NGT BOOT CAMP: BRANDED WIDGETS

June 21st, 2007 by Allison

Branded widgets, also known as Branded Desktop Applications (BDAs), are a new approach to viral marketing. They provide utility and entertainment for consumers; free content distribution and visibility for brands.

The implications for the ad industry are huge. For instance—a movie studio whose video trailer is picked up on personal blog pages, is not paying the kinds of ad rates commanded by the sites of major portals and brands.

Marketers including VW, Nike, Target and UPS have created branded widgets, with others such as Woot and ChipIn creating transactional ones. The NBA recently got in the game with an aggressive widget-marketing strategy, unleashing widgets for each of its roughly 350 players.

Companies are starting up to help facilitate the creation and syndication of BDAs. Kickapps offers a way for businesses to create online communities with branded viral widgets. Pheedo is widgetizing RSS-driven ads for blogs and websites, an idea started by Techmeme. Along these lines, Wize, Friend to Friend and Mpire all create contextual ads widgets for blogs based on a revenue-sharing model.

Widget aggregators such as Widgetbox and Clearspring are soaring in popularity. Clearspring and Freewebs also help developers create sponsored widgets and track their spread across the web.

VW Rabbit Widget displays free events from Yahoo’s upcoming.org
· Target’s desktop shopper alerts users to new products and guides the shopping experience.
· Coca-Cola’s myCoke friends is a real-time list showing which of your myCoke virtual friends are online
· AT&T’s USA Gymnastics Communicator displays event results, links to special offers and promotions, and provides a real-time countdown to the Beijing Olympics.
· Southwest Airlines’ Ding constantly searches low airline fares based on preference
· Facebook applications will be the next frontier for brands. Virgin’s “My Mobile” lets users share their favorite mobile content downloaded to their phones on their Facebook page, with an option for friends to purchase the same content.