Entropy Digital & Publicis Achieve Top App Accolades With iHobo Mobile App

May 15th, 2010

Over the past several months Entropy Digital is proud to have worked with Publicis Advertising in London in the strategic launch planning of a new kind of mobile charity appeal, Depaul UK’s iHobo iPhone App.

Rapidly achieving the coveted Number One Most Downloaded App distinction in the Apple App Store shortly after release, the app encourages the typical iPhone/iPod Touch user to “carry a homeless man” around in their pocket – a bit of a novelty to be sure, but one designed for a very real cause.

While the overall functionality is fairly straightforward; the creative use of Apple’s Push Notifications make the app really stand out. In order to illustrate the ongoing challenges of homelessness, over the course of 3 consecutive days, the app alerts users to the condition of their ‘adopted’ person, allowing them to donate food, money, or even a blanket. In practice, it’s actually quite tricky keeping your adoptee healthy and away from drugs – integrating a crucial ‘gaming’ aspect to the app.

While some may cry foul with a gaming concept of treating a real person like a sort of Tamagotchi character – with the increased challenges charities face in appealing for donations, the concept of iHobo should prove an inspiring example of using the best in emerging technology to inform and educate the more ‘consumer-minded’ users of shiny toys like iPhones and iPads.

In other words, this game has a true social purpose  - a rare thing in a modern app world of Plants v. Zombies and Farmville. Bravo to Depaul UK and Publicis for leading the way.