Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Celebrity-Endorsed Apps: The Future of App Marketing?


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? 

1 comment:

Je M'Apelle Ja'Nelle said...

Could Tom Hanks' "Hanx App" in the future be able to replicate the "feel" of an old mechanical typewriter?