Novelty photo apps are tricky business, even when you have a large brand behind them. The novelty wears off quickly and the moment more space is needed, they’re the first to be deleted. In order for brands to see any kind of ROI, their apps need to be shared and used as often as possible. This is something that Chili’s clearly understood before revealing its latest app.
Disclaimer: I don’t know what country Buster Keaton would root for, but he looks great with Australia’s goal face.
In celebration of the World Cup, Chili’s has revealed the Goal Face app for iOS and Android devices. It allows users to take a selfie and then “paint” their face to match the flag of their favorite team. It’s quick, clever, easy to use and timely, giving it all the elements of a successful app. More importantly, the team that developed it understands what needs to go into such an app in order to make it successful and effective. They recognized a few elements that the Nesquik Bunny-fier team failed to include in their similar app. Let’s break it down.
Shareability
In order to boost awareness of your app, it’s important to include social sharing capabilities. Goal Face users will, undoubtedly, share their image to their social networks and their friends will be inspired to download and use it, too. Not only that, giving users the explicit ability to share their image puts you in the good graces of Facebook and improves the odds of it being seen in Newsfeed.
Branding
When a goal face is created, it’s automatically stamped with a customized hashtag #ChilisGoalFace so that viewers know where and how their friend got that great World Cup selfie. If it’s shared to Facebook or Twitter, the post is also automatically populated with the hashtag. This makes it easier on the user and assures the Chili’s that it will always be included in the post.
Offline integration
Take a look at the background of this example screencap. Notice anything interesting? It’s staged in a Chili’s. Chili’s is encouraging app users and regular customers to watch the World Cup at their nearby restaurant. This accomplishes a couple of things: 1) It helps ensure foot traffic. 2) In-store diners watching the match will be inspired to pull up the app and share their own goal face.
Determined lifespan
The timeliness of the app is actually a benefit. Since it will only be useful for the duration of the World Cup, it helps ease users away from it. As soon as the final match is over, users will likely delete it from their devices, and the app team won’t have to worry about users who would be expecting updated face paint options. It can fade out on its own without the brand having to kill it or worry over potential updates.
Have a branded app? Great! Wondering how to optimize it for the App Store? We’ve got it covered here.
