“If we deliver this, it’s an act of futility,” wailed the project manager. “Yes”, I replied instinctively, “but it’s an act of branded futility”.

This brings up the whole motivation for creating mobile apps and other content, and is a regular riff in iPhone seminars and training that I run. Like all brand activity, some is there to provide you with a “Wow”, a “How cool is that?” or simply the reassurance that if a company can afford to splurge millions on this TV creative, then their products must be at least ‘OK’. Then on the other hand there’s the more difficult and involved process of delivering something useful but that has a still tangible brand benefit beyond being a simple service enabler.

In the ‘useful’ category, apps are few in number but can be very high in quality and, erm, usefulness. Take BA’s iPhone app, a remarkably simple execution that gives you flight times and updates. It’s look-and-feel is pretty primitive but it certainly does the job. On a pure sales front, how about Oasis Fashion app – a clean and clear shop front of their latest looks. It does a brilliant job of showcasing the new gear and enticing you to add it to your bag. What a shame that when you come to purchase it routes you through to a non-iPhone rendered web site to purchase…

On the other hand, we have our throw-away apps there to create a 30-second frisson of novelty in the style of the now-textbook iPint. I constantly argue against those who deem these apps a ‘waste of time’. No one bats an eye at spending £2m on some TV creative, it just has to make ‘sense’ creatively.

Cobra’s iBanter has a range of jokes told full-screen by some comedy mouths, the gag being that you hold the iPhone over your face and hey presto, you become a side-splitting comedian. My guess is that this may not be used frequently in the real world.

Getting it more or less right is Reebok’s trainer-customising Your Reebok, which does a neat job of customizing your shoe and enabling purchase, although the sheer weight of the app means inordinate load times and a very hefty app download. Also the app requires completion of payment online – why not do the whole thing on the iPhone?

My favourite though, which goes one better, is Lastminute’s Fone Food app. As well as showing the restaurants in your area, it will also tell you precisely which have special offers on that minute. Not only is it a better food finder than the ubiquitous Urban Spoon, but it embodies that most Lastminute-y of brand values - the up-to-date inside line on what’s going on right now.

Whichever approach you take, I believe there is a further case for apps, which lies in what I call the buttonisation of the mobile. The user, through an effective promotion, a snappy name, or whatever, has been persuaded to take a piece of branded content or entertainment on to their phone. Since my days as a junior mobile creative creating monochrome wallpapers on to Nokia devices pixel by pixel, I've been a great believer in personalising phones, and even now on effective WAP sites like Rimmel's new effort (link, pic) it's still successful. Now though I think that with the added form, function and fun that apps bring, the placement of brands on mobile devices is more powerful and meaningful then ever.

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