Any Marketing people in here?

[husker77c]

I figured I would ask here to get some other ideas from my normal channels.

I built an app with my friend from high school.  He came up with the idea and at the time I had the money to finance it.   We met with an app company In Austin 2.5 years ago and it was originally supposed to take 6 months to build.  2.5 years later we are finally releasing it.   It's out in Google Play and it's being reviewed by the App Store as I type this and should be available on iPhone within a week to ten days. 

The premise of the app is social networking.  It's not like anything out there right now and I still feel that it is an amazing concept.   

The name of the app is Kukay.  That is an ancient Mayan word for firefly.



It basically lets you avoid the downfalls of meeting people in public places. It basically allows you to say hi to someone in the venue anonymously.  Then they anonymously respond and if you happen to choose each other it opens up a dialogue box and you can text with that person through the app.


How it works is you check in to a location.  After you are checked in you can see all the other users that are checked in to that venue.   If you see someone you are interested in you can send them a "flash".  They then receive a notification  that someone in the venue is interested in them.  They then go through the same process.  They look who is checked into the venue and go down and start sending flashes to people they might be interested in.  This sends flashes to all the people they are in to.  If they happen to pick the user that sent them the flash then you make a connection and options for conversations pop up. 

These conversations and flashes disappear after you leave the venue.  So it's all temporary unless you want to save the person

If you meet someone you like but you aren't sure if you want to give them your actual number you can save them to the "jar"  this allows the connection to stay active you leave the venue.  So you can put someone in your jar and be able to text with them through our app as long as they are in your jar.  Then if they get crazy or you just don't want to continue all you have to do is remove them from the jar and they disappear. 



It sounds complicated but it's really not. 

We also have a map



This allows you to see the number of users checked in to various venues around you.  So you can see where the odds are better to meet someone.


So it's in its infancy and we are now needing to get users.   This is worthless unless a bunch of people in the venue are using the app. 

We have a press release we are going to send out to various places when he iPhone version comes out but figured I'd asking anyone had any interesting ideas. 






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Nate]

#popcorn

[Flyin6]

Sorry, I know about as much about marketing and social media as Obama knows about the constitution...

[husker77c]

What we need is a publicity stunt. Something to make national news and get the name out there.  I wanted to release thousands of fireflies in Times Square on a summer night.    But with the world we live in now id probably get arrested for something. 

And as it turns out it's really hard to buy live fireflies in any large quantity


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dawg25385]

I will try to chime in later today... Thinking....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TexasRedNeck]

Is this a pay app or are you deriving revenue from some other source?  What is the stats on usage to turn a profit?

[husker77c]

It was originally going to be a free app with a paid premium version.  You would get the map feature on the paid version. 
With it taking so long that kind of fell by the wayside and it will be strictly a free app.
Revenue will come from ads to start and metadata sales.
I have future expansion ideas to generate revenue but that will be it for now.

 As far as usage to turn a profit I have no idea. 

It's kind of like Twitter or snap chat.  They make money without selling anything.  Sponsored and targeted ads will help.

The ultimate goal will of course be to sell the entire app.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dawg25385]

Ok... so this is just my take. Essentially, saturation is going to be your hurdle. 1 or 2 people in a location isn't going to cut it. You need lots. Especially because it's a proximity based app. So here's some ideas i had while thinking about it this morning...

Target events. Concerts, sports games, rodeos, county fair, farmer's market, Friday/Saturday bar scene too... especially in metropolitan areas where you have a higher concentration of people.  You're going to have to pound the pavement and maybe hire some kids... college kids maybe, to spread the word and get the name out there. Tis the season for college football games, where there's tons of younger people all in the same place, surrounded by lots of people they don't know. Just last weekend we had some visitors to our tailgate pitching a new app. They handed out business cards with the breif summary of the app, how to download, and that was stuffed in a coozie. App was like Uber meets UPS. Would have never heard about it without the drop in and free coozie. Really good idea if you ask me. Think about where people would use the app, and then try to pitch it to people there.

Now, you're competing with Tinder... that's tough. But Tinder has a bit of a blemished reputation as a "hookup app" if you get my drift, so you will want to be careful about that, that you don't fall into the same trap... not that you have any control over how the app is used, but how you brand it and message it IS up to you.

You are DEFINITELY going to want to study how the Apple App store operates, in terms of download velocity and what that means for you, and all the rest. Being App of the Week would be huge, but it's not just going to happen by chance.

Having a website, a good one, is a good step to. Not that the site is going to be used in the similar fashion as the app, but it's a prime messaging tool. You can do targeted campaigns, promotions, tests, etc through the website, and get data back so you can test markets, strategies, etc and ultimately drive the messaging.

The last class I took in my masters program was New Business Ventures. Basically Start-Up 101. I would highly recommend ordering and reading the book "Running Lean" by Ash Maurya. Most of the class was based off that book and it was a pretty easy read... all killer no filler.

Hope that helps :)

[Wilbur]

I was thinking about this last night and its funny I was thinking right along the lines of Dawg....places where lots of people the same age are congregating (like tailgating, etc.) I think places where there are lots of people for longer periods of time is critical....you need time for the people to "have the conversation". Maybe college libraries?

This would seem to definitely be a college age, young adult app. Is there anyway to allow bars to have it with some sort of central message function to all users in that location?  You might have a bar that sends out a "2 fer" special or something only over the app.....people come to the bar and show the message on their phone and get a two for 1 or some special. Other people would see what they got and then want the 2:1 too so they download the app as well etc. Not sure how much that would cost (how many people in the bar, etc.). But some marketing tricks like that might work, I just don't know enough about the technology to know if that would work? 

I also agree on some viral/non-traditional marketing to make a splash is good. Just don't do what happened in Boston a few years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_Mooninite_panic

Good luck! Let us know how it goes. I love new business things like this. Very cool.   

[husker77c]

Thank you guys for all the ideas. 

Yes it will be key to get the word out in college areas and I've been thinking about throwing mini release parties at various bars in different places where I know the owners or have a concentration of friends to help spread the word.  I'm not talking actual red carpet Type release parties but more like sponsoring the night.  Buy drinks for people who download the app, float around and see what people think etc.   The tailgating idea is awesome and I hadn't thought of that.  As is the hiring of local students to help with the leg work.  Have to figure out a way to keep them honest instead of just dumping swag at a friends house and pocketing my money.

The group message idea is my other idea for the app.  I want to have a Kukay sticker that venues can put on their door similar to Zagat, or yelp, or four square. Then people will know that this is a Kukay venue.  I'd like to incorporate a way for venues to be able to advertise through the map so people could look on the map and see what place has drink specials and a good crowd of people. This would encourage venues to advertise with us to draw a crowd in.   Going along with that I would like to set up a rating system for users to rate the venue on how well it does for meeting people.  This would also encourage venues to promote that they are a Kukay rated venue. Logistically though that is a very large project.  We would have to start our own API. Thats basically the database that pulls the venues when you go to check in.  There are several people who have APIs that you can use.  Foursquare (which we use) Google, Facebook, etc.  That would be a rather large investment in server space and time etc.  You would have to manually set up all the places similarly to how you can create a place in FB or four square.

As for tinder.  Yes we are direct competition for them.   Our goal is to take market share away from them and also to take some from Facebook as well.  And to create an entirely new market for roving social media.  Allowing users to interact in real time at whichever place they may be.   In  bars and smaller venues then it will be more of a hookup  app but if you use it at a football game or a concert then you can find people who you may never meet in person just to talk to them for the duration of the event.   We have a custom status option that people will see when they are scrolling through users. You could use that feature to set your status to "anyone have a good recipe for blah blah blah" and use the app in the grocery store.

We're going to market it more as a social media platform than pigeon hole it as a hook up app. Although it can be used quite well for that purpose.   Another advantage we see is people are always looking for the latest and greatest thing so we're hoping to be that thing. 

We've patented this app and I invested a sizable chunk of money into it so now we just have to get it going.

I have to get ideas and a game plan ready for when I get laid off this winter.   My hands are kind of ties as far as getting out and doing legwork myself until I get a break from the day job that pays the bills. And unfortunately I am not in a highly populated area. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[husker77c]

And Dawg I just downloaded that book. I'll get on that asap


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dawg25385]

We're going to market it more as a social media platform than pigeon hole it as a hook up app. Although it can be used quite well for that purpose.   Another advantage we see is people are always looking for the latest and greatest thing so we're hoping to be that thing. 

I certainly wasn't suggesting pitching as a hook-up app... quite the opposite actually!  ;)

I have to get ideas and a game plan ready for when I get laid off this winter.

Seriously check out that book... it's a proven methodology for executing a Lean Startup, which is what you're doing. I'm not just blowin smoke at ya

EDIT: didn't see that you ordered the book

[husker77c]

We're going to market it more as a social media platform than pigeon hole it as a hook up app. Although it can be used quite well for that purpose.   Another advantage we see is people are always looking for the latest and greatest thing so we're hoping to be that thing. 

I certainly wasn't suggesting pitching as a hook-up app... quite the opposite actually!  ;)

I have to get ideas and a game plan ready for when I get laid off this winter.

Seriously check out that book... it's a proven methodology for executing a Lean Startup, which is what you're doing. I'm not just blowin smoke at ya

Oh yeah I know. Maybe I worded it wrong. We're not going to market it as a hook up app. More of a new form of social media.  But like you said. We can't control how it's used and if it really takes off I'm sure it will be used in ways we never thought of.   


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk