Branded utilities are a great way of reaching an audience and engaging them with a brand. By branded utilities I mean things like iPhone apps and websites that make your life a little bit easier and associate themselves with a brand. Examples of this include The Weather Network creating an app that gives you instant weather reports and Charmin creating an app where people can find, review and rank the closest public bathroom, using the GPS on your phone. Branded utilities are everywhere, and I personally think that the invention of iPhone apps was the tipping point for the avalanche of innovative ways to interact with consumers.
While I don’t have an iPhone, I am exposed to branded utilities. I use things like Widgets on my mac. I personally use The Weather Network widget several times a day (every time I walk my dog in the winter), along with the Dictionary widget. There are flight trackers, google search bars, wikipedia search bars, the yellow pages and an unbelievable, unfathomable amount of others.
Other examples of branded utilities are websites like Fibre1.com, that feature recipes about how to cook with fibre1 and get the best benefits from the product. Campbells soup has a similar website. Ikea has gone in another direction by hosting in-store seminars about home improvement. All of these utilities not only help people improve their lives, but also expose them to how to use the branded products properly. It’s win-win.
Some companies are missing out on branded utilities though. Companies like Sharpe could have a branded scientific calculator widget and Pedigree could have a service that sends me email reminders to book my dog’s annual vet visit and vaccines. With advertising developing the way it has so far, it won’t be long until brands find their way into our everyday needs.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment