Thanks to mobile technology, die-hard sports fans can carry a torch for their team of choice – anywhere, any time. According to an early 2014 study of fans who own mobile devices (conducted for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, InMobi and YouGov), one-third use their smartphones or tablets to buy game tickets, while 78 per cent use them to plan trips to live sports events.
In a 2012 study commissioned by
the mobile branding agency Motricity, half of sports fans admitted using mobile devices to check scores in the bathroom, and one in seven confessed to sneaking a peek in church. Amen to loyal fans! If you’re looking for ways to engage them, these three apps might just be the mobile answer to your marketing prayers.
QuestionPro: questionpro.com
THE PITCH: Create fun fan polls and surveys on your mobile device. Distribute them via the app itself as well as email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, web link, pop-up or QR code. Embed audio, video and photo content into questions. All polls and surveys are optimized to be read on any mobile browser. The app gives respondents the option of including their contact details so organizers can award them prizes and add them to their marketing database. The privacy and security policy is reassuringly thorough.
THE PLAYER: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry
THE PRICE: Free for up to 100 responses per poll. The upgrade is $12 per month for unlimited responses, but non-profit users can get it for free.
Create a Quiz: dotappdevelopers.com
THE PITCH: Q) What’s one of the best ways to engage event goers?
A) A quiz, of course. This app helps you create quizzes with multiple-choice, open-ended and picture-based questions. Design up to six quizzes. With the premium version, called Create a Quiz Key, you get unlimited quizzes and questions, plus cloud backup. If the app itself ever stumps you, there’s a detailed troubleshooting guide on the developer’s site.
THE PLAYER: Android
THE PRICE: Free; $5.41 for the Create a Quiz Key premium version.
Binkd: contest.binkd.com
THE PITCH: Get sports fans hooked on your team or event by running a contest on your Twitter or Facebook page. Binkd’s Twitter app gives you a free, easy contest template so your social media followers can tweet to win. For Facebook contests, security controls are baked into Binkd apps to spot suspicious stuff like fake IP addresses or Facebook
accounts. Binkd offers 24/7 technical
support via email.
THE PLAYER: Binkd “social apps” run on any device or browser because they’re accessed through social media accounts.
THE PRICE: Free for contest entrants. Cost to create contests ranges from free (for basic Twitter contests) to a $9.95 sign-up fee plus $1.99 a day for photo and video contests on Facebook and Twitter.
