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Mobile apps are quickly evolving, and no longer is their development for someone with an intimate technology background. Mobile Roadie is at the forefront of bridging that gap, and wants to hone the power of mobile marketing, a fairly untapped market as of today.
Created by Brock Bratten and Michael Schneider, Mobile Roadie debuted in 2009 at South by Southwest. Prior to its inception, co-founder and CEO Michael Schneider owned a design firm, mostly working on creating websites. It was there he realized the high demand for apps, and the basic premise of Mobile Roadie unfurled. With the constant changes in mobile technology, Schneider saw an opportunity for people to take advantage of the transformation rather than be left behind in other models of marketing.
“We want to bring mobile marketing to the masses,” said Schneider. “There are many ways to market your brand, but mobile marketing is very different.” Mobile features allow for companies, app designers, and marketing gurus to know how to target a product toward a certain audience. With the data smartphones offer, marketing departments can easily reach the users they want.
“We are trying to give marketers – all of them, from the guy at the hamburger stand to the CEO of Coca-Cola – the opportunity to stay relevant and succeed, and mobile marketing is the way to do that.”
Initially, Mobile Roadie focused on the music industry. Schneider saw that all musicians needed branding and marketing, whether it be to sell tickets, merchandise, keep fans up to date on appearances, or just attract new listeners. Not much later, everything changed at Mobile Roadie. The surge of smartphones changed mobile technology, and Schneider said he saw the opportunity to expand verticals and reach others. Soon, Mobile Roadie was catering to not only musicians, but educational and sports groups, people promoting festivals and events, even religious groups all looked to Mobile Roadie to help develop their brand and market it effectively.
Schneider points out that a lot of Mobile Roadie’s current work is still educational, aiming to lend a virtual helping hand to make sure companies are honing the goals of their brands. Mobile Roadie doesn’t just offer templates and assistance in designing an app, but it also gives you the tools to take advantage of the unique properties of an app to show growth.
A part of Mobile Roadie’s success comes from its aesthetic: “Branding has come a long way in the last three years,” said Schneider. “The world used to be okay with generic templates and colors, but now you need to look polished to succeed.” Offering templates, Mobile Roadie gives users the ability to design innovative and unique apps that look different from all the others, and in a way that anyone can do it.
In this way, Mobile Roadie appeals to the everyday user, not necessarily a developer or experienced app designer. “We simplified the technology,” said Schneider. “We don’t talk in coding language, we design in plain English so anyone can use it. You don’t need an engineer to make an app. It’s unique that anyone can use it.”
Mobile Roadie hopes to be a part of the major power of mobile technology.
“There is literally a gold rush,” said Schneider. “There is all the opportunity in the world to take advantage of the brand.” He points to the amount of time people spend on their phones, and how limited the marketing and advertising on phones is. He says sooner rather than later, more ads will appear on smartphones and will open a plethora of opportunity for companies to seize.
“It’s one thing to get information and advertising, but Mobile Roadie plans on becoming part of the experience,” said Schneider. “It is interactive, and not just media. This is a huge opportunity for real utility for brands on mobile that isn’t just a brochure, but gives users that, ‘I can’t live without this app,’ feeling.”
Schneider says the future is all about utility when it comes to mobile technology. While Mobile Roadie is still in the educational phase – teaching users how to actively mobile market how most people now use standard marketing, like Google advertising or social media – but once it this change occurs utilization is going to skyrocket. “Mobile Roadie hopes to be a part of this change,” said Schneider. “Once people really understand the full power of apps, I see it hugely benefitting companies, their apps and Mobile Roadie.”
