Strategies to drive App downloads

The below deck studies the recent Mobile app trends and identifies 3 challenges App creators face. 

Suggested solutions include:

- Maximizing the mobile app opportunity via platforms more than just Google Search

- Tracking the download touch points to maximize efficiency

- Re-engagement and re-marketing efforts to app users

- Improving measurement and customer targeting by using analytics and customer segments

Driving a Successful App Strategy

Shift of live TV to Online viewing

For years, analysts and prognosticators have been predicting that the world of TV was going to shift from "over-the-air" (OTA) to "over-the-top" (OTT). That is, people will go from primarily consuming their television through a cable box to consuming it through Internet streaming services — which may or may not be connected to an actual TV.

And although there is no doubt that viewers are increasingly consuming more and more content online, the big question has been, "Will the content creators actually make the jump to OTT services?"

We're just a quarter of a way into 2015 and we're already seeing signs that content providers are finally, finally willing to offer their services in real-time (as opposed to on demand, which has been around in various forms for a while) to users without the need for a separate cable TV subscription. The first indicator was Sling TV, Dish's new $20 a month bundle of OTT channels. This week, we saw the early launch of PlayStation Vue and new rumors of Apple's much-anticipated Internet TV service. And on April 12, HBO will officially launch HBO Now, it's $15-a-month subscription offering that will bring the network's programming to those who want to forego a traditional cable subscription.

HBO might be the biggest and most notable content company moving to the direct-to-consumer play, but they aren't alone. Last year, CBS launched its CBS Now digital subscription service. NBC is also working on an OTT comedy channel.

Several possible reasons:

1.  It's not just that more and more consumers are opting out of a monthly cable package — the amount of traditional TV viewers are watching is dropping, too. Viewers — particularly millenials — are moving to subscription streaming video services in droves. A ComScore report in October 2014 showed that 24% of adults 18-24 don't pay for traditional TV service. Those are figures that should scare anyone in the content business.

2. The timing is right. According to NBC Universal's Alan Wurtzel, subscription video viewing was up 22% year over year in 2014. Nielsen's latest total audience report shows 40% of U.S. households subscribe to at least one video streaming service as of November 2014. Verizon started offering Netflix with its service last year in some test markets. And Cablevision will be offering HBO Now to its broadband providers, no TV service needed.

3. Evolve or die. The plethora of content opportunities means that it's harder than ever for content creators to amass huge viewing audiences (outside of major sporting events such as the Super Bowl and World Cup). The number of people tuning into live primetime TV for a hit show is far lower than the numbers from even a decade ago, and that's only going to continue.

Full article can be found here.

The Live Stream Goes Mainstream

In early 2011, Skype bought a mobile video startup called Qik, which had developed an app that let mobile users record and stream videos in real-time which others could be alerted to and then view. If that description sounds similar to the newly hot live-streaming apps Meerkat and Periscope, it’s because the overall concept introduced then is not all that far off from what’s happening today on these new platforms. But what’s different this time around are these apps’ potential to reach the mainstream.

Welcome to the era of the live stream.

When Qik was acquired, the company had grown its user base to 5 million – not a bad showing in the early days of mobile, where still apps catered to a largely more technical crowd and hadn’t yet found their ways in the hands of grandmas and teenagers and everyone in between. As with today’s live-streaming apps, Qik offered a way for users to instantly share their world with others, but like many things that bubble up in this industry, it was a concept that arrived too soon.

Qik faced a number of challenges during its day, not only in growing its user base, but it also had to overcome technical hurdles, as well. For example, Apple even once blocked all apps that were doing live video recording, if you can believe that, because they initially had to take advantage of a restricted screen capture API in order to function. Meanwhile, the mobile networks themselves were unprepared for the massive use of data that the iPhone was delivering, which sometimes led to the degradation of the shared streams.

Technology advances have solved most of the challenges with regard to the roadblocks involved with recording and sharing live video with a touch of a button. We’ve seen the results already, as people raised their phones during events like the Occupy Protests or Arab Spring.

But these new live-streaming services push things forward yet again.

And they won’t only succeed because the tech now works better.

We are comfortable living in public
More importantly, our cultural mindset has changed to the point where we’re ready to embrace this sort of public performance. Meanwhile, as viewers, the smartphone’s ubiquity means we all have an easy way to tap into these ongoing streams from anywhere.


To the former point, social media has trained us over the years to not be able to see something of interest without feeling motivated to share it.

Whether that’s a beautiful sunset or a raging fire, like the one that ravaged a building in New York on Periscope’s launch day, many people’s first instinct is to whip out their smartphone. It’s not just the Facebook and Instagram “likes,” or the tweets and retweets that have led to this psychological reconditioning, though they’ve certainly contributed to this behavior. It’s that these apps have made us feel less alone in the world – by sharing our lives we feel better connected to others. And some would argue that seeking connection is a cornerstone of the human condition.

One could also argue that the motivation can turn chilling at times – we pull out our phones and record when we should be offering help. We broadcast what we see as bystanders, cameras pointed outward, while entirely self-focused in the process. Live streaming’s move to become a mainstream activity could make that problem worse than it is today, of course, and we as a society should remain vigilant to combat our narcissistic tendencies.



But the potential for these new apps, Periscope and Meerkat and others like them, goes beyond our immediate desire to record and share. We have other means for that, after all, including apps like YouTube, Vine, or Instagram, for example, as well as Twitter itself and Facebook.

The Live Broadcast, Reimagined

With live streaming, there’s also a sense of being able to pick up a phone to instantly fight back against the existing establishments, whether that’s the brutality and militarization of the police, or even just the traditional news outlets who these days turn tragic events into sensationalized stories. Their need to provide 24/7 coverage has turned once trusted news sources into platforms for punditry, talking heads and misinformation.

The younger generation, especially, is poised to embrace alternative means of accessing the news in ways that stretch far beyond simply tuning into the “evening broadcast.” Live streaming is but one example. They’re reading stories in their social feeds – digesting content told in bite-sized format via services like NowThisNews or Snapchat Discover. And the newly announced HBO-VICE deal, which will bring a daily news cast to HBO’s channel (which is also now breaking free of its ties to cable TV), is all about the destruction of the anchor desk.



We’re ready for the new news, and that’s the promise that Periscope, Meerkat and whatever else comes next delivers. News told as first-hand streams: this is what I’m seeing, you can see it too. And with the traditional news journalist removed from the action. It’s the next logical step beyond the tweet, or the tweeted photo. It’s the hundreds of potential cameras live on the scene before the media truck arrives. It’s the citizens’ right to record materialized.

Software Needs Improvement Ahead Of Mainstream Adoption

That said, today’s platforms are far from perfect as it stands now. There’s no good way to find the important streams among those which feature someone recording their lunch – Twitter’s often-cited reputation for banality and self-involvement again rearing its ugly head. The streams on Meerkat offer no replay button. You can’t tweet links to streams. Periscope’s web view only points people to an app download. You can’t search streams by keyword. Streams don’t have their own “trends” section to help you find what’s catching flame. Push notifications are overwhelming and impossible.

In other words, while the live-streaming apps of the earlier era had to fight to make their services work while facing often-hardware based technological challenges, today’s apps have to make their systems work at the software level. They need better user interfaces, expanded but simplified feature sets, and their content needs to be accessible from any platform, both as the live stream it began as, and the recorded video that came after.

These technical and design challenges, however, are all that stand in the way of live streaming being used only by the early adopter, highly mobile crowd, and being a mainstream activity, as commonplace as a status update and just as simple to produce. And these days, change happens quickly.

Original article can be found here.

5 Trends taken from SXSWi 2015

The 22nd Annual South By Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi) is a 5-day immersive cultural experience focused on emerging technology and forward thinking. It is not a solution for innovation, but about finding ways to move forward – in thinking, perspective, product – so that attendees are enlightened and inspired, ready to iterate and find success.

1. Virtual reality is the new internet

2. Emphasis on experience - understanding consumer behaviour and factors that impact their behaviour

3. Coming together to communicate better - increased connectivity

4. Better living through technology - issues that matter: healthcare and wellness

5. Advocacy for a better internet - social behaviours and digital integrity

Mec@Sxswi 2015 Key Takeaways

MEC @ Mobile World Congress 2015

Here are the 5 key takeaways MEC has surmised from 2015's Mobile World Congress.

1. Data and Connectivity is essential

2. It's the software that matters, not the hardware packaging

3. Mobile payment infrastructure has expanded

4. Smart Watches may be the new fad, but are supplements, not replacements for smartphones.

5. Virtual is the new reality

Mec@Mwc 2015 Key Takeaways

MEC climbs the RECMA ranks

RECMA have published the 2015 Dynamic Agency Network Report (Global Network Diagnostics), available at www.recma.com.

Within Singapore, MEC is ranked #4. Globally, MEC is now ranked #3 up from #4 in the August ‘14 report. This is a superb increase compared to our #6 ranking a year ago, with +31% points YOY and pushes OMD into 4th position.

The report gives the most complete assessment across all aspects of our business, so our objective is to top the table and be the Most Dynamic Agency by 2016.  As you can see our efforts across all our priorities are already taking us a step closer to that goal.

Overall GroupM is ranked #1 and clearly ahead in terms of points with 33% share, Dentsu Aegis rank #2 with 18% share.

Global Ideas 2015 - Shortlist

We’re delighted to announce that Singtel's Roam Without Fear has made the shortlist for MEC's international Global Ideas 2015!

Global Ideas identifies MEC's best work for external awards competitions locally and globally, and crucially, it gives us an amazing range of inspiring and impactful case studies to draw inspiration and learnings from. From all across the world, there was a total of 291 entries – a Global Ideas record.

Final judging takes place week of the 2^nd March and the winners will be announced on Friday 6^th March.

Here are the campaigns that Singtel's Roam Without Fear will be competing against:

MEC Global Ideas 2015 - APAC General Category Shortlist

Below are the shortlists of the different categories.

Asia Pacific
General Category
Campaign	Client	Market
Eveready Red Alert	Energizer	Philippines
Heart versus Bill	Citibank	India
Making Dynamo Dynamic	Colgate-Palmolive	Australia
Roam Without Fear	SingTel	Singapore
RSPCA Adoption Awareness Drive	RSPCA Queensland	Australia
smart BoConcept Limited Edition	Daimler	China
Stretch or Splurge:Sydney	Scoot	Singapore
The Rise of Boo Loo Saan	Energizer	Malaysia
Tom & Ben's Singapore Sling	Singapore Tourism Board	Australia
What The Black	Colgate-Palmolive	India
Europe, Middle East and Africa
General Category
Campaign	Client	Market
#chocolateheaven	Lindt	Germany
#Yourniversity	Aarhus University	Denmark
‘ Brouwersch, the battle for character’	SABMiller	Netherlands
A real-life IKEA Pinterest room	IKEA	Netherlands
ARAG - Real life. Real inspiration.	ARAG	Germany
B&Q - Using Digital to drive footfall into stores	B&Q	United Kingdom
Boosting the performance of eShop (Orange eCommerce platform)	Orange	Poland
Bringing Unsaid Love Expressions to Life	Nestlé	UAE
Call of Duty - Heroes in Action!	Activision Blizzard	Italy
Coffee  Conversations	Nestlé	UAE
Creating Casual Conversations	Netflix	Ireland
EE FutureThinking	EE	United Kingdom
Entering Traditions Untraditionally	Nestlé	UAE
MAGGI® Diaries: A Cultural and Culinary Journey around the Middle East	Nestlé	UAE
Making millions of Smart Swaps through small steps	Public Health England	United Kingdom
Nescafé Creators' Academy	Nestlé	Poland
Queen of the kitchen! (La Regina della Cucina)	Soffass - Regina	Italy
Save lives with Renault R-Link!	Renault	Turkey
Take a short cut. Just Glue it!	Henkel	Poland
TfL Young Car Drivers	Transport For London (TfL)	United Kingdom
Special Commendation
Commended for their high quality of entries	-	UAE
Commended for their trading strategy excellence for Half Full: Success Sharing Model entry for Johnson & Johnson	Johnson & Johnson	Ukraine
Latin America
General Category
Campaign	Client	Market
Bacardi Triangle	Bacardi Martini	Uruguay
Children´s Day - Scripted	Musimundo	Argentina
Energizer Power Seal - The Energizer Truck	Energizer	Argentina
Engaging with movie trailer without a trailer	Paramount Pictures	Mexico
Evoque in Motion	Ditec S.A.	Chile
Michelin Drive Experience: prove them wrong	Michelin	Colombia
Milk for the Meals	Laive	Peru
The most attended movie green carpet ever.	Paramount Pictures	Mexico
Thinking out-of-the-bus	Colgate-Palmolive	Peru
Understanding the price-savvy shopper through intelligent data	Casa Editorial El Tiempo - CEET	Colombia
North America
General Category
Campaign	Client	Market
"Stinky Tofu"	United Airlines	USA
Get the EDGE on Your Dream Job	Energizer Personal Care	USA
Hannaford Empties Market Basket’s Shopping Cart	Hannaford	USA
IKEA Home Tour	IKEA	USA
O-Canada Beer Fridge	Molson Coors	Canada
Orange Is the New Black - Season 2: Shine a Light on One Area, and You’ll Illuminate Others	Netflix	USA
SpringHill Suites: When You’re in a Travelers’ Bind, There’s SpringHill	Marriott International	USA
The Business Circle	AT&T	USA
The night time is the right time for Cricket	AT&T	USA
Tomcat: You’ll Cringe, You’ll Laugh, but in the End, They’ll Be Dead!	Scotts-Miracle Gro	USA
Analytics and Insight Shortlist
Campaign	Client	Market
AGENT BASED MODELLING TO DRIVE MEC BUSINESS	All clients	Poland
IKEA – The Model D&D Client	IKEA	Poland
INFOGRAPHIC GENERATOR: LESS TYPING MORE INSIGHTING	Pfizer	Italy
Leveraging HbbTV for research	Vodafone	Germany
MEC VOTUM for Emmi	Emmi Ag	Germany
Optimising the Optimizer	The Scotts Company	USA
Pinpointing IKEA’s 350% Target Growth with Prospects	IKA	USA
Return&Impact Predictor	All clients	Germany
Search momentum	Public Health England (PHE)	UK
Search Predictor	Engelbert Strauss	Germany
Best Pitch Shortlist
Campaign	Client	Market
Best Pitch - The Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy	RAF	United Kingdom
Best Pitch Submission- Tiffany & Co.	Tiffany	USA
Extra Ordinary	Vodafone	EMEA BD (Global)
ING	ING	Poland
Nestle Australia: A winning vision of the future	Nestle	Australia
The Best Pitch of 2014 - BGL - UK/France/Netherlands	BGL	United Kingdom
Business Transformation Shortlist
Campaign	Client	Market
Marketing Dividends	MEC	Australia
Strategic leadership - MEC Poland	MEC	Poland
Empowering our people to Digitize MEC in Canada	MEC clients	Canada
LEVEL15 - Most Consequent Business Transformation in Media History	MEC	Germany
MEC FIT	MEC	Russia
T5.0	MEC	Belgium
INEL - Interaction Next Level	MEC	Hungary
MEC China, Urban Warfare - From Silo to Screen	MEC & active screen clients	China
Excellence in an International Client
Campaign	Client	Market
Transformations Galore	Paramount International	GS New York
Making Toothpaste Glamorous	Colgate Palmolive	Miami
Call of Duty: Re-Building an Icon for the Future	Activision Blizzard	GS London
Courtyard #urbantips campaign’ –  Instagram social hub / Social Media Campaign	Marriott International	GS Germany/ GS London
Prove it in 28 Days	Beiersdorf	GS London
A Shift from Advertising to Social Influencer Outreach	SONY Electronics	GS Singapore
Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive	Daimler	GS Singapore
The Lengths We Go To	Singapore Airline	GS Singapore