Apps Turn out to be Ideal Interactive Partners for Businesses

The world at large today, is ruled by various apps, as mobile technology has improved much. Various kinds of apps emerged in which some found favourable position in the heart of many people who are using smartphones. This proves that marketing is taking an interactive approach.

Some of the direct marketers such as Appco Group and many others have started to use these apps as a means to reach out to their customers. The apps in the favoured list goes like this… from Zynga, SCVNGR, Shopkick, Klout, and Foursquare to Shazam. 

The app Zynga has got 54 million users. Zynga is the premier social gaming company responsible for FarmVille, CityVille and Words with Friends. DreamWorks, Farmers Insurance and 7-Eleven targeted Zynga players with in-game promotions incentivizing consumers to interact with branded virtual goods. Mobile gaming company SCVNGR was the darling of this year's Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas and has continued to build its profile by partnering on campaigns with Dunkin' Donuts, Coca-Cola and Chevrolet.

Shopkick- within a year of its launch in August 2010, recorded more than 2 million retail walk-ins via its listening technology that rewards consumers for entering a brick-and-mortar store and firing up the mobile app. Social analytics company Klout has positioned itself as a social media kingmaker. Consumers can link various social media accounts, like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, to receive a score of their social media sway.

Nearly synonymous with location-based marketing, Foursquare has grown from a startup that enabled consumers to check in to locations and see where their friends are into a full-fledged geo-location service. Foursquare aggregates daily deals from the likes of Groupon, LivingSocial and Gilt City. Shazam originated as a mobile app consumers could use to identify songs while on-the-go, but marketers have used Shazam's audio tagging technology to measure the ROI of TV ads and extend consumers' engagement with the 30-second spots.