begin to look at this new channel as a potential addition to their existing content distribution strategy, here a few items to consider and pay attention to during your decision-making process:

•  What tablets do you want to distribute your content on? There are three main players today — the iPad, Android and Blackberry Playbook. Obviously iPad has a huge market share advantage over the others and is likely to be the first tablet to leverage. I would suspect, that as in the smartphone market, Android is not far behind.

•  What is the revenue model associated with the tablet market? Will you charge for your issue? If so, what will your price point be relative to your other distribution channels? Will you support a subscription model? Will your subscription service be tied into your print subscription model?

•  How will you manage your advertisers on the new tablet version of your publication? Will you simply migrate the print advertising? Will you sell advertising specific to the tablet distribution? Will you alter your print advertising rates to include tablet distribution?

•  From a content perspective, will you decide to simply publish the print content, as is, on the tablet? Or, will you look at the tablet as a completely new medium and design the tablet presentation to leverage the form factor and the new multimedia functionality of the device rather than just repurpose existing print design?

It is an exciting time in publishing with new opportunities to reach your customer. Just remember — first impressions are sometimes most important. Work through the topics listed above, produce a full-featured prototype, do your customer research and develop a good marketing plan. These elements should lead you to a successful launch of your first tablet application.

Do you have plans to launch a tablet application? What features are most important to you?

Sometimes the Easiest Choices Really Are the Best

Submitted by Ashley Puderbaugh on Thu, 07/14/2011 - 4:43pm
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Custom mobile applications

By Scott Harold, Vice President of Digital Media

I spent this last weekend doing some home improvement projects. One of these projects was to upgrade some home electronics. With a teenage daughter, home electronics becomes a pretty high priority. This project was to simplify our TV situation. I would guess many have the same issue. Everyone wants to record shows, movies, etc., and watch anywhere at anytime.

I was able to leverage a couple of existing items to produce a teenage wonderland. First, whole-house DVR. Who knew that it would produce such a winner? Now, from the same interface, the entire family can watch any recorded show from any room. Couple that with a Netflix account and you have just hit the jackpot. All that content available wherever and whenever you want.

Does that last phrase sound familiar? Just as my family found video/TV happiness as a result of technology, so can your mobile app customers. Mobile is all about being able to access content whenever and wherever you want. And who better to help with and expand your technology than those who actually manage your content to begin with?

My digital television provider was certainly well-positioned to provide whole-house DVR services. And then Netflix, video content aggregator, was best suited to provide access to movies via TV, computer, iPad or mobile devices. So, as you look to establish a mobile solution to provide access to your event information, you may find your ultimate success with those who already manage your custom content.

How do you plan to provide your customers content in all the needed channels?
 

How to Write an Event Mobile App Request for Proposal

Submitted by Ashley Puderbaugh on Thu, 06/16/2011 - 4:48pm
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Event mobile app

By Eric Jacobson, Vice President, Media Development

You’ve read about smartphone apps for events, meetings and trade shows. Perhaps you’ve even sampled a couple. Now, you’re ready to price an app for your association or organization.

But before you write your request for proposal (RFP), think about from which types of companies you’ll want proposals.

Make sure you send your RFP to developers/vendors who thoroughly understand the meetings/convention business and have created apps for other events.

Ideally, strive to work with a company with whom you already partner to create your print and other collateral materials. They thoroughly understand your event and your audience and can therefore more easily recommend what is best to include in your app.

Equally important: Seek potential developers/vendors who will help you create a comprehensive strategy for developing the audience for your app. Ask if the company has an audience development professional on staff.

And, aim to work with a provider who can help you create content for your app if you won’t be providing all the content. Make sure they can easily feed your show daily into the app, for example.

Finally, look for potential vendors who have the staff and expertise to sell advertising (or sponsorships) into your app. Some or all of your cost to have an app for your event likely can be covered through advertising/sponsorship sales.

Now, if you aren’t quite sure what to include in your RFP document, consider including the following:

App goals/objectives
• To assist attendees in navigating the event before, during and after the event.
• To drive attendees/prospective attendees to your website for additional information.
• To minimize event signage expenses where possible.
• To help achieve event sustainability goals. To reduce carbon footprint.
• To keep the event relevant with an increasingly electronic-savvy audience.
• To add value for exhibitors.
• To provide additional means for generating advertising revenue and sponsorship revenue.
• To provide more year-round exposure for the event.

App and developer/vendor requirements
Include all of the following that apply to your event/meeting, and consider labeling some “must-have” and others “nice-to-have.”

Ask yourself, what app features/requirements matter most to your attendees?

Event size
• Supports an event of one or more days
• Ideal for what number of attendees?
• Ideal for what number of exhibitors?
• Ideal for what number of sessions/workshops?

App platforms
• Native on iPhone
• Native on Android
• Native on BlackBerry
• Native on other mobile phone platforms
• Optimized for iPad
• Optimized for non-iPad tablets
• Works as a mobile web application on non-native platforms

App development
• Weeks to develop app
• How does content feed into the app (how do you provide content to the developer)?
• Length of time app stays live
• App store submission
• Testing period

App look and feel
• Ease of use/intuitiveness
• Allows for custom graphics?

App features
Overall
- Custom graphics
- About the event/event schedule
- Host-city information (hotels, entertainment, restaurants, transportation)
- Password-protected
- Custom surveys
- Ability to update the app during the event (exhibitor listings and/or sessions).

Exhibitors
- Exhibitor list
- Search exhibitors by name, booth number, product category
- New products

Sessions/workshops
- Session attachments (papers, slides, PDFs)
- Speaker photos and bios
- Sessions by day, track, speaker
- Session surveys

Maps
- Interactive maps (convention center, exhibit floor, etc.)

Social media linking/integration
- Twitter
- Facebook
- LinkedIn

App user engagement features
- Note taking
- “My Sessions” (personalized selected sessions)
- “Here & Now” (maps out route from where attendees is to where attendee wants to go)
- Attendee polling
- Business card/contact sharing
- Integration with email and contacts
- Push messaging to attendees
- Calendaring for attendees
- Suggested exhibitors and/or sessions based on attendee user profile
- Sign-up meeting with exhibitors
- Exhibitor rating system

Video and photos
- Video feeds
- Photo gallery

Advertising/sponsorship opportunities
• Banner ads
• Single or multiple sponsorships
• Featured exhibitors
• Upgraded/enhanced exhibitor listings

Reporting
• Reports detailing number of downloads by platform

Vendor experience and qualifications
• Years in business
• Number of employees
• Location
• Major clients
• Markets/industries served
• App expertise (number completed to date)
• Ability to sell advertising/sponsorships into the app (if needed)
• Project manager service
• Turnkey solution
• Audience development service (Will the developer/vendor help you create a marketing plan to promote your app?)
• Hosting and maintenance service
• Training for attendees and your staff

Finally, be sure to ask the vendor to demonstrate a couple of the apps they’ve built so you can see how they look on each phone device.

What app capability requirements would you consider “must-have?” What about “nice-to-have” capabilities?
 

Location, Location, Location … With Mobile Marketing It May Well Be Distribution, Distribution, Distribution

Submitted by Ashley Puderbaugh on Thu, 04/07/2011 - 11:05am
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Event mobile app

By Scott Harold, Vice President of Digital Media

You have just spent $15,000 to $30,000 on your new event mobile application. You are the first one to get to see the incredible offering you have helped create with the help of your outsourced development team. You are walking on cloud nine as you demonstrate the app to your fellow co-workers and management. Then you get the inevitable question: “How many downloads do we have?”

The yardstick for mobile apps in today’s marketplace seems to gravitate to number of downloads. I am not suggesting that this is the yardstick by which to judge success. However, there will be those who look at the app’s success or failure by how many people have downloaded it. Given this, you must be ready with an audience development plan to get your event mobile app into the hands of users.

Here are a few items we find to be valuable as we begin the mobile app journey:

1. Place your event mobile app in each of the applicable app stores — iTunes, Android and Blackberry. This may seem like a no brainer, but many people focus on iTunes because Apple forces distribution through their store while the other OS providers are based on voluntary submissions.

2. Implement an opt-in program as part of your event registration plans. Include a simple opt-in for texts and mobile alerts at the time of online registration. This will provide a pool of qualified users you will be able to market directly to as part of your event mobile app launch marketing program. Again, it seems obvious, but not implementing this will reduce your distribution significantly.

3. Employ a strong digital marketing plan for your event mobile app. Promote, promote, promote — all with the end result of pointing people to the appropriate download location for their particular phone. Make it obvious. Make it easy. Make it foolproof.

4. Finally, don’t forget to promote the mobile app at your event. There are as many ways to do this, as there are attendees. Focus on a handful of them and implement. A few you might consider:

  • Business cards printed with download instructions and distributed at various locations around registration, the exhibit floor, etc.

  • Instructions on the back of name badges

  • Overhead signage 

  • Mobile help desk — location is key with this option. It must be in a high-traffic area or a booth on your exhibit floor.

A few final thoughts: Although you may not do everything correct in your first deployment, you still will get people to download and use your app. Use this experience as a learning opportunity, and on your second deployment, you will do that much better.

What other ways do you promote and distribute your event mobile app?

Building Blocks of a Successful Mobile App

Submitted by Kate Crockett on Thu, 02/10/2011 - 11:35am
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By: Scott Harold, Director of eMedia

I thought for this blog entry I would describe some of the steps you will go through as you look to deliver your first mobile app. For the purposes of this discussion we shall assume that you have already selected your app provider. The following breakdown of events can span anywhere from 8 weeks to 4-6 months. It will all depend on your provider and your internal ability to deliver content, graphics and marketing. 

1. Define Your Content

Here is where, in partnership with your app provider, you will define what content you wish to deliver via your new mobile app. This content will range from news articles, images, video, etc. You will want to make sure you highlight content that would be deemed valuable to your customers.

2. Create Your Branding Graphics for the Mobile App

Your app should have the capacity for displaying branding in several ways. You will want to design the appropriate graphics to take full advantage of each opportunity.

  • Splash page (this is the initial screen that comes up as the application is loading)
  • Typical banner ad spots throughout the application
  • Overall use of colors, icons and other imagery that supports your branding
3. Establish Marketing Strategy

Once you have an app that is available for download you will need a strategy to market and promote it. You should look to make use of such channels as websites, email marketing, text messaging and print material. Each avenue will bring a different segment of your customer base in touch with your new mobile app

4. Establish method for delivering content to your mobile vendor

This will be driven, in large part, by your app vendor. You will find this can take many different forms. Here is a list of just a few you will find.

  • RSS Feeds
  • Web Service
  • HTTP Posts
  • Excel Spreadsheets

The more often your content is updated the more users will come back to your app day after day or week after week. In the end, content is what will define your app.

5. Test your app across supported platforms

This part of the process will generally be performed by your app vendor. Once your app is developed, it must be tested on a variety of different makes and models of phones and via various service providers. This phase becomes crucial if your application is being delivered across multiple operating systems (i.e. iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, WAP). This part of the process can take several weeks.

6. Submit your app to the appropriate App Stores

This part of the process is fairly easy. The one important element here is to not under estimate the amount of time that will be spent. Once submitted, it may take 2-3 weeks for your application to show up in the various app stores. Apple will typically take 1-2 weeks to approve an application. Blackberry has been known to take up to 3 weeks. Just make sure you allocate the appropriate time for this part of the process.

7. Update content and app maintenance

The launching of an app is really just the beginning.  Now you enter the maintenance phase of an app life cycle. You must continue to feed content to your app to allow it to continue to grow.  Remember, the value users will place on your app revolves around the content. It must be timely, valuable and accessible.

What steps have you taken to make sure your app is consistently fresh?

App or WAP: How to know which is best for your company.

Submitted by Kate Crockett on Thu, 12/09/2010 - 2:34pm
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app vs wap 

By: Scott Harold, Director of eMedia

Over this last year, I have experienced the successes and challenges of deploying mobile apps. I’ve established the top three questions to ask of your company in order to determine your needs and declare a winner in the App vs. WAP debate for your organization.

But first, you must understand what exactly a mobile app is, and know the differences between native, WAP and hybrid programs. In his blog for Cellit, a mobile-program development firm, Brian Bauer explains the definitions of these three terms.

Native App —Created for smartphones (iPhone, BlackBerry, Androids, etc.), mobile applications are downloadable programs that run on your mobile device. Because they are designed for a specific platform, apps can be built in such a way as to maximize the unique features of the device — including compass, camera and motion sensors. Additionally, a native app requires no Internet connectivity to function.

WAP — (Wireless Application Protocol) is a website that is optimized for a mobile platform. Typically, you can access WAPs by opening the web browser on a phone and navigating to the correct web address. WAPs require the user to be connected to the Internet for the WAP to function.

Hybrid — This is becoming the standard for apps found in the app stores. The key difference between a hybrid and a native is connectivity. In a hybrid app, there are some features that require the user be connected to the Internet, while the native app does not require any connectivity to the Internet to function.

Now that we’ve covered the basic definition of an app vs. a WAP we can move on to the three questions you need to ask before making your decision:

1. What are your distribution needs/plans?

This area requires that you understand the makeup of your customer base so you can best determine how to reach them and put your app in their hands.

a. First, how do you get the app to your customer? This is where the “cool factor” comes into play. Native and hybrid apps can be distributed via a mobile app store. It is a bit “cooler” to point your customers to an app store vs. instructing them to type a URL into their browsers.

b. Second, how do you reach all of your customers? A WAP has a much broader audience potential than a native or hybrid app. There are approximately 234 million mobile phone users in the U.S., but currently, only about 24 percent of those are smartphone users. That leaves 76 percent of the market unreachable by an app that requires a smartphone to functiion.

 

Smartphone Trends

 

more smartphone trends

Source – Comscore

2. Do you have the budget to meet your development requirements?

Here, you must weigh the cost of longer, more costly development for the native or hybrid app against the benefit of more tightly integrated user interface and use of phone-specific functionality. Compare native app cost/benefit analysis with the significantly less costly development cycle for the WAP. It’s worth noting that WAPs have only a slightly less integrated and less engaging user experience than an app. WAP development has come a long way and continues to make strides in improving user experience.

3. Do you understand your audience and know how they will use the app?

Take a hard look at how and where your customer will use the mobile app. Apps are great when you have no Internet connectivity, but in the age of 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi on every corner, it is highly unlikely that your customer will be out of Internet connection range. In this case, a WAP would attain wider distribution and use, because it works on all phones — not just smartphones.

If you answer these three questions honestly, you will determine the best solution for your needs. As with any project, understanding your product, marketing/distribution goals, investment strategy and, most importantly, your customer, will lead you to the best choice for your organization. 

For those who are concerned that an app and its “cool factor” are always preferred by the end-user, take a look at the results of this 2010 study done by Adobe. The general takeaway is that people are seeing less and less difference between native/hybrid apps and WAPs. In fact, you will see a strong preference for a WAP over an app in some cases.

Source – Adobe Mobile Experience Survey: What Users Want from Media, Finance, Travel & Shopping.  Click here to see the full study

Which side of the debate are you on? 

Mobile Matters: So Many Apps, So Little Time...

Submitted by Kate Crockett on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 10:05am
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Event mobile apps

By: Scott Harold, Director of Emedia

Over the last year or so, we have all been swept up in the marketing wave that has been unleashed by, among others Apple and the iPhone.  Current numbers show Apple has surpassed 200,000 apps available in their app store.  I know that I have downloaded my share of mobile applications.  My personal interests have lead me to download Traffic Jam (my daughters love this one), 2D bar code readers and DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket application just to name a few.. 

We all have reasons why we may choose to take the plunge into mobile applications.  My interests vary from pure entertainment to the unyielding need for instant access to information.  I love the ability to access and view any football game during the NFL season on my phone. 

As we change our perspective on the mobile application world from consumer to producer, so changes how we should view the application.  As a producer of mobile applications, it is no longer enough to just have a mobile application.  We can no longer rely solely on the ‘cool’ factor.  We must extend our thinking towards establishing a sustainable revenue/value model for our mobile applications.

As producers we are afforded a variety of avenues from which to obtain value from our mobile apps. These include, but with new ideas developing daily are not limited to: banner advertising, sponsorship opportunities, free vs. paid, cost saving opportunities, generating new customers through a new channel of distribution and creating incremental value for your customers.

Which one of these is best for any particular mobile app will vary depending on the need of organization and the functionality of the app.  The one thing that won’t change is that an app, and more importantly the organization creating the mobile app, will only survive to the extent it has a sustainable revenue model.  Add a mobile app to your business first for utility but ultimately because it provides incremental value and/or a new sustainable revenue stream.

How would your organization use a mobile app? What kinds of content would you deliver and how would you monetize it?