Nowadays, it seems like taking pictures of food is the norm. Instead of waiting for your food to arrive at the table to eat, now the eating occurs after a picture is taken. And why shouldn’t it be? Humans are visual beings. A picture of a piece of cake is more tantalizing to the taste buds than a simple description.

Realizing this, Andy Wong founded Shoutters in 2011 with the hopes of revolutionizing “food reviews by making it simple and straight to the point with a visual guide.” Instead of reading long reviews, Shoutters fans can choose their next meal based on how delicious the food looks.

And what better way to reach on-the-go diners than by creating a mobile app? After shopping around, Andy chose Mobile Roadie to create the Shoutter app, as our platform features matched perfectly with his needs. In the app, Shoutters fans can upload their pictures, check out the Shout Spots, favorite their favorite photos, calculate tips with the Tip Calculator, and keep up with the latest Shoutters news.

The Shoutter app is unique in that it is one of the only Mobile Roadie apps to be the actual product of the brand.

Andy tested out this concept with a Mobile Roadie app for iPhone, and he’s planning to expand to Android as well.

To download the Shoutter app, visit http://road.ie/shoutter

midem is just one day away! For those of you who don’t know, midem is an annual event held in the city of Cannes, France where “artists, technology and brands are connected by music.” Last year, 6,850 participants from 3,120 companies spanning 77 countries attended midem.

If you’re attending midem this year, don’t forget to download the official midem app powered by Mobile Roadie. Available for iPhone, Android, and even iPad, the official midem app allows you to “consult the conference & festival schedule, discover speakers & artists line up, access a practical guide to Cannes, and view official photos & videos.” App users can also “read the latest industry news and see what companies & partners are at midem.” It’s the only thing you need to get around smoothly during the 4-day event.

To download the official midem app, visit http://road.ie/MIDEM

And don’t forget to RSVP for the Music Tech Meetup that we’re co-hosting with SoundCloud, Spotify, Topspin, Webdoc, MXP4, Musixmatch, Next Big Sound, The Orchard, and midem.

Unless you’re a household name, your app will need more than brand recognition to attract downloads. Don’t fall victim to the mentality that your app will market itself, because for the majority, this isn’t the case. Here are 5 simple mistakes to avoid when marketing your app .

Mistake #1: Forgetting to utilize social media channels
If you already have presence in social media sites, why wouldn’t you market your app to existing followers/fans? And don’t forget to remind them from time to time that your app is available for download. You definitely don’t want to push your app into oblivion once the initial buzz wears off.

Mistake #2: Forgetting to update your app with new content
“A year in mobile is like five years in any other industry,” said MoRo CEO Michael Schneider in a recent midem blog guest post. You don’t want to release your app only to never update it with new content. If you commit this mistake, other competitors will catch up or might even take the lead with cooler app features and more relevant technology that users will prefer. An updated app means more content for marketing posts.

Mistake #3: Forgetting to proofread
Text littered with spelling, grammatical, and format errors can make even the most awesome of apps a little less awesome. And don’t forget to proofread marketing posts related to your app before they’re uploaded; it’s important to include a download link in these posts for the viewers.

Mistake #4: Forgetting to respond to app users
Think of your app as another social network. And with any social network, fan interaction is important. For many apps, the only user feedback may be in the form of ratings. Use these ratings to your advantage; they’re end-user insights on how to improve your app, resulting in happier users and more downloads.

Mistake #5: Not launching a marketing campaign at all
You think your app will be seen by thousands of visitors in the app stores without doing anything? Most likely, this isn’t the case. Doing something, no matter how small, is better than doing nothing. As the mobile industry (and competitors) grow, it’s more important than ever to be active.

These mistakes can be easily avoided if you try. If you want help marketing your app, check out our article “5 Easy Ways to Market Your Mobile App“.

midem 2012 is just around the corner. Bringing together the hottest names in music, tech, and business in the beautiful city of Cannes, France, this 4-day event aims to “enrich the passionate relationship between people & music, transform audience engagement & form new business connections.” Touted as the world’s largest music industry trade show, we’re proud to be a partner of midem for another year.

In addition to powering the official midem app for the iPhone, we’re powering their first iPad app this year. midem’s iPad app is a preview of what’s to come for our upcoming iPad product, so stay tuned.

MoRo CEO Michael Schneider is already making his presence known at midem: He gave a talk at the MIDEM Managers Village about the music potential in mobile apps, and he wrote a guest post on midem’s blog about the six mobile music trends to watch in 2012. We’ll also be co-hosting a Music Tech Meetup with SoundCloud, Spotify, Topspin, Webdoc, MXP4, Musixmatch, Next Big Sound, The Orchard, and midem on January 29th (RSVP for free here).

midem is from January 28- 31, 2012. If would like to stay updated on the latest midem news, download the official midem app at http://road.ie/MIDEM.

DLD Conference 2012 kicked off yesterday in Munich, Germany. Now in its 7th year, the DLD (Digital, Life, Design) International Conference is a three day event bringing together “thought leaders, creators, entrepreneurs and investors” from all over the world. DLD doesn’t stop at the conference, however; in fact, DLD is a year-long affair creating events and experiences that are focused on “innovation, digital media, science and culture which connects business, creative and social leaders, opinion-formers and investors for crossover conversation and inspiration”.

With partnerships with renowned companies like Microsoft, HP, Audi, Google, CNBC, comScore, and many more, DLD is the place to be for those who are excited about the future. Past speakers include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Eric Schmidt, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and media entrepreneur Martha Stewart, among others.

This year, speakers include media entrepreneur Arianna Huffington, eBay CEO John Donahoe, Yoko Ono, and our very own Michael Schneider. Moderated by Hubert Burda Media’s Patrick Wolke, Michael spoke on the App World panel alongside Summly’s Nick D’Aloisio, Armen’s Felix Petersen, and Khoya’s Shila Siv Suleman.

We are proud to be a DLD partner, powering the official DLD app available for free download. The DLD app is the ultimate guide for conference attendees and non-attendees, with sections including Program (schedule), Speakers, News, Pictures, and Livestream. To download the official DLD app available for iPhone and Android, visit http://road.ie/dld.

Time for our first Music Tech Meetup of 2012! And what better place to kick off the party than at midem, the “world’s largest music industry trade show” held in Cannes, France. Stop on by for great networking, drinks, and to meet the teams from some of the leading music tech companies as we get together at Au Bureau on Sunday, January 29th at 6:30pm (and onwards).

RSVP for free here.

Sponsors:
Mobile Roadie – The most powerful self-service app platform, powering the official midem app.
SoundCloud – The leading audio platform that makes it easy to transfer music online.
Spotify – A popular music streaming service with millions of users since launch in 2008.
Topspin – A technology-focused direct-to-fan marketing, management, and distribution platform.
Webdoc – A social platform allowing users to create digital scrapbooks from web content that they can share with friends.
MXP4 – A developer of innovative music solutions for artists, fans, brands, labels, and distribution platforms.
Musixmatch – The world’s largest official lyrics database.
Next Big Sound – Music analytics company that tracks “all the behavior and activity happening for artists both online and off”.
The Orchard – A full service marketing and distribution company that specializes in music and video entertainment.
midem- The world’s largest music industry trade show attracting thousands of participants from across the world.

Venue Information:
Au Bureau
49 Rue Felix Faure
06400 Cannes, France

Hope to see you there!

We’re proud to add an Interactive Award to our award shelf!

Founded in 2008, the Interactive Awards is “an initiative of web agency theFactor.e, Burma/Stemra, and Eurosonic Nooderslag”, recognizing one artist and one company in Europe that pushes boundaries and makes innovations in the music market through the Internet. One of 7 award presentations at Eurosonic Nooderslag- Europe’s largest, most prominent conference and showcase festival for European music- the Interactive Awards is unique in that the nominees present themselves on stage to a jury who then chooses the two winners.

We want to give a shout out to our fellow nominees Shuffler.fm and Repudo, and we want to say congrats to Only Seven Left, the winner of the Artist Award.

Mobile Roadie’s Stephen O’Reilly and Tony Pardo were present to accept the Company Award (Image above: Left, Tony Pardo; Right, Stephen O’Reilly). To view a video of our win and a short interview with Stephen, check it out here.

1. On social media sites: Don’t be afraid to use social networks to feature your app in a post or two. Because you are targeting the news to existing followers who have already expressed interest in your brand, they will be more inclined to download your app. The San Diego Zoo used social sites to promote the launch of their official app.

*If you want to attract new fans on these networks while promoting your app, choose one social network to exclusively reveal your app, building anticipation in the days before with hints.

2. On the homepage of your website: Your website is usually the first place that interested consumers go to learn about your brand, so by featuring your app the homepage, you will be taking advantage of this targeted audience. Don’t forget to provide a link to download the app. On Adele’s homepage, her app is featured alongside her blog, videos, and news (click image below for example).

*Promote your app to users who access your site via mobile devices. With App Detection for Mobile Browsers, available in Mobile Roadie 3.3, you can input a unique code to your site which will create a popup that gives users the option to download your app or continue on to the site (See below image for example).

3. In your blog: While the most popular social media sites have character limitations, your blog is one place to really talk about all the ins and outs of your app. It’s your chance to present users with a compelling case on why they need to download your app.

Famehouse created a blog post on the release of the official Pretty Lights mobile app, which presented the app’s features and what users could do on the app.

4. On traditional advertising: Mobile consumers are just that, mobile, and thus, are everywhere. It makes sense to market your app through online channels, but it may also be a good idea to market your app through offline channels like posters and magazines. Be sure to include where to download the app; for example, you could include text like “Download the app at the App Store or Android Market (etc.)” or “Visit our website www.example.com to download the app”.

*Another idea for offline marketing collateral is to include a QR code that when scanned automatically allows the user to access the app.  We provide unique QR codes for all our apps, which the FADER FORT took advantage of for their posters at SXSW (see below for example).

5. In the app itself: Word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful marketing tools that doesn’t cost anything. You let your existing fans spread the word about your brand for you. One way to do this is by hosting buzz-worthy giveaways or contests in your app. Uploading great content and exclusives in the app is another way.

*In Mobile Roadie 3.3., we added an engagement feature called “Share to Unlock” which lets you lock content (currently, audio) in the app that your users can unlock by sharing the app to their social networks.

In conclusion
With the influx of apps being released, it’s a good idea to have a marketing plan ready for your app. So follow these quick, inexpensive tips to make your app’s launch an even bigger success.

A prominent hospitality fixture in Southern California, sbe is expanding many of its brands into other hot spots like New York City, Miami, Houston, and Las Vegas. So to give fans a way to take the sbe lifestyle with them everywhere they go and to build buzz around the app’s launch, the team over at sbe did something big.

So what exactly did they do? sbe launched a billboard advertising campaign for the app with the headline “Finally something fun for your thumbs to do”. Multiple sbe app billboards- both traditional and digital- can be seen throughout Los Angeles and surrounding areas (See the below image for the billboard).

Bilboard Advertising can be a great way to market your app to “on the go” consumers in a specific location, especially if that location is where most of your customers live. And by making your app the star of a billboard campaign, viewers won’t be overwhelmed by a flood of information. After all, billboard messaging must be short and direct as you only have a few seconds to get your message across. sbe’s billboard messaging is short, to the point, focused, and tells viewers where to download the app with one featured link, sbe.com (click the image below for a larger view).

Billboard advertising is just one of the marketing campaigns you can implement for your app; it may be effective for your brand or it may not. So remember, before you plan for a billboard campaign, take into consideration your marketing budget, your target market, and the message you want to get across. But *Thumbs up* to sbe for rolling out the billboards for their app; it’s very cool if you ask us.

1. By the end of November, there were over 234 million Americans (age 13 and older) who used mobile devices.

2. Over 91.4 million people owned smartphones in the US compared to the 63.2 million in 2010, an increase of over 44% (study by comScore).

3. Smartphone penetration in the US was close to 44%, up from 25% in 2010.

4. Over 62% of 25-34 year olds who owned mobile phones owned smartphones in 2011, up from 41% in 2010. Following behind, 54% of 18-24 year olds owned smartphones in 2011 (study by Nielsen).

5. Google Android was the most popular OS claiming 46% market share, followed by Apple iOS with 28%.

6. The Apple iPhone was the most sought-after smartphone device based on the fact that the only phones that are powered by iOS are iPhones. In the third quarter of 2011, the top 3 best-selling phones in the US were the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and HTC EVO 4G, according to The NPD Group.

7. Close to 7% of all US Web traffic was from smartphones and tablets, with smartphones accounting for about 2/3 of this figure (study by comScore). iOS  devices accounted for around 58% of non-computer online traffic while Android accounted for 32%.

8. In 2011, the most popular activity amongst smartphone users was texting or messaging (70%), followed by emailing (60%),  social networking (50%), talking on the phone (43%), and then surfing the Web (40%) (study by CloudTalk).

9. 38% of mobile subscribers downloaded apps. Among the smartphone users who downloaded apps, 83% had either an Android or iPhone device.

10. In December 2011, an average of 1.5 million smartphones were downloaded each day. On December 25th, however, it was estimated that more than 6.8 million iOS & Android devices were activated (study from Flurry).

The smartphone industry flourished in 2011, and will continue to experience growth in the new year; it is predicted that smartphones will outsell PCs in 2012 (according to multiple industry sources). So here’s to another great year in mobile!