It's no secret that mobile apps are where it's at. We live in an age where mobile devices may as well be appendages on our bodies and where social media is ingrained in our daily experience. So, it makes sense that over the past few years, businesses have been looking for ways to take advantage of this development in human evolution to capitalize on it. Nevertheless, innovation goes beyond current market trends and sets the tone for the future, which means simply developing an app may not be enough anymore.
Mobile and social advancement are taking a new direction that surpasses the idea of competition and delivers the new paradigm in business. Consistent with the trends in many business circles, successful mobile business models are now inviting the opportunity for branded collaboration.
One example of a business that is leading the mobile collaboration movement is Trivie, Inc., which is essentially a mobile app that contains an integrated app store for trivia-related games. Trivie's patent-pending platform "enables brands to quickly and easily create officially licensed trivia apps to connect with their fans directly through exciting knowledge-filled game play," says Lawrence Schwartz, Trivie CEO and co-founder. To date, Trivie has partnered to develop integrated apps for brands ranging from TV shows on FOX, CBS, to celebrities like Snoop Dogg, and media publications like Billboard Magazine -- but the potential for collaboration is limitless.
As the industry matures, the mobile business stakes get higher and companies must distinguish themselves from others or risk getting lost in the sea of apps that continually flood the ever-expanding App Store. Gaming apps have long been at the top of the mobile food chain and they will continue to stay there as long as they provide easily accessible moments of fun for users to tap into throughout the day. "Trivie extends the conversation of fun and learning between people in a way that compliments their lifestyle. Our strategy is to help key brands bring this element of fun and learning to their fans and customers so they can have a more engaging mobile presence. This is a key differentiator in our model, and we can do it faster and better than anyone because of our patent-pending platform," says Lawrence Schwartz, CEO of Trivie, Inc., creator of one of the top trivia apps in the iTunes App Store.
Nowadays, a successful app is not just about developing a cool game that users will want to invite their social media friends to play. Schwartz explains, "you have to have really good, ever-changing content to keep people engaged. We have over 80,000 trivia questions in our database with over 600 categories ranging from NFL football, wines of the world, and Star Trek, to famous beaches, Indian culture, famous artists and more. Our user base of over 2.1 million knowledge seekers are highly engaged because they are having fun while learning something new every time they play
One of the concerns that many companies have when partnering in a co-branded mobile venture is the visual integrity of their brand. Schwartz asserts:
"the visual aspect keeps people engaged because each are highly customized to a brand. For instance, when users are on the Fox website for their highly-rated show Bones, they will experience the same look and feel in the Trivie Bones trivia app as they do on the Bones TV show. Brand integrity and integration is key."
As people increasingly abandon their laptops and desktop computers for their smart phones and tablets to download more than 800 apps per second at a rate of more than 2 billion apps per month from the App Store, more and more businesses will want to tap into this market in new ways. Brands that are looking to leverage the growing mobile audience of companies like Trivie Inc. are lining up to get their branded mobile apps so that they can develop a closer connection with their audience and ultimately generate a larger user base and more revenue. Will more app developers embrace this collaborative model? That remains to be seen, but for now Trivie is leading the way.