Several months ago I was at a party where a friend mentioned that they were thinking of what to do next with their career. He did pretty well at their previous gigs and was under no major pressure to get a job soon. He told me that despite his experience making software he was looking at green tech companies. Certainly I agree there’s lots of interesting stuff going on there, but he also added that the software industry was getting very mature and he wanted to do something newer with more opportunity for innovation. I was pretty surprised as from my perspective we are barely past the Model T phase when it comes to software. More on this later.

Starting our new business has certainly been exciting, but to be honest, we’ve tried in so many ways to make it less exciting. And, what I really mean is — less risky. This means we’ve taken a pretty conservative route when it comes to our choices about financing, hiring, office space, the products we make, etc. One area that we could wonder about is our choice to focus on making branded online experiences.

Basically, it’s our conclusion that advertisers (especially brand advertisers who have been slower to move their dollars to the internet) are soon going to realize the incredible power of useful and well-designed software to convey a message to an audience in a super cost-effective way. (See our Branded Interactive whitepaper for the much much longer version of our premise.) And to be honest, while we’ve gotten some excellent responses, it has still felt kind of lonely in terms of the area we’re focused on. The folks at Social Signal certainly understand this area of focus as they’ve delivered one of the only really well done Branded Software Experiences that we’ve seen to date – Change Everything. (See our index of the Branded Software we’ve reviewed for the full list.) But even they don’t talk about their work as Branded Software.

Every day we’re finding more and more advertisers, agencies, and industry folks who totally understand the direction things are headed and feel that we’re in just the right spot to dive in. That said, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that we may have arrived on the Branded Software scene just ahead of the crowds. No problem as we’re happy to build our portfolio of experiences to get ready for the wave. :)

That said, yesterday I stumbled upon the gorgeous flash rich site of Teknision. Based in Canada Teknision is an established consulting agency with tons of big clients and a major focus on — you guessed it — Branded Software. From the Branded Applications section of their site:

“The new role of marketing is to influence the experience. Providing a meaningful experience transforms your customer’s perception of your brand.

Branded Applications add a layer of utility to brands that typical online campaigns cannot.

Traditional campaigns focus on entertainment to deliver a message, while Branded Applications provide a valuable service in order to deliver an emotional connection with a brand.

Branded Applications become part of consumer’s lives. By providing useful services that are memorable and entertaining, applications can instill brand attributes that are tangible and more deeply felt.”

Well said! We agree with this 100%. You may be surprised to see us excited about the competition and featuring them on our site. The fact is, that as early as we are in the development of the software industry, we’re positively nascent when it comes to Branded Software. There’s plenty of opportunity for tons of business delivering kickass software that advertisers can integrate with as brand vehicles. For us, seeing that the Teknision folks are so clearly aligned with our view of the world is major validation of the path we’re on.

Much like my friend at the beginning of this post, it can sometimes be hard to judge where a market and an industry is at in terms of maturity. To me, Branded Software, and software in general are areas that are filled with immense opportunity. I’m excited that other companies are reading the tea leaves the same way. And as for my friend, he eventually went to work for a software startup after all.