Branded iPhone apps ‘no longer a gimmick’ as Australian-made Tic Tac app hits 1.1m

ALL “marketing tools” are inherently gimmicks. That’s the bloody POINT;

“gimmick
noun
a trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or business”

DUUUH.

One million is a big number. Wonder what they paid for it? Client must be happy.

or you could take this definition:

“In marketing language, a gimmick is a quirky feature that distinguishes a product or service without adding any obvious function or value. Thus, a gimmick sells solely on the basis of distinctiveness and may not appeal to the more savvy or shrewd customer.”

The story has some good points.

That Commonwealth application deserves a look. If I’m right, and it lets you point at a house to find out what it last sold for, it plays right into people’s curiosity about how much their home and their neighbours’ are worth.

Went hunting for more information and encountered fail, because there’s no link to download the application – in fact, it looks like it hasn’t actually been put on the App Store yet.

I downloaded the tic tac app. Very clever simple branded game. Made me smile and want to buy some for the first time in years.

The Commonwealth Bank app. raises concerns as to the privacy of data.

Ive been investigating where the RP data guys get there information and it seems they “buy it” from the State governments and some realestate agencies. I have put a call in to the valuations office Vic Gov to see what level of data is “sold”.

Further what mechanisms are available to purchase price information from being sold / passed on for commercial gain by Government, to Companies like RP data and those they on sell it to like Realestate.com.au and others like the Commonwealth Bank? (Not sure if this individual property level or simply suburb to be fair, but would like clarification on that point as PR release is vague)

There are privacy concerns raised here, and potential security concerns for home owners if such information becomes accessible on mobile devices outside their front fence.

The CommBank iPhone app should increase the ROI of burglaries.

Agree with Reevesy – there is a good story in there Tim regarding privacy and ownership of data.

downloads numbers ARE the gimmick, it’s user reviews/value that are most important and from observation this tic tac one got some pretty scathing ones …

now an app that sold one million tic tac units … now that you couldn’t call a gimmick.

Maybe more companies, large and small will take notice that iPhone marketing is going to be a major player in connecting with their market.

Reevesy and Sam…… perhaps you could declare your allegiance to your agency and your brand – NAB… be for our industry,trying new things fellas !

I’d be much more impressed if you shared some creative options of media or formats you guys have done of late, good or bad we are all here to learn and create new and better ways.

True nab is a client, but the point made by me here was out of a genuine concern for data privacy from someone who just bought a honotams suddenly had second thoughts as to where all this data originates. Not as a cynical agency type.

In fact Hats off to comm bank for innovating. It keeps everyone moving fwd.

As for our work; new ZO agency blog coming soon

@leave-the-negativity-at-the-agency-door

Sorry for trying to have a discussion. Next time I’ll limit my comments to superlatives such as ‘groundbreaking’ ‘game changing’ and ‘paradigm shifting’.

If you want to hear about things from us: follow @zo_au or @mojotweets on the Twitterspace. Otherwise I blog @ http://samsmojo.com

@Sam, @Reevesey.. I have to say agree with @leave-the-negativity-at-the-agency-door

It’s a common practice on this site to critique the output of competing brands/agencies. There’s nothing inherently wrong about that. It is good for the industry to debate and critique… I don’t think anybody wants to curb your enthusiastic.

However, there is a very real difference between objective and subjective POV. The reader generally assumes that comments are made objectively and then reacts or comments accordingly. It is simply more honest to declare your involvement with a competitor if you are going to make a point online for all to see. In fact it’s a policy (perhaps Timbrella can enlighten us on this one?) that journalists typically adher to these days when making their own comments about topics or subjects where they have any form of vested interest. It allows the reader to form their own judgement on the possible bias of the writer.

@Dazza don’t forget MIA might have more interest in this article than anyone, as the pre-eminent major AU mobile developer who will benefit greatly from products like this growing the medium. And I don’t want to put a dampener on the medium either.. hell, I’d have to start another blog if I wanted to do that.

Reevesy cleared up re: NAB (personally not a client of mine), and I think the point still stands on privacy/data: is it right for the Government to profit from personal data that has not necessarily been given for them to share with third-parties?

Secondly – is it right for that data to be able to be seen on an individual property level? Surely this should be opt-in only – the same as personal info on social media. If someone wants to share: go for it, otherwise, it doesn’t belong in the public domain.

Most banks use this data on an aggregate (suburb) level to help advise internally and externally financial decisions. But it has never been able to be viewed by the general public on an individual property basis.

Kudos to Webling/Commbank for pushing product innovation, but my criticism is on RP Data and lack of clarity on data/privacy. This still needs to be answered.

Declaration: Dazza’s employer and my employer from time to time work together.

Would be interesting to know how many people actively use the Tic Tac app if those 1 mil were accrued over 12 months.

A couple of points: (I don’t work on/for CBA)

1) The CBA App is not yet available; they did issue a PR release last Friday saying it is ‘coming soon’ . The article is incorrect and misquoting CBA stating “ CBA has today launched an application” etc

2) The technology within the App draws upon data which is widely available within the public domain and breaches no privacy laws

3) CBA are not the only bank playing in this field and might not be the first Bank to launch this type of App 🙂

i think the tic tac app is quite smart as its always a challenge to come up with branded content that is fun and reflects the brand experieince.

I’d like to update everyone as I feel that I started this whole thing with my concerns.

As I stated up front I researched RP data because I was duly concerned that private info could have commercialised and felt vulnerable. Not having a crack at Comm bank, its true that NAB and everyone else interested in real estate use RP data – its a very useful.

RP data’s privacy people have also kindly come back to me on my concerns.

“Information relating to the property transactions are made available as public record and are used for assessing and valuing of property. Such information ensures that property values, purchases and investments can be made with confidence and transparency.

Personal Information relating to individuals is protected under the national privacy act and as a result can be withheld from such records. You have noted in your email below that you will be in contact with the State of Victoria regarding your personally identifiable information and arranging suppression of this data. To ensure that this is effected promptly please feel free to respond to this email with the property address and we will ensure that the owners details are suppressed from our records.

In regards to RP Data providing property sales information in Victoria to RealEstate.com.au, this information is only provided in the event that RP Data has been supplied the sale detail from the Agent. This is not comprised of personal data relating to the sale or any information that may have been supplied from the Victorian Lands department.”

Thanks RP data – I feel better now.

Sorry for the anguish.

Couldn’t find the CBA app in iTunes which leads me to beleive that St.George might have beat CBA to launch this kind of application?

Check out housefinder.

Looks pretty good. Haven’t gone through it properly yet but it seems to deliver on everything mentioned in cba’s youtube video.

Yeah…St George have launched their app called ‘housefinder’…it’s pretty good.

Check it out in the App store

is this what you mean?

http://promos.stgeorge.com.au/housefinder/