In my Mobile Marketing work at DonRiver Inc, I recently completed a project that involved the development of an iPhone application for a local TEDx conference – TEDxSMU.  The conference took place on October 10, 2009 at SMU University in Dallas Texas (www.TEDxSMU) and was a huge success.
 
Our TEDxSMU iPhone application provides users with the ability to view Tweets, Photos (from Flickr), and Videos (from YouTube) that are tagged with the keyword of ‘TEDxSMU’.  It therefore provides a means for users to see what others are saying about the conference as well as view photos and videos that are from the conference itself, or created by users in the community to express their thoughts on the event.

The objective of the application was three-fold:

1) To build hype amongst users prior to the conference

2) To create an interactive dialogue with users during the conference (those in attendance as well as those that were not in attendance)

3) To enable a continued dialogue and create a mobile community that will exist after the current year’s conference

This initiative followed key principles that provide a basis for successful Mobile Marketing Applications:

1) Tie the application into the overall experience for the consumer or audience.  In this case, the application provided a means for building hype prior to the event, and also allowed users to view tweets and content from others in real-time while at the conference.  Furthermore, it will continue to allow users to share their experience from the conference and build anticipation for the next one.

2) Provide a reason for users to continue making use of the application.  Since the application pulls on fresh content from Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube, users are drawn back to the application to see what others are saying or doing in relation to TEDxSMU.  Although activity is expected to be highest over a short period of time, there is expected to be repeat traffic in anticipation of the next conference.

3) Leverage other marketing channels to inform users of the mobile application.  Conference registrants were informed via email of the application in advance of the conference.  The application was also announced at the conference.

Overall, the application was well-adopted by the target audience and successful in achieving the objectives that were laid out in the planning stages.  Specifically, the application was downloaded by almost all participants that had an iPhone, which amounted to approximately 25% of conference participants.  We were also able to track utilization metrics through a reporting application on the back end, which allowed us to measure the effectiveness of the campaign.

If you are interested in the application and have an iPhone, please download it here.

For more information about building iPhone applications to support marketing objectives, please feel free to contact me at anant.tailor@donriver.com.

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Name: Anant Tailor Title: Mobile Financial Services Delivery Lead Company: DonRiver Inc. View Anant Tailor's Blog