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At the Center, I’ve been privileged to be part of the team that has developed two mobile apps. Actually, the second app was developed for Android and for iOS so I could say three apps and not be incorrect. Our overarching goal in creating these apps was to support our Britt Technology Impact Series (BTIS) which is our offering to MBA Students. The series brings executive perspectives to campus and illuminates a current technologies’ impact on individuals, enterprises and value chains through panels, interviews and speaker events. The mobile apps were developed to showcase the learnings from past series and communicate details about upcoming events, speakers and companies. Specifically, the app features the written series summary/overview manuscript and videos of panels and speakers. We chose to work with Blue Pane Studio and the experience was a true pleasure. In the spirit of learning in partnership through experience, we developed a Tech@Tuck app (which is the yearly crown jewel event in our BTIS series) and later, a full scale BTIS app that includes Tech@Tuck and everything else that comprises the series. How exciting! An e-marketing addict at heart – the concept of actually being in my constituents’ pockets at all times is like an anthropologist moving to Machu Picchu: heaven!
That said, I was haunted by the words of the SVP from FLO TV, Jonathan Barzilay, stating that apps are like pixie dust. And he’s right. I mean, how many apps do you revisit? Stickiness is a huge consideration. Also, there are 200,000 apps in the Android shop now and 425,000 in Apple’s app store. These huge numbers massively effect findability, right? The bottom line being that no one is going to stumble upon your App.
I’d like to share top-level lessons gleaned  from this experience:

• Start with a clear creative brief that begins with the end in mind. Include precise milestones in the development phase, download goals and an integrated plan for promoting the app.
• Concerning the promotion of your app, consider QR codes that link to your app; put them on all print communications, on your office door, everywhere. You can even brand them now >
• As with all marketing, know your audience. If you don’t know who you’re speaking to, you’ll never reach them. Are they rocking Android devices or only iPhones? Do they want to consume your content on an iPad? Are they prone to read long chunks of content or would they prefer sound bites?
• Make sure your developer understands the Android and Apple markets and development requirements (Blue Pane does) as they certainly are different.
• If you do chose to develop an Android and an Apple app, make sure you have only one back-end admin system for both. You don’t want to be maintaining two databases.

We’ve since retired our Tech@Tuck app and have focused our mobile attention into our BTIS apps. We have metrics on the app and have enjoyed watching the progress and updating content.
Please, if you’ve developed and marketed apps too, feel free to share your lessons here. If you’d like to hear me talk about the QRs and app in video, please visit our YouTube channel. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t invite you to download our Android or Apple App and test drive for yourselves. I welcome feedback.