iPhone Apps Hint at Future of Marketing

Santa Monica-based Artificial Life, a mobile technology company, has released an interesting new free iPhone app, BMW Z4 - An Expression of Joy, that allows you to paint with a BMW.

Sounds fairly unremarkable to all but BMW enthusiasts, except that BMW's app is actually an indicator of the future of the iPhone as a marketing tool. This app is in conjunction with BMW's somewhat pretentious marketing campaign "An Expression of Joy" to promote the actual car's imminent appearance.



Still not convinced?

How about the iPhone app from Dockers that takes advantage of the iPhone's built-in accelerometer so you can shake the phone and cause the dancer (Dufon a.k.a. Orb/Orbit/Orbitron) on screen to do some fancy moves in, you guessed it, Dockers shoes.

See the trend?

These app represents the latest foray of marketers into the mobile marketing field. It's by no means an original idea. There are multiple commercially-branded apps available on iTunes' App Store. Everything from movies to recipes to wardrobe management apps are waiting to bring the ads to your iPhone or iPod touch.

This will certainly be the growing trend as the spin-doctors of advertising latch onto the popularity of the consumer smartphones like the iPhone or the Android-powered G1 to name a couple.

The best "ad-apps" present their message in a clever and compelling manner like Sex and the City: Carrie's Closet, which allows the user to photograph various clothing, jewelry, shoes and accessories and then mix and match the pieces to create outfits which are then stored in their own "closet." That's the semi-useful part. The rest of the app consists of promoting the movie and TV show through video clips, photos and the soundtracks from both. It's not a terribly necessary app but it IS a lot of fun and definitely appeals to a certain demographic.

There's also the extremely popular Kraft app, iFood Assistant, that helps you prepare a meal based on whatever ingredients you have on hand all the while peppering you with ads for their products. What's even more amazing is that users paid a buck for the opportunity to be marketed to. There's also the apps for the Watchman and Dark Knight movies that were expected to have a fairly short shelf life but ended up becoming viral hits.

Yes, mobile phones are the next great unexplored frontier for the advertising world. With the iPhone's beautiful, big display setting the standard and the other cell phone makers falling in line to compete, it's a sure thing that we'll continue to see more ad-apps hit mobile phones near you.

For more information, see the smartphone reviews and iPhone app reviews on the mobile portal. For more tech news, stick with the blogs:

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