Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Digital Business shares insights into commissioning apps to support TV brands.

1. ABC Digital Business
Commissioning and Building Apps
An Entertainment Category Checklist

2. ABC’s commercial mobile development
2005 - 2009 2010 2011 2012
ABC For Kids News, kids and iOS: iOS: iOS:
-World first pre- entertainment Beached Az Phillippa Finch Bananas in PJs
school mobile content ABC For Kids Spicks Quiz Randling
channel on syndicated to Angry Boys
3 Mobile multiple telco, Bananas in Pyjamas
media, and retail Android:
partners Story Cloud

3. Source: App Annie 2012
Australia not a small market for apps - 6% of paid market where UK
is 8%. Nevertheless, difficult to be profitable.

4. Commercial Success
• Loved and trusted Australian kids brand
• Over 400k accumulated users
• 49,000 uniques per month
• 10% conversion – iTunes click-throughs

5. Commercial Success
• Huge viral hit
• Young male audience
• Early technology adopters
• Eps, Game, Sound board
• Inexpensive build

6. Critical Success
• #1 in Paid Entertainment
• Good engagement:
• 14,000 sessions June
• 422 avg daily users
• 10mins avg session
time
• IAP quiz packs very popular
• High dev costs affect
profitability

7. Critical Success
• FREE at launch
• Over 50k installs in 1st Month
• Simple but feels rich
• Uptick in other Bananas apps
as customers explore
• Better ratings when free –
price big factor in customers’
perceived value equation

8. App Install Trends
Installs follow very similar trajectory regardless of pricing strategy.
Apple promotion creates large spike at launch.

9. In App Purchase behaviour over same period

10. The checklist for commissioning apps
Photo credit: Art Alahay

11. 1. Have a clear idea what you want to achieve
• What behaviour do you want your audience to exhibit on
encountering your brand in this space?
– Who are they? What will THEY want from your brand?
• Engagement via digital channels?
– Keep it simple
– Consider the app part of your marketing budget and scale
development accordingly
– Include snippets of free content
• Brand awareness?
– Choose a cheaper channel
– Where you have more control over findability
• If you do want to generate revenue for the brand, go in with eyes
open...

12. 2. Choose a business model that makes sense
for the medium

13. FREE FREEMIUM PAID
• Most popular with • Make sure you have • Works in some
App Store enough “mium” to go instances
audiences with the free • Needs a large
• Possibly even more • Teaser content drive addressable audience
important than to paid content (global)
quality??! • In App Purchase • With the means
• Run FREE sales to market to them
on app and still • Content owners could
monetise consider global
• IAP content licensing to 3rd parties
MUST be along with other
meaningful and content
desired

14. 3. Control costs tightly
• Native app dev very expensive
compared with the potential for
direct revenue
• Look for Minimum Viable
Products that will satisfy
audience
• Sacrifice notional equity and
partner with your developer for
a revenue share
– You can share IP, or retain IP
and split revenue only
• Added advantage -- developer
more invested in the product,
rather than just the project – can
lead to better outcomes

15. Engaging development partners on
a work for hire basis...
• Dedicate your own product owner or producer to the project
– Give them decision-making authority and responsibility
• Look closely at development partner’s project management
processes and practice
– Dedicated producer/PM is critical
• And QA practices
– Ask for detailed test plans as one of the deliverables
– Do they automate testing?
– Use an online tracking tool for bug reporting.
• Agree number of rounds of changes you can have for your
budget
• Include analytics implementation as a deliverable

16. 4. Reserve budget for post-release and
measure user behaviour
• Spend time determining the audience behaviour you will
measure early on in the build
– Step through your app wireframes to do this
• Implement and test the analytics before release
• Don’t spend all your budget getting to launch – release with an
MVP
• Do spend time interpreting the results – you’ll learn where you
should be putting the rest of your budget

17. 5. Remember your app is a product, not a project
• Monitor user behaviour
• Optimise the app based on user behaviour and feedback
• Actively manage app pricing and promotions
• Actively use social media
if every app is a startup –
viral is your main driver
of growth

18. The Checklist Recap
1. Have a clear idea what you
want to achieve, how you
want audiences to act
2. Choose a business model
that makes sense for the
medium
3. Tightly control the
development costs (and/or
consider rev share
partnerships)
4. Reserve budget for post-
release and measure user
behaviour
5. Remember your app is not
a project, it’s a product.
Resource its ongoing
management.

19. Thank you
@mslissa
Melissa Firth
ABC Digital Business