Close-Up: Should brands be investing in apps?

Branded apps can work well for clients, but just make sure they're useful, Katherine Levy writes.

As Apple prepares to release the iPhone 5 this autumn, recent research by Deloitte suggests most brands don't know how to engage with users effectively on smartphones. The figures show that 80 per cent of branded apps have been downloaded less than 1,000 times, and only 1 per cent of branded apps have managed one million downloads or more. Which begs the question: should brands invest time and money creating them?

When branded apps work, they work brilliantly. Who can forget Barclaycard's Waterslide Extreme game, courtesy of Dare, that has chalked up more than 12 million downloads to date? AKQA has also made a big impact in this field. This year, it won a gold Cyber Lion for its Heineken Star Player app, a game that allowed Uefa Champions League fans to interact in real time and predict when goals would be scored. Last year, AKQA in Washington …