It has been a little over two years since we debuted our “At The Booth” TKTS app, thanks to the creative inspiration of people like you (read the backstory here).

We were immediately blessed with a lot of incredible press attention, including a spot on Entertainment Weekly‘s “Must List” (right next to Will Ferrell!  And sales skyrocketed.)

When I called for iPhone app ideas in the first blog I wrote about the subject of theater apps, I promised the people that came up with an idea a piece of the profits if we made the app.  Well, when I saw the sales of our app in the first week I thought I’d be writing checks to them in a month or two (not a bad recoupment rate, don’t you think?).

But all that new capital coming in, as well as the emails I got asking for Blackberry and Droid versions, started tickling my big business funny bone.  And I thought, “Invest back in the business . . . and expand.  Expand.”

So we rushed the Blackberry and Droid versions to market, which was the logical move that I would expect most people would have made.

And, well, while the iPhone versions continued (and continue) to move quickly off the electronic shelves . . . the Bberry and Droid sales pale in comparison (and, to make matters worse, were more complicated and expensive to make – and don’t have the same rich user experience).

It was the logical move, but not the most profitable move, and we’ve yet to write one of those checks to those fellow app inventors because of it.

At a recent internal meeting about the app, we had a post mortem to find out why.

And, because I know several of you are considering entering the mobile marketing space for your arts organization or have an app idea of your own, I thought I’d share with you this important fact.

Arts audiences don’t use Blackberries and Droids.

Ok, that’s an enormous generalization, but our At The Booth case study certainly bears it out, as do these stats from a Hunch.com survey that compared iPhones to Droids.  iPhone users are . . .

• 18% more likely to be women
• 29% more likely to be 35+
• 17% more likely to be politically liberal
• 37% more likely to have a graduate degree
• 67% more likely to have an annual household income of $200k

Here’s another demographic study of all three that points to our audiences being on the iOS platform as well.  And while this one demonstrates that Blackberry users are closer to the iPhone demo than the Droid users (which is also consistent with our case study, as we sell more Bberries than Droid “At The Booth” apps), iPhone still trumps in our key demographic areas, including annual household income and age.

So your takeaway?

If you’re developing mobile platforms for the arts, or planning a mobile marketing campaign, and you are limited by budget (who in the arts isn’t?) then my recommendation based on our experience and on current research is to focus on iPhone users.

Because that’s who our audience is.

Oh, and if you don’t have our app, you can get it here or in your app store.  We’re so close to being able to write those checks to those folks who helped make it happen, and I’d love to do so by the end of the year.  In case you haven’t figured it out – it’s available on all platforms.  🙂

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