Even though the “App Industry” had been on a plateau – some
say even on a slow decline – after a peak back in 2012, will celebrity
endorsement reinvigorate the now lagging smart-phone app industry?
By: Ringo Bones
From actors with a very large “cult following” like Richard
Dean Anderson endorsing the MacGyver Deadly Descent app to political humor
based apps, like the “Ronald Reagan Pornography Identification App” that poked
fun on the US Republican Party’s hypocritical view on the U.S. pornographic
industry, it seems that celebrity endorsed apps seems like a logical way to
revitalize lagging demand of the smart-phone app industry that seems to have
seen better days since its peak back in 2012. But will such relatively zany
marketing gimmicks truly work? By the way, have you already checked out apps
that make the latest smart=phones and tablet computers more relatable and
soulful to folks born before 1979?
As the world’s leading app developers now seek star quality
for their “virtual wares”, Oscar-winning actor and collector of vintage
typewriters Tom Hanks has recently endorsed an app that pays homage to manual
typewriters. More likely to appeal to folks who are old enough to remember World
War II first hand, the Tom Hanks app – or more unofficially and aptly referred
to as Hanx Writer App – somehow managed to generate a large cult following to
younger users. And it even managed to reach the top of the iTunes Chart back in
August 19, 2014.
Way before our present age of Android compatible
smart-phones and related apps, celebrities used to endorse more “tangible”
items, like perfumes, shoes and other related fashionista doodads, but the
runaway boom of the app economy back in 2012 had many celebrities – famous or
otherwise – start to contemplate other alternate endorsement options. Will apps
be the latest celebrity endorsement du jour?
