The 3 Cs of Mobile Engagement

Two years after Pinch Media released their App Store Secrets report, I still see this iconic curve on a regular basis:

It doesn't matter whether it's a game or a productivity app, free or paid, the typical mobile app is dumped like a cheerleader after prom night. Most are all but abandoned within a month or two, which means they're either ill-conceived, poorly designed, or both. It's especially sad when you consider how hard it is to get your app onto someone's phone in the first place. With a million apps in the iTunes store competing for the same real estate, it's tough to get yours discovered, much less downloaded.

Every developer wants to be one of the lucky few who break through, but they should also want to make their apps sticky. So what does it taken to buck the curve? To answer this, it's important to look at the ways mobile apps are used.

I organize mobile app usage scenarios into concepts I'm going to call the 3 Cs, and the more of them that factor in to an app, the stickier it is.

Continuity

These are apps that keep you connected to things you can't stand to be away from. The great grandfather in this category is mobile email, which is what made Blackberry into Crackberry. Newer, sexier examples are Facebook, Twitter and any other app for accessing time-sensitive content (NetNewsWire, Sportacular). The common thread is freshness - a steady stream of new content. Push alerts are key as well, since they tell users when there's something new to see.

Context

Mobile devices and ubiquitous 3G and GPS created whole categories of apps built around the here and now. Location and presence. If you find yourself wandering around a city block in search of a public restroom, you can check SitOrSquat. Hungry? fire up Yelp, or Foodspotting. These apps keep you coming back because of their contextual relevance and utility. Yelp's iPhone app has become my de facto Yellow Pages to the half-mile radius.

Capacity

Modern culture has killed our appetite for idleness. We're uncomfortable with silence. When we have some extra capacity - for lack of a better alliterative term - we fill it as quickly as we can. Mobile apps are ideal for this, especially almost any kind of game. As far as stickiness goes, though, this is the weakest of the 3 Cs. Most games lose their appeal after a month or two, and there are certainly a lot of games represented in the Pinch Media curve.

The stickiest apps are the ones that span more than one of these concepts. Foursquare, for example, covers all three. There's Continuity in the need to know where your friends are, Context in the location features, Capacity in the gamelike mechanics around acquiring status and collecting various rewards.

Mobile video apps make up another category that spans several of the Cs. People watch short-form videos during idle moments - while riding the bus to work or waiting in line for the ATM - which is another way of saying people use them when they have some extra Capacity. Kyte makes it easy to distribute video content to mobile devices, which enables publishers to keep it fresh, which in turn means Kyte-powered video apps check the box for Continuity. The Kyte Mobile App Frameworks take Continuity further with turnkey support for integrated Twitter updates and RSS feeds, giving brands and publishers a multi-dimensional engagement opportunity.

Kyte Extending Support for Popular Android Devices

Integrated mobile capabilities have been a part of our DNA since the beginning. As such, it's only logical that in addition to extending our platform to the iPhone/iPad, Blackberry, and Nokia mobile devices, we're now introducing both an SDK and App Framework for the increasingly popular Android operating system.

Kyte Android SDK

Our Kyte Android SDK gives you the ability to easily incorporate customized Kyte-powered video experiences into existing Android applications, or build highly customized video applications from scratch, without having to worry about media optimization, complex communication protocols or server-side components, freeing you up to focus on creating great user experiences.

Kyte Android App Framework

Our Kyte Android Application Framework is a turn-key solution to quickly deliver native Android applications based on a brand-able set of pre-built modules core to the Kyte Platform, including video playback, support for UGC campaigns, location-aware events, Twitter and RSS readers, and location aware events, as well as real-time notifications and more.

Both solutions include our signature interactive features ranging from real-time chat to comments and ratings, as well as the ability to share content, and show off the great flexibility our platform provides to our customers.

We’re looking forward to seeing many more engaging applications appear in the Android App Store, to the delight of the growing community of Android handset owners.

Kyte and VP8/WebM

As expected, Google today announced the open-sourcing of their VP8 video codec via the WebM Project. The VP8 codec (now branded as "WebM") provides an open, high-quality alternative to H.264 for developers and content producers looking to leverage open standards for video delivery. In addition, VP8/WebM should help ensure that H.264 licensing remains royalty free for the next several years. 

While a competitive, high-quality open video format provides new benefits for developers, it also introduces additional fragmentation and complexity for publishers looking to deliver a consistent video experience across multiple platforms and devices. As part of our commitment to eliminating this complexity, Kyte is pleased to announce seamless support for the VP8/WebM codec, in addition to our continued support for established technologies like Adobe Flash, H.264 and new, emerging standards like HTML5.

Opportunities and challenges in online video delivery

In the last decade online video has grown from an esoteric hobbyist activity into a multi-million dollar business built around a thriving ecosystem of content creators, publishing and monetization platforms, and various enabling technologies, services and devices. Like many industries born out of the mass consumer embrace of the Internet, online video continues to evolve rapidly. It was only five years ago that the first video was uploaded and shared on YouTube, yet a scan of industry news today reflects a growing conversation around the myriad devices and endpoints from which audiences consume video.

Advances in broadband, computer technology and consumer electronics have ushered in a new era of Internet connected, video-capable devices (PCs, smart phones, gaming consoles, tablets, set-top boxes, etc.). Digital technology has also greatly reduced the cost and complexity of creating video content, resulting in the emergence of not only user generated video, but a greater output of professional and semi-professional video content from publishers for whom video was once cost prohibitive.

These two trends combined (increased distribution channels and low production costs) have resulted in an explosion of Internet-based video.

Since Kyte’s launch in 2007, one of our hallmarks has been our ability to anticipate the direction consumer demand is headed, and then innovate quickly to help video publishers meet that demand head-on. Most recently this has taken the form of turn-key application frameworks and SDKs for leading social, mobile and connected device platforms including Facebook, iPhone/iPad, Android, Blackberry, Nokia and Boxee.

Our product philosophy reflects our belief that audiences will continue to consume content across a broad variety and combination of Internet-enabled devices and platforms.

This is a belief supported by the reality of today’s media landscape:

The shift to digital continues

Media companies and marketers evaluating their video strategy need only to look to the news media to witness an industry that failed to innovate fast enough to meet consumer demand for digital content. As new online news and information delivery models (HuffingtonPost, CNN.com, ESPN.com, Craigslist.org) emerged, the ad dollar pool for local and regional print news outlets shrunk to a fraction of its previous size. Many smaller outlets have gone entirely out of business, and even larger news organizations (Gannett, AP, etc. ) have begun to feel the pain. Publishers that fail to innovate and embrace online, mobile and social delivery mechanisms will surely experience the same fate.

Digital has evolved beyond the PC

Delivery of video to the PC was just the beginning. Online audiences are spending increasing amounts of time consuming media from multiple platforms. The introduction of the iPhone and now the iPad have established entirely new markets for the delivery and sharing of live and on-demand video content. According to Nielsen, mobile is now the fastest growing segment of video consumption. And connected devices like Boxee and Roku are meeting pent-up demand from consumers frustrated by the lack of freedom and control over how and when they consume professional broadcast and internet programming.

Digital is social

The days of centralized, one-way broadcasting are over. In today’s world of social media and transparency, video publishers need to create an authentic experience supported by the social dynamic of friends and like-minded individuals. Facebook and Twitter have become integral to today’s media consumption habits, with Facebook poised to revolutionize online advertising (in much the same way Google did with search) through “earned impressions” based on intricate social connections and behavioral history. To be relevant today and engage audiences, publishers need to create video experiences that integrate the social graph and provide a rich interactive experience.

These trends are amplified when video content is separated from static digital content. Video is commanding a much higher CPM than traditional display advertising, and advertisers are finding TV less effective as they shift dollars online. Combined with an avalanche of statistics that show more and more people are watching video programming online or on their mobile devices, media companies and marketers are faced with several compelling reasons to quickly determine how they are going to reach and engage with these audiences.

While consumer choice and emerging platforms have created new opportunities for publishers, and in some cases entirely new industries, these trends are also the key contributors to growing audience fragmentation, resulting in increased technical challenges for publishers looking to deliver rich video experiences to multi-platform audiences.

Adding to this, competing technologies and devices (and the companies who back them) are creating additional technical hurdles for publishers (the Flash vs. HTML5 war being the prime example).

In summary, for any organization evaluating how to best publish, monetize and scale video in what is becoming an increasingly complex landscape, it’s important to consider the particular goals of your organization and the many options that are available to you. Here are some decision criteria to help you get started:

1. Evaluate your video strategy through the lens of your broader marketing objectives. Are you already reaching core audiences across social platforms? How about mobile? How can you converge these efforts under a single point of control?
2. If you’re considering working with an online video platform (OVP) provider, examine how different vendors provide mobile, social and connected device capabilities. Can they provide these services natively, or do they work with third parties to provide this functionality? How deep are their roots in mobile and social technology?
3. How quickly do you need to move? Do you need a partner with built-in native functionality across multiple consumption platforms, or can you handle longer development cycles?
4. What are your content creation needs? Do you plan to leverage live and on-demand video? How about UGC? Do you have a means of easily moderating this content?

To discuss your own particular requirements and challenges in producing, managing and delivering multi-platform social video experiences, feel free to contact us.

Kyte Extends 360° Social Innovations to Facebook

We’re excited to announce two new extensions to our 360° Video Platform, the Kyte Facebook App Framework, and our integrated support for Facebook's new social plugins.

Kyte Facebook App Framework

The latest addition to our set of turn-key Kyte App Frameworks enables you to quickly establish a fully branded interactive video experience on Facebook.

Today's consumers demand social experiences, and our Facebook App Framework provides a powerful set of tools to deliver highly engaging video campaigns that resonate with today’s audiences while helping you to break through the noise.

With our Facebook App Framework, you can increase brand awareness and socialize your video by instantly publishing new content notifications and pushing user comments to the News Feed. You can even create branded contests and UGC campaigns to generate a more captivating user experience.

You can also make use of our professional live streaming capabilities to stream live events to a dedicated Facebook page and engage your Facebook community in real-time by integrating the Live Stream social plugin.

We all know that centralized, one-way brand messages are no longer effective to connect with audiences and drive monetization. In today’s world of social marketing and transparency, it’s critical to encourage and facilitate a conversation with your audience.

Our framework makes it easy for you to quickly deliver these experiences, live and on-demand, and leverage this connection with your audience to maximize your revenue potential through pre-roll, overlay, and companion advertising, all within Facebook.

Facebook Social Plugins

Integrating social interactivity into our online and mobile video platform has been Kyte’s missions since inception, and we’ve stayed at the forefront of social integration ever since.

Our support for Facebook’s new social plugins allows you to add a Facebook “Like” Button to the Kyte Player, allowing your viewers to share the videos back to their friends on Facebook with just one click, no matter where the player is embedded. You can also add a Facebook Recommendations box or integrate live commenting from the Facebook community using the Live Stream plugin.

We’re looking forward to helping our publishers reach, engage and grow their Facebook communities. To learn more about extending your video experience to Facebook, click here or contact us.