Marketers know that consumers love mobile applications, but realize it can be a significant undertaking to develop an app that is not simply another me-too offering. Which is where hackathons can help.

Nestle Purina, Campbell?s and 7-Eleven are just a few of the major brands that have recently invited developers and/or customers to offer their ideas on how to improve the mobile experience. While this strategy can help brands generate creative ideas and tap into consumer interest in apps, it also holds some challenges for marketers.

?Hackathons are a great opportunity for brands to quickly generate new ideas, and even prototype code for their products,? said Cal Evans, developer community relations director at Kony Solutions, Orlando, FL.

?Using traditional agencies or development shops won't always generate the most interesting concepts,? he said.

?Additionally, brands can be perceived as hip or trendy by jumping on the hackathon bandwagon, which can improve the brand?s image.?

Utility is key
While consumers love apps, the growing number of available apps makes it increasingly difficult for any individual app to stand out. Both Android and iOS are approaching one million apps available on their platforms.

As a result of this competition, many apps are overlooked by consumers. Or, users download an app once and never use it again.

One of the keys to a successful app is creating a service that takes advantage of what mobile has to offer to bring users some utility that enhances their life somehow.

A good example of a brand app with strong utility is REI?s Snow Report app, which provides users with the snowfall totals for nearby ski resorts. For skiers, the app offers a quick and easy way to find out information they are interested in as well as drive brand awareness and affinity.

But, now that REI has created this app, users do not need ten other snow tracker apps. As a result, competing brands are under pressure to come up with a novel idea for an app if they want to gain some recognition from mobile users.

Uncovering new ideas
Reaching out to the development community and/or consumers can help brands generate ideas they may not have thought of themselves. In exchange, a cash prize, contract or some other incentive is sometimes offered.

In other examples marketers are inviting users to help them build out an app. For example, 7-Eleven recently launched the Idea Hub on its new mobile app where users can suggest and vote on new services for the app.

"Hackathons are great, not necessarily because the silver bullet for the brand will be found, but because at bigger brands are often the ones that have trouble accepting innovation within the company becuase those inside are by the culture bound or limited by what they know about the company," Scott Michaels, a partner at Atimi Software, Vancouver, Canada. 

The right incentive
However, the strategy does present some challenges, such as the need for an intellectual property agreement if marketers plan to use the ideas and code generated from a hackathon.

There should be a clear, carefully written definition covering the ownership of the code in order to protect the brand, which can be tricky because developers need to be incentivized to participate.

Brands also need to pay attention to elements such as third party libraries being incorporated into the projects.

Other challenges include that the results may not be right for the brand or, when the ideas are good, taking them up the chain and acting on them can be a challenge.

?Take too little ownership and you are exposed, but try to take too much and developers will balk and not participate,? Mr. Evans said.

Ultimately, the success of a hackathon comes down to a brand?s ability to encourage developers to participate without it seeming like the brands is looking for developers to work without pay. This can lead to a backlash, which some brands have experienced as hackathons have become more popular.

Making the project interesting is one way to motivate developers to participate.

?In recent months though, there has been some backlash about working for a brand for free,? Mr. Evans said.

?Hackathons that are most successful provide freeform, which means they allow developers to keep the code they wrote, or ?hack for good? events where developers come together to hack for a charity,? he said.

?Brands will have poor participation in their hackathons if there is no benefit to the developers, and they may even encounter some public backlash.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York