What sets a good branded social media application a part from a great one are these four main components: Reach, Utility, Contextual Relevance and Engagement. Conde Nast’s latest, “Vanity Fair Hollywood” iPhone application is an excellent example of a social media app that was designed with all those components in mind… resulting in an app that is, indeed, inherently “social”.

Conde Nast partnered up with L’Oreal to create this “awards pool” social gaming tool for their Hollywood flagship magazine, Vanity Fair. But more importantly, they used this opportunity to re-purpose their editorial content into an app that’s not only useful, but newsworthy and therefore, relevant.

According to Vanity Fair, “The app allows you to match wits with your friends, tells you all you need to know about every nominee (yes, even Avatar’s sound mixer extraordinaire Christopher Boyes), and, most importantly, lets you fill out your picks and see how you stack up against the competition, envelope-by-envelope. Thanks to exclusive Vanity Fair content, you’ll be spending Hollywood’s big night bragging digitally about how right you were.”

It’s true that it could have very well been pretty much any brand in the beauty/lifestyle vertical that could have sponsored this very application i.e. “Vanity Fair Hollywood iPhone app presented by [insert name here]” but, kudos to L’Oreal for stepping up and sponsoring this app – you rolled the dice, and it paid off.

It’s no secret that brands like L’Oreal are interested to play in this social media space as an early adopter. But by L’Oreal using Vanity Fair as a media partner to make the introduction for them, not only do they get to leverage off the magazine’s built-in audience, they also get to build brand credibility.

This is a great example of brilliant media partnership. If L’Oreal (or any brand) created this app on their own, it would not have worked. The media partnership with Vanity Fair was their “in” (-or, “invite”, rather) to this influencer group.

The utilitarian component combined with the user-friendly interface makes this iPhone app a great example of how a brand and media partnership can come together to create a social media tool with a purpose, successfully.

COST: Free

NAME: Vanity Fair Hollywood iPhone app

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.

“Given the fact that Scion has always worked with DJs and respected their culture, we wanted to give our audience a useful tool for their craft.” - Jeri Yoshizu, Scion sales promotions manager on the release of “Scion Radio 17 BPM Meter” iPhone and iPod Touch application.

The launch of the free Radio 17 Beats Per Minute (BPM) Meter application is part of Scion’s effort to generation brand engagement through a social gaming.

The app, developed by EpicTilt.com, automatically calculates the BPM of a song as users tap the screen to the song’s rhythm.  After recording the song’s BPM, users can create playlists by genre and send their song lists with corresponding BPM info to themselves and others for use in the planning of live sets and recorded mixes.  The Scion Radio 17 BPM Meter also provides a scrolling news ticker that keeps users up-to-date with the current month’s Scion Radio 17 features, as well as information about the latest Scion Audio Visual (S A/V) releases and events.  

By providing the DJ culture with a utilitarian tool, Scion not only builds brand engagement, but also generates brand awareness, but in a relevant way. 

The application is now available at the Apple App Store.

Despite his recent tantrum for not getting his way from iPhone, Trent Reznor was honored the title of “Webby Artist of the Year”, a Special Achievement Award at the 13^th Annual Webby Awards.

According to the announcement on WebbyAwards.com the judges selected Reznor for “making his music available to fans for free, Trent Reznor embraced the true openness of the Internet, similar to the release of the album Year Zero, which launched with an award-winning alternate reality game. Trent Reznor’s ability to connect with fans far and wide through the Web makes him a qualified ambassador of online culture, and arguably one of the most-recognized artists harnessing the power of the Internet to spread music.”

Among the social media savvy elite to win this year were Sarah Silverman for “Best Actress”, Film & Video Person of the Year: Seth MacFarlane and Webby Person of the Year: Jimmy Fallon.

Since using a lighter indoors is considered a fire hazard, technology has come to our rescue again, this time in the form of a lighter that can be used to show our appreciation for a rocking ballad.

According to the product description, The Virtual Zippo Lighter opens with a flick of your wrist and lights with a turn of your thumb. The windproof flame sways as you move your iPhone or iPod Touch and reacts when you blow it out. Choose from a variety of Zippo Lighter images and customize a handful selected lighters.

With over 3 million downloads,The Virtual Zippo Lighter still averages about 100,000 new downloads per week… probably to use at concerts.  

COST: Free 

NAME: The Virtual Zippo Lighter

COMPATIBLE WITH: iPhone and iPod Touch (Requires iPhone 2.0 software Update)

This one goes out to all the rock reporters out there…

iTalk is an app that allows you to record your interviews directly on your iPhone! That’s right rock reporters, you can now always be ready to interview anyone… any time!

In the pre-iPhone days, as a reporter, you would have to make sure to pack your iPod and additional Griffin microphone (and pre-iPod days, it was the Sony MD and mic). Now thanks to the same people who brought you the microphone iPods (Griffin), all you have to remember to pack is your iPhone.

This is particularly cool for music festivals, on those days where you have to go from interview to interview.

NAME: iTalk Recorder

COST: FREE or $4.99 for iTalk Recorder Premium

Marketing Translation = “NIN GeoTargeting” (but in this case,  instead of ads, the promotion of the “NIN brand”). 

The features on this artist-centric NIN iPhone and iPod app includes the opportunity for fans to have access to exclusive NIN up-to-the-minute content. Die-hard NIN fans can now claim bragging rights on being among the first to check out new NIN photos, music (redirected to YouTube), tour dates, show updates, chats, forums, and even utilize the GPS function that allows them to connect with fellow NIN fans (that’s right people, now you can go trolling for other Reznor fans within a 50 mile radius).

The app neatly aggregates content from NIN.com conveniently into your iPhone in a super slick interface (after all, this is Trent Reznor we’re talking about). NIN are treating their iPhone app as if it’s an extension of their website, and like a 21st century version of a fan club. 

From an objective perspective, the verdict is still out on whether this app serves any real utilitarian purpose like we’ve seen with other music apps (e.g. Shazam, Coachella, Pandora), but we do appreciate Reznor and crew giving it “a good College try” into being early adopters of the social media space. 

And for those NIN Blackberry users out there, don’t despair, the band will be “investigating” Blackberry and Android versions next. 

NAME: nin: access (iPhone/iPod app)

COST: Free