Branded app implementation at the London Symphony Orchestra

This report consists of an overview of the IT consultancy with the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra (SBSO) and the implementation of the selected IT solution by the Client. The solution aimed to address the Client's need to attract more concert attendees and donors by providing a tool that leverages the power of data and geographic information systems (GIS) to identify untapped areas for potential outreach. In addition to this, the project team is interested in examining the use of mobile applications (apps) by symphony orchestras as another tool to enhance audience engagement and participation. We will evaluate the viability and effectiveness of mobile app usage for the purpose of increasing concert attendance. Data on industry IT expenditures, concert attendance, and mobile app usage will be analyzed to determine recommendations for symphony orchestras like SBSO.

Mobile phone applications (apps) have generated a great interest among marketers who have increased dedicated budgets for mobile marketing. This study attempts to assess the effectiveness of branded mobile apps in shifting attitude towards a certain brand. More specifically, this study identifies two types of apps: informational apps, which provide users with information that answers their questions, help them make a decision and serve a specific purpose they have, and experiential apps are game-like applications deliver enjoyment to the user and do not require much cognitive abilities to navigate through.

2013

Journal of Interactive Marketing, 2011

Mobile phone applications (“apps”) have generated substantial interest among marketers, primarily because of their high level of user engagement and the positive impact this presumably has on a user's attitude toward the sponsoring brand. This study utilized a pre-test/post-test experimental design to determine whether using popular mobile phone apps affects brand attitude and brand purchase intention. The results show that using these apps has a positive persuasive impact, increasing interest in the brand and also the brand's product category. The relevance of the product category makes no difference, but apps with an informational/user-centered style were more effective at shifting purchase intention, most likely because this style focuses attention on the user, and therefore encourages making personal connections with the brand. Experiential game-like apps were less successful, because they focus attention on the phone. These results suggest that understanding how to maxi...

2013

We are a few years into a paradigm shift where mobile Internet usage around the world is increasing fast. Smartphones have in Sweden become the device a substantial proportion of the population have, and companies have seen them as a new way to communicate with consumers. This thesis is a case study of four smartphone applications issued by companies in brand building purposes. The applications are King of the slope by Vattenfall, Korklar? by SalusAnsvar, McWrap Go&Get by McDonalds and Manga Strackor Sma by Lantmannen. Empirical materials are gathered through semi-structured interviews with people involved in the creation of each application. Results are then analysed based on what initial goals each issuer had set for the application with the aim of obtain learnings valuable to future application issuers. Findings have shown that the mindset when creating these applications has generally been short-term. This contradicts the nature of a mobile application and its purpose of strengt...

Business Horizons, 2015

With the popularity of mobile devices, firms have embraced mobile platforms and mobile applications (apps henceforth) as a new channel that can potentially enhance consumer experience, brand loyalty, and ultimately revenue growth. Unlike traditional advertising channels, mobile devices are characterized by their portable, interactive, immediate and ubiquitous nature. As such, a firm can take advantage of app technology and enable consumers to engage with its brand even when they are on the move. Such "anytime, anywhere" engagement can positively affect consumers' attitudes and relationships toward a brand and their purchase intention. In this chapter, we examine the way mobile platforms and branded apps forge new grounds in advertising, and we also posit forward-looking implications that offer managerial recommendations that allow advertisers to strategically leverage branded apps and mobile platforms to promote consumer engagement and loyalty.

The participatory turn, fuelled by discourses and rhetoric regarding social media, and in the aftermath of the dot.com crash of the early 2000s, enrols to some extent an idea of being able to deploy networks to achieve institutional aims. The arts and cultural sector in the UK, in the face of funding cuts, has been keen to engage with such ideas in order to demonstrate value for money; by improving the efficiency of their operations, improving their respective audience experience and ultimately increasing audience size and engagement. Drawing on a case study compiled via a collaborative research project with a UK-based symphony orchestra (UKSO) we interrogate the potentials of social media engagement for audience development work through participatory media and networked publics. We argue that the literature related to mobile phones and applications ('apps') has focused primarily on marketing for engagement where institutional contexts are concerned. In contrast, our analysis elucidates the broader potentials and limitations of social-media-enabled apps for audience development and engagement beyond a marketing paradigm. In the case of UKSO, it appears that the technologically deterministic discourses often associated with institutional enrolment of participatory media and networked publics may not necessarily apply due to classical music culture. More generally, this work raises the contradictory nature of networked publics and argues for increased critical engagement with the concept.