An application for every occasion...

By now I’m sure that most of you will be aware of the deluge of smart phone applications that have flooded the market. There seems to be an app for pretty much anything you can think of - although I’m still to be convinced of the merits of a pint glass full of beer that empties when I tilt the phone - and yet I remain parched!

Amidst the hundreds of thousands of applications, the media industries are pumping out ever-increasing numbers of promotional applications, promoting movies, books and games. While brand name is often a big pull in most media arenas, the application market is a different beast. It’s all well and good having a big name but you need to back that up with an application that appeals to the users. The users are often looking for applications that are useful, interesting and eye-catching…

One man and his app...

So if you have a new book and you want to use a smart phone application to promote this book, how do you go about it? The temptation is to go big and bold, stretching the boundaries of imagination and innovation. However, the best option is to keep it simple, no matter what the book is…

…which brings me to “Ian Rankin’s Edinburgh”, our next smart phone application. Aside from this being a shameless attempt to plug the application (although you can download it for free from here), the application in question offers a prime example of how to market a book (or range of books) effectively.

Ian Rankin is well-known for his series of crime thrillers, following the adventures of Inspector Rebus and Malcolm Fox. However, the most consistent theme of all of Ian’s books is Edinburgh itself, a city close to Ian’s heart and a very popular tourist destination. Ian has lived in Edinburgh for most of his life and his books contain vivid descriptions of all manner of locations within the city.

So, after much debate, the decision was made to explore the world that Ian’s creations inhabit through a tour application.

Be unique...

There are plenty of applications offering tours around Edinburgh, so the challenge was on to produce a tour that stood out from these other applications and offered something new for the fans of Ian’s novels.

With Ian on board, the plan was to present 3 “mini-tours” containing 30 locations - a mixture of well-known and obscure locations that have been seen throughout Ian’s novels. Using Ian’s own insight into this city, we created a tour guide that takes you across the city. And, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, the tour can be enjoyed on the move in Edinburgh or from the comfort of your own home.

By melding the tour of Edinburgh with Ian’s own insights, the application is a unique guide to the city, offering Ian’s readers the chance to look at the locations they had simply read about and general users the chance to explore hidden corners of Edinburgh they would never have seen before. Each location is brought to life through a mixture of text, video, audio and imagery to afford users an exclusive experience.

The proof is in the pudding...

Now it’s all well and good for me to wax lyrical on the application but the proof is in the pudding. Looking at the recent statistics, the signs are good and it goes to prove that keeping it simple is the best option when developing iPhone applications.

So, with that in mind, I leave you with one thought…the key to success is imaginative and yet simple.


Rich Madigan is a Project Manager at MMT Digital, handling a range of projects from smart phone through to bespoke builds and through to Kentico. Aside from juggling a number of projects and diving into projects with new technologies, he just happens to be a Kentico-certified trainer.