The significant success of Angry Birds as well as the growing penetration of smartphones and mobile applications has a growing number of marketers interested in uncovering new ways to tap wireless technology and create their own mobile-first brands.

A mobile-first brand is one that was conceived and designed purely for mobile. The example of Angry Birds shows that, with the right formula, a mobile-first brand can win significant consumer attention and spawn cross-platform opportunities.

?Until now, you didn?t have enough critical mass to make a mobile-first brand truly viable,? said Harry Kargman, CEO of Kargo, New York . ?Now with the uptick in smartphones and the true mass adoption of apps, there are going to be great new media companies that pop up and take advantage of what mobile has to offer.

?We are going to see many more mobile-first brands popping up over the next two years,? he said. ?Companies like foursquare are just the tip of the iceberg.?

The far reaches
Angry Birds, which was launched in 2009 and has had over 500 million downloads, is unique in that it has been able to leverage its significant mobile success in other channels.

There is a significant licensing business for Angry Birds that includes plush toys, T-shirts. There are even rumors of an Angry Birds TV show, movie and amusement park ride.

Last year, when Fox released an animated movie about birds called Rio, there was an Angry Birds tie-in that includes a Rio version of the game.

?It is amazing what Angry Birds has done,? Mr. Kargman said. ?It is such a huge brand.

?The Rio tie-in is one of the biggest crossovers ever for a mobile-first brand,? he said.

Seeing the success of Angry Birds, foursquare, Square and others, more traditional Internet and offline companies are increasingly interested in developing mobile-first brands. For example, AOL has a mobile-first approach with its Editions, Play and Distro brands as does Fandango for its Pulse mobile ticketing app.

There are several reasons why creating a mobile-first brand might make sense, including the reach offered by mobile and the industry?s relatively small playing field.

?Mobile provides a platform with incredible reach, with social and communication components that are unparalleled by other media including the Web,? Mr. Kargman. ?You can launch a global brand overnight.

?The level of competition in mobile has not yet reached the frenzied state of Web as well,? he said. ?There is less competition in terms of building a great product.

?And, there is greater ability to have something spread to many people because it reaching people on a device that is in their pocket every day. People can use it and be obsessed with it even more than for traditional media and Web.?

Leveraging mobile?s uniqueness
Brands are also starting to experiment to see if mobile-first brands can help them attract new audiences.

For example, a value-priced retailer might try to attract more upscale customers that do not typically shop its bricks-and-mortar stores with a mobile-first brand.

?Mobile first is more of an orientation or philosophy versus a technology strategy,? said Erick Mott, vice president of the global community practice at Ektron, Nashua, NH. ?People have sensed the power of mobile and want to be members of teams and members of communities.

?Companies are looking at how to deliver more compelling mobile experiences and rolling it up into more of a customer experience way of delivering value.?

Key to mobile first brands is the ability to take advantage of the unique functionalities and benefits offered by mobile and making them an integral part of brand?s reason for being.

For example, the popular mobile-first game Draw Something asks users to draw something with their finger on the screen and share it with their friends to see if they can figure out what it is.

?This game really cannot work well in a more traditional Web setting,? Kargo?s Mr. Kargman said. ?It is really mobile first because it uses components that are truly mobile.?

?Without that new novel way of interacting with content, it doesn?t really work,? he said.

Companies are finding that sometimes, a mobile-first strategy does not work.

Yahoo has several mobile-first brands such as Livestand, a personalized iPad magazine, and IntoNow, a second-screen experience for TV viewers that provides relevant information about the program a viewer is watching.

However, Yahoo?s MarketDash, which was introduced last year as a financial magazine for iPads, was recently rebranded Yahoo Finance App.

?We tried with a mobile first brand and realized that Yahoo! Finance has such cache in the market and that that should be the route,? said Paul Cushman, senior director of mobile sales strategy at Yahoo, Sunnyvale, CA.

?I think we will develop a mobile first brand when it clear that our analysis shows that is the direction you should go,? he said. ?Yahoo is experimenting in the mobile space, trying to figure out what is the fit and what is the opportunity.

?Mobile is going to bring new users to your brand in new ways.?

A quick pace
The challenges to building a mobile-first brand include how quickly the space is changing.

For example, Research In Motion was one of the earliest mobile-first brands and enjoyed years of loyal customers and strong sales. More recently its fortunes have been dwindling,

This suggests it may be too soon to tell if brands such as Angry Birds and others are flashes in the pan or if they are here to stay.

?Mobile is moving so quickly,? Kargo?s Mr. Kargman said. ?With upgrades and new players, the constant change makes it really difficult to build a brand and maintain it over time.?