Navigating to app success in an ocean of kids content
"It's very easy to be different but very difficult to be better."
– Jony Ive
To kick off our insight series for kids, we'll start by sharing some of the thoughts and experiences from working with content creators over the years and offer some answers to the constant questions kids media companies and publishers ask us today.
It's always a remarkable journey to plan, develop and launch an app and is often best managed with some key navigational skills tried and tested for all the different challenges that companies may face.
Here at Wonderz, we don't work as a traditional "agency developer” Instead, we help guide and train all content creators to take control of their destiny and become their own form of "developer" through publishing content on their store. Our common goal is often to find the best way for them to be better. So let's start with the topic of research:
🔍 Research - Question the Questions to Find the Answers
With the app store now ten years old – and with many great mobile app favourites for kids to use - any app project must begin with a ground-level analysis to inform you of where to put your mind and money in the future.
What kind of competition will your ideas for an app face, and how successful are they?
The app stores are big beasts today, so get to know them inside and out and see what others are offering in the space. This may include:
Imagining your multimedia library of content and how kids might experience it
Working up special offers, ideas and tiers for subscription services, or in-app purchases.
What seasonal highlights might work within your content's frame for example Christmas, Easter, summer holidays, and Halloween all work well in-app store highlights and features.
🥇 How will you be "better" than the rest?
How will you get the most from what you already have:
List what you want to do in this space - how do you want to play, educate, entertain, inform your audience and ask how your content relates to these areas for younger users.
Check and list all the assets you have and will need to achieve your goal.
Look into how unique you are in offering your content ask what makes you special.
Ask what market research has informed all of your decision making so far.
Now take a deep breath and look further inside the organisation of your app and clarify a few more practical things:
✅ Do you own all the rights to all your media?
Digital rights payments can throw up some nasty headaches when it comes to subscription content, and it is always good to spot check all the details:
Core assets - check audio, video, games and ebook rights with authors and artists.
Define "content plays" for the time spent playing/viewing/listening to calculate any rights payment. For example - an audio story how many seconds it counts as one listen?
Will you be providing different price points to your content for customers?
Choice is always important, so think about how you might want to offer that when it come to content libraries, many mobile platforms have built-in tools for subscription and freemium packages. You might also like to look into :
Single sign-on accounts that give you a more direct relationship with consumers as well as making their lives easier.
Hybrid publishing offers that can mix the print and digital world via new marketing tools such as QR codes - we will be looking into this in more detail in the marketing section of a future insight.
👉 How will you take your research further and work toward a soft launch?
Plan a detailed and achievable timeline for critical markets.
Adhere to your timelines rigorously.
Manage your expectations outside your local market.
Choose up to three new foreign markets to soft launch your app.
Identify resources you will need to create multilingual app store text.
With a suitable file of research data now gathered together, you might next turn your attention to the team you want to build around the development timeline.This will make sure that everyone is fully engaged as the project moves forward and is delivered with a clear outline that contain your expected outcomes.