So in part I of this look at brands and Facebook apps, it quickly became clear that while there are lots of fans creating apps around brands on Facebook, very few brands are creating their own apps and getting any traction.
How few? Out of the top 4000 apps, I counted just 40 that were created by big-name brands themselves. And out of those 40, once you cut out simple extensions of existing web 2.0 services (like iMeem or Reverbnation), then you’re left with a grand total of 12.
12 out of 4,000. That’s 0.03%.
Considering all the talk about brands trying to get social media, that’s pretty dismal results.
On a more positive note, lets look at the potential results if you get it right:
The most popular app in our list is a social game promoting cable television the Travel Channel, and comes in as the 30th most popular app on all of Facebook, with a staggering 2.9 million monthly average users.
Rapp Collins case study has a good synopsis of the goals and results for the game. Beyond the brand exposure on Facebook, a game mechanism that drove people to get clues from TravelChannel.com saw an eye-watering 81% click-through, increasing site visits 28% and page views 38%.
Launch: July 2008
Current MAU: 2.9 million (30th overall)
90-day high: 3.2 million
#2 TripAdvisor - Cities I’ve Visited
TripAdvisor’s “Cities I’ve Visited” is one of the more familiar examples of a successful branded Facebook app. The proposition was simple: easily create a map of the places you’ve traveled, and share it with friends.
By getting in early back in 2007 and providing an easy to use and compelling mechanism for identity expression on Facebook, TripAdvisor were rewarded by an install base of 7.8 million people at its peak, driving 6.7% of all traffic to their site.
However as BusinessWeek points out, there’s a an equally key lesson to be learned from TripAdvisor’s subsequent effort, a quiz app called “What Obnoxious Traveler Are You?”. After a month it had a meager 500 users, which is where most apps end up. It’s not a science by any stretch.
Launch: July 2007
Current MAU: 1.9 million (49th overall)
90-day high: 1.9 million
Business Week wrote about the Parking Wars app a year ago, in March 2008, when A&E was searching for a way to generate buzz about it’s new series Parking Wars, and reached out to area/code to tap into social media.
A year later and it’s still chugging along with hundreds of thousands of monthly users. Gamasutra has a good write-up on what makes it an effective social game.
Launch: March 2008
Current MAU (monthly average users): 224,987
90-day high: 307,792
Other metrics: 250,000,000 page views in two months, 30-40% players active in a given day (from area/code)
TripAdvisor’s second app in the top 4,000 is a much more modest success, with just 16.8k monthly average users, down from a high of 100k in December 2007.
Local Picks is billed as personalized recommendations from your friends, with 2.4 million reviews of 535k restaurants.
Launch: November 2007
Current MAU: 16,788
90-day high: 33,500
A&E has followed TripAdvisor into the territory modest sophomore success that fails to get the lightning to strike twice.
While Parking Wars is still going strong a year later with 250k users, Possem Tossem, launched in December to promote the Exterminators, peaked at 70k users before sliding down to just under 20k.
Still, the reality is even those numbers make it one of the most successful consumer brand-owned apps on Facebook. Mainly because there just aren’t that many. So kudos are still deserved by A&E for continuing to experiment and get results.
Launch: December 2008
Current MAU: 19,708
90-day high: 60,586
Takeaways
A few thoughts from these case studies:
- When you get it right, the results can be fantastic
The top apps above have incredible stats. Huge, sustained monthly traffic from users opting in to engage with these brands, and helping spread the word with their friends. Plus, there is massive traffic being driven back to the brand websites. These apps are more effective than a banner campaign ever would be. - There’s a huge gap between the winners and losers
If you just looked at the top 3 case studies in a presentation, you’d think that branded apps were the holy grail. However, between the #1 to #5th most popular apps, there is a massive drop-off in usage. And below that, it starts to look ugly. - It’s not a science
A&E and TripAdvisor, who had very successful hits with their first two apps, struggled with follow-ups. Even if you’ve done it once, doesn’t mean you can do it again. Success with brand apps is by no means guaranteed.
In the next post, we’re going to look at every single branded app I could find, and see if we can look at whether there are some models emerging on how brands are using Facebook apps.
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