Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Why Don’t More Sports Brands Have Apps?

I have a couple of favourite app games on my iPhone at the moment – One of them is a Soccer free kick game and the other a Rugby Union goal kick game.

I find it really odd that these great, and highly addictive games, are not branded. It seems the perfect fit to reinforce the brand connection and/or tribalism that sports fans have. I think if they were branded it would strengthen the emotional connection and even make them more addictive. Plus there is the obvious revenue stream for the clubs or brands.

Here are my favourite app games at the moment and an example of a great fit. Click on the icon or the title to download the game.

App Flick Football Soccer

Flick Football by Neon Play - $1.19

Awesome free kick game with walls set-up and plenty of ability to “bend it like Beckham” My high score is 25126

Perfect for any Soccer team but more importantly a massive missed opportunity with the World Cup just finished. Could be customised to go head-to-head against all 32 teams at the Cup.

App Flick Kick Rugby

Flick Kick Rugby by PikPok $1.19

If penalty goals weren’t enough in the real world then get your fill here. Includes cool rugby quotes. My best sudden death score is 362

Great for Super 14, Guinness Premiership and Heineken Cup clubs. Could even incorporate real scenarios to kick goals from where a player has in the game and include video footage into the story.

App Virtual Horse Racing

Virtual Horse Racing 3D by Nateni.com $2.99

Seriously addictive. Start with a $1000 and bet on 8 horse races with all the trimmings of  tris, quins etc. I am up to $5,919,918,330!!!

Emirates and the Melbourne Cup would be a perfect fit! Could be customised to include current horses but what about Makybe Diva vs Archer vs Phar Lap! Would it be legal/moral for the TAB to sponsor this app?

App Footy Flick AFL

Footy Flick – by E. Potter & E. Lancaster FREE

Fairly basic but a nice touch where you can throw grass up to check the wind. The crowd even throws cans at you sometimes. My best is

Obvious fit would be AFL teams and could be customised so I could be the Buddy Show every night!

App Bobble Surfer  

Bobble Surfer by Lemur Software $0.99

A nice surfing game where you can pull big airs and spins. A little addictive trying to see how many 360s you can pull of one air! 33-23-221
This one would be a nice fit for a surf label such as Billabong, Rip Curl or Quicksilver.

Surely a club or brand could just approach the makers of the app to tweak it to carry club colours, games scenarios, players etc and promote it through their sites?

1 comments:

Nathan Bush said...

Good point. I have wasted so many hours on flick kick football. Looks like there are is plenty of existing 'flick' programming which could easily and cheaply be adapted.

The eels could make a game where you just control one player and depending on how he goes, the whole team wins or loses.