VideoEgg

We Are All Still Learning Social Media: The Sony Snow Globe App Example

By blog_editor on Jan. 03 2008

I read two posts yesterday about how Sony failed miserably with their attempt to make a branded Facebook Application. The first post was on FaceReviews.com, and the other was a slightly different take on Valleywag. Basically Sony created an application that allows users to make Sony branded Christmas snow globes, and less than 500 downloaded it in the course of a month. I'll agree that those numbers aren't flattering, but I don't completely agree with the roasting Sony got from the aforementioned sites.

Rodney Rumford, a consultant who runs FaceReviews.com and Gravitational Media, is a smart and nice guy - I've met him on a couple of occasions. He critiqued Sony's Facebook custom application attempt showcasing several flaws, including:

* No tabbed navigation
* No clear way to invite friends (I can’t believe they missed that!)
* It does not remember that I created a globe (very frustrating)
* After I create and send a globe I can’t navigate anywhere else (like to make a new one)
* No way to see which snowglobes my friends have created
* Text instructions are too long.
* Only allows for Christmas snowglobes. Too short of a product life cycle window

Well, Rodney is right about those things, but he looks at it from a different perspective than me, and most likely, Sony. We don't know Sony's self-created success metrics, but it is pretty evident that this was a test. Nearly all bigger brands have test budgets, often referred to as emerging media budgets. Now I'm not proposing that Sony purposefully didn't include a way to invite friends, but I'd be willing to bet that with such a basic application (and so many flaws), they are glad less than 500 downloaded it.

Valleywag and FaceReviews.com also pointed out that active users for Sony's app are extremely low. Well, so are the vast majority of apps on Facebook. In the image below you'll see Sony's Snow Globe app growth rate as well as Mountain Dew's DewMocracy app, an app that Rumford did consulting work with - and could just have easily been the subject of both scathing posts. You'll notice both have 1% active users and unimpressive numbers for downloads.

I'd like to point out that the DewMocracy app is a much better app than the Sony one, and had Mountain Dew put more dollars into promoting it, Rumford's consulting would have paid off on a much larger scale - but he can't force them to spend money on promotion. That is why the real #1 rule to making successful apps (if downloads is your success metric) is to promote through other applications. In other words, no free lunch - you have to make a media buy to promote your application otherwise no amount of smart consulting can help you. That is step one, but if active users is what your going for, then you'd better make a reason for them to come back after you get them to download. In this case, it looks likes the DewMocracy app isn't necessarily concerned with users returning after the vote, so you can't look at that 1% as a failure, and same for Sony's Snow Globe.

Having worked on Madison Ave myself, I think it is great to see brands willing to take a risk at all. The more risks they take and testing they do, the more they will understand, and everyone working in digital media will benefit from it.

Post by Eric Klotz
Director of Creative Development