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Pop Secret turns to animated mobile app to decrease burnt popcorn occurrences

Pop Secret has rolled out a mobile application that listens to a user?s popcorn popping and alerts them when it is time to take it out.

The company worked with Deutsch to design the mobile app, as well as a Web site, http://www.popsecretlabs.com. Since its soft launch, the company has seen more than 80,000 downloads.

?We noticed that there were lots of comments on social media outlets about people burning popcorn,? said Trevor O'Brien, executive vice president and executive creative technology director at Deutsch LA.
?One of our main strategic pillars is to associate the movie watching experience at home with Pop Secret,? he said. ?We can do this either by helping people make it a more fun, easier or more engaging experience. 

?This app hopefully makes the art of making popcorn a bit more fun and reliable experience for consumers.? 

Animated app
Pop Secret turned to Deutsch to design PopSecretLabs.com, which features apps and tools such as Find Your Critic.

The apps and tools are designed to make popcorn eating and movie watching more fun.

Via the Perfect Pop app, users are alerted when it is time to take their popcorn out of the microwave ? basically the app listens for the perfect pop.

Currently, the mobile app is only available on iPhone and iPod touch devices.

Consumers can download it for free within Apple?s App Store.

According to Pop Secret, burnt popcorn is the No. 1 consumer complaint that the popcorn industry currently faces.

Every week, more than 400 people tweet messages about burning their popcorn. Pop Secret believes that the new mobile app helps solve that problem.

?The app provides users with real utility,? Mr. O?Brien said. ?By listening to the sequence of pops it can identify when is the correct time to remove your popcorn from the microwave. 

?It's also available for free everyone, not just Pop Secret consumers,? he said. ?We want to help to fix something that is a problem for lots of people. 

?This is version one and we are hoping to gain user feedback, improve and push out an even more engaging version across additional platforms.?

Building engagement
When consumers open the Perfect Pop mobile app, an animated kernel listens to the pops, lets users know the precise moment when their popcorn is ready instead of relying on microwave presets.

According to the company, engineers developed Perfect Pop by analyzing the sounds of popping corn in dozens of microwave models, and by testing more than 500 bags of popcorn.

?We are seeing trends now where mobile is fast becoming the most important device for users,? Mr. O?Brien said. ?Some people are running entire business via their phones. 

?Recent studies show mobile, for a new segment of consumers, is the only device they have or need,? he said. ?In emerging nations mobile Internet traffic has already surpassed desktop, a trend we are quickly going to realize here. 

?On top of that tablet adoption is growing at a faster pace than smart phones.  In terms of marketing mobile is the one device that can really connect the digital world to the physical world and give us that connective tissue we've been missing.  Let?s bear in mind though, for brands to insert themselves into consumers mobile devices will require great craft, either through the form of utility or entertainment, or both.?

Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York