@Xtel shared a photo from Flipboard. Media money moving into mobile | U.S. Apps: The Newest Brand Graveyard. NEW YORK Standing before an overflow crowd of the crème de la crème of the advertising world in Cannes this summer, Nike global director of digital media Stefan Olander explained how the brand saw its mission as building community through applications. He highlighted a new initiative: the Ballers Network, a robust Facebook application built by digital shop R/GA for basketball players to find games and manage leagues.
On its Web site, Nike promises it will "revolutionize the way players around the world connect online and compete on the court. " Six months later, Nike is confronting a dilemma familiar to many brands that charged headlong onto Facebook: very few people use Ballers Network. Despite its global ambitions and support in three languages, the application has a mere 3,400 users per month. Brands, in general, have found Facebook unforgiving terrain for marketing. Application experts pointed to several other reasons so many top brands have fallen short. Take Ballers Network. Publications - Show Me The Money: Facebook Tests Engagement Ads.
Facebook Adopts New Metric for Widgets. Updated June 10, 2008 12:01 a.m. ET In May 2007, Facebook Inc. invited software developers to create free software programs that members of the social-networking site could use to entertain and inform each other. A year later, it's time to ask: What has worked and what hasn't?
So Far, So Good? What's Happening: Some Facebook applications have attracted enough users and even advertising to become viable businesses. There's plenty to pick from. For some of those developers, the applications have become viable businesses. But many more have tried and failed, unable to gain or keep a following. "Entrepreneurs need to ask themselves, 'What is the problem I'm trying to solve? The top 1% of applications accounted for two-thirds of all application activity in the nine months since Facebook introduced the platform, according to a study of Facebook applications published in March by O'Reilly Media Inc., a technology-focused publishing company in Sebastopol, Calif. Mr. Let Us Entertain You Too Pushy.