Patricia Brusha, who we had the pleasure at meeting in Montreal in January at the Online Revealed conference, asks “Could Apps Be The New Search“:

If you are researching a trip to Italy, or want to learn about wines in the region or even just keep track of calories and new recipes while you’re away,”there’s an App for that.” It is important to acknowledge that phrase has now become common vernacular among iphone users just as “Google It” has to the entire population. With a current user base of 1.5 million iphone users and 1.2 Million Ipod Touch users in Canada alone [don't forget the iPod Touch - not all app developers really support this and it's almost half your market -- dpj] (Mobile Fringe), 2010 just may be your “app-ortunity” to launch a mobile marketing strategy.

Why now [to integrate mobile into this year’s marketing budget for Travel, Tourism and Hospitality professionals]? According to Sorge you cannot ignore the facts. “Mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access devices worldwide by 2013”, states Sorge, “In addition Mobile marketing will grow to $19 billion by 2012 from $1.6 billion in 2008.” Add to that better data plans being offered by cellular providers making web access from you mobile affordable and the solid distribution Apple has created with the App Store following in the itunes successful footsteps. iPhone and iTouch have over 60 million users that consume over 200 million apps per month – and now there is the iPad recently launched which is the happy medium between the two.

[...] Now is the time to jump in when costs are affordable and before the market gets cluttered with too much noise. In saying that, the same principles apply to every other marketing strategy – ensure first that your marketing budget is allocated to where your customers are RIGHT NOW – don’t go building an app for your ski destination if the website can’t be found when your customers are looking to book, or if your website is not even transacting business already.

[...] The cost? You can get an app created for as little as $5000 [even a good one -- dpj] depending on who is developing your app, and what you want to do. Don’t look at mobile in isolation, it should be integrated to your overall marketing strategy and be consistent in messaging with your website, search, email newsletters, blogs and social media initiatives.

Our take: apps aren’t the new search, they’re the new domain name. If you remember way back when to the 1990′s:

• the good domain names get taken early (try and get a short, meaningful domain name now)
• it’s much easier to be a winner if you’re in early, rather than be in late (Yahoo)
• great technology still matters (Google)

If you’d like to find out more about A Couple Of Chicks e-Marketing, there’s a profile on YongeStreet magazine: Hatching an Idea. If you’d like to find out more about moving your Travel, Tourism, CVB/DMO site onto mobile, well, contact us!