There's something uniquely powerful about using your own backyard as a testing ground for new technologies and marketing strategies, as a software development company on the West Coast of Scotland for us that means Glasgow. At Add Jam, we've discovered that creating apps specifically for our home city provides us with the perfect environment to experiment, learn, and refine our approach to mobile app development, app store monetisation and digital marketing techniques.
Rather than launching experimental features into client projects or creating abstract test applications that nobody actually uses, we've built genuine apps that organically serve real needs within the Glasgow community. This approach gives us authentic user feedback, real download metrics, and genuine engagement data that we can then apply to client projects with confidence.
Why Glasgow makes the perfect tech laboratory
As proud Glaswegians we're perhaps a bit biased but we believe Glasgow's unique characteristics make it an ideal test bed for mobile app development and digital marketing experiments. The city has a population of over 600,000 people, making it large enough to generate meaningful data whilst remaining manageable for a local development team to understand deeply. The demographic diversity, from university students to working professionals to tourists, provides varied user personas that help us test different app features and marketing approaches. There is a broad mix of industries and expertise in Glasgow whereas other cities (looking over at you Edinburgh) are maybe more biased towards some specific sectors like tourism.
More importantly, we understand Glasgow intimately. We know the pain points other residents can face, the local quirks that outsiders might miss, and the genuine problems that technology could solve. This local knowledge allows us to create apps that people actually want to use, rather than forcing artificial use cases for the sake of testing.
Glasgow Subcrawl
Our journey into using Glasgow as a tech test bed began with the Glasgow Subcrawl app, available on both iOS and Android, with a companion website at glasgowsubwaycrawl.com.
The concept is simple - help people navigate the famous subway pub crawl that locals and visitors alike enjoy attempting. Glasgow's subway system, affectionately known as the "Clockwork Orange," forms a perfect circle with fifteen stations, each offering nearby pubs for those brave enough to attempt a drink at every stop.
From a technical perspective, the Glasgow Subcrawl app became our playground for testing React Native development approaches, experimenting with offline functionality and understanding how location-based features perform in real-world scenarios. We implemented features like progress tracking, pub recommendations, safety reminders and social sharing capabilities that allowed us to test various mobile app development patterns.
Perhaps more importantly, the app became our laboratory for App store monetisation, understanding App Store optimisation (ASO) and digital marketing in the competitive mobile app landscape. We experimented with different keywords, app descriptions, screenshots and marketing copy to see what resonated with users searching for Glasgow-related apps or entertainment options.
The Apple Search Ads campaigns we ran for Glasgow Subcrawl taught us invaluable lessons about helping apps gain visibility and downloads that we now directly apply to client projects. Having this ability to actually apply practice and learn by doing helps us produce overall better products.
Glasgow Park Walk
Building on the success and learnings from Glasgow Subcrawl, we developed Glasgow Park Walk, available on the App Store and Google Play. This app takes a different approach, focusing on Glasgow's abundant green spaces and encouraging residents and visitors to explore the city's parks through guided walking routes.
The app showcases different parks across Glasgow, from the expansive Pollok Country Park to the central Glasgow Green, providing detailed walking routes, historical information, and points of interest along the way. From a technical development perspective, this project pushed our React Native and TypeScript expertise further. We tested various approaches to content delivery, user onboarding flows, and in-app purchase integration that inform our approach to client projects requiring similar functionality.
This app is also fully internationalised and allowed us to hone an approach to apply i18n in practice on React Native apps.
The marketing experiments we conducted with Glasgow Park Walk focused on different demographics and use cases compared to Glasgow Subcrawl. Where the subcrawl app targets social groups and nightlife enthusiasts, Park Walk appeals to fitness-conscious individuals, families, and tourists interested in Glasgow's cultural heritage - particularly those that might not have English language skills. This diversity allowed us to test different Apple Search Ads audiences, experiment with varied ASO keywords, and understand how different user motivations affect app engagement patterns.
Technical innovations born from local testing
Using Glasgow as our tech test bed has driven numerous technical innovations that we've subsequently applied to client projects. The offline-first architecture we developed for both apps, ensuring users can access essential features even with poor mobile signal in certain parts of the city, has proven invaluable for clients building apps for users in areas with unreliable connectivity.
Not least the art of actually shipping is important. Going through the process of setting up CI, certificates, keystores etc etc It's a muscle we like to work out by shipping and updating apps frequently.
Making products visible
Beyond the technical learnings, our Glasgow-focused apps have taught us practical lessons about local SEO and digital marketing that again benefit all our other projects (client and internal). By optimising the Glasgow Subcrawl website we've organically grown a website from 0 to over 3,000 organic clicks per month from Google alone.
Our experiments continued with paid advertising specifically looking at Apple Search Ads campaigns where we've experimented with seasonal fluctuations in Glasgow-related searches, the impact of local events on app download patterns, and the most effective creative strategies for converting Scottish mobile users. We learned that photography featuring recognisable Glasgow landmarks performs better than generic app interface shots and tweaking our languages (using our local knowledge) in app descriptions increases conversion rates.
Taking learnings forward into other projects
The learnings from our Glasgow tech experiments scale beautifully to client projects across various industries. The location-based features we refined through our local apps have informed development work for tourism clients and logistics apps needing precise GPS integration and offline functionality.
Our Apple Search Ads expertise, honed through campaigns for Glasgow-specific keywords, translates directly to client app marketing campaigns. We understand how to structure campaigns, select appropriate keywords, create compelling ad creatives, and optimise for conversion rather than just downloads. The ASO techniques we've tested with our Glasgow apps provide proven strategies for improving client app store rankings and download rates.
The technical architecture patterns we've developed, particularly around offline functionality and performance optimisation, provide battle-tested solutions for client projects with similar requirements. Rather than experimenting with new approaches on client time, we can implement proven solutions that we know work in real-world conditions.
The competitive advantage of local testing
The best people to make apps focused on Glasgow are Glaswegians... so it may as well be us. But these apps are more than frivolous pursuits. We're not only actively learning and improving our capabilities, but the apps also serve as living demonstrations of our React Native development expertise, our understanding of app store ecosystems, and our ability to create, ship, and scale engaging user experiences.
The mobile app projects also showcase our full-stack capabilities, from backend API development to frontend mobile interfaces to web development and digital marketing integration. By developing these apps, we're able to refine our skills in areas such as user onboarding, in-app purchase integration, and content delivery, which directly benefit our client projects. Additionally, these apps allow us to experiment with different monetization strategies, app store optimization techniques, and digital marketing approaches, all of which inform our work on client projects.
Moreover, our ongoing maintenance and feature development for these apps keeps our development team sharp and up-to-date with the latest mobile app development trends, platform updates, and user experience best practices. This continuous learning directly benefits our client projects.
Future Experiments and Glasgow Tech Innovation
Our success with Glasgow Subcrawl and Glasgow Park Walk has inspired plans for additional local apps that will allow us to test emerging technologies and development approaches. We're considering applications that could leverage augmented reality features to enhance Glasgow tourism experiences, voice interfaces for accessibility improvements, and machine learning capabilities for personalised recommendations.
Each new Glasgow focused project provides opportunities to experiment with latest development frameworks, test new user interface patterns and explore emerging digital marketing channels. The city's ongoing development, from the regeneration of former industrial areas to new cultural attractions, provides a constantly evolving landscape for product development opportunities.
We're particularly interested in exploring how Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) built with NextJS and TypeScript can provide app like experiences while maintaining the discoverability advantages of web applications. Glasgow's diverse population, from tech savvy university students to older residents who might prefer web-based solutions, provides an ideal testing ground for these technologies.
Contributing to Glasgow's Tech Reputation
By creating high quality mobile applications focused on Glasgow, we're contributing to the city's growing reputation as a significant tech hub in the UK. While our apps showcase what's possible when local development talent focuses on solving genuine community problems our interest in Glasgow tech also extends beyond making mobile apps about the city. We're active participants in the Glasgow Tech Ecosystem and organise/run the monthly RookieOven Meetup for startups in the city.
Lessons for founders
Our approach of using our home city as a tech test bed offers valuable lessons for other software development companies looking to improve their offerings and understand their markets better. The key is identifying genuine problems that technology can solve, rather than forcing artificial use cases for the sake of experimentation.
There's nothing wrong with thinking local. Using your locality to your advantage, build on that then build and scale up. Don't start big then spin your wheels looking for customers.
Building applications for your local community provides authentic user feedback, real usage data, and genuine market validation that informs all your subsequent development work. The marketing experiments you can conduct with local apps provide insights into user acquisition, engagement and retention that translate directly to client projects.
Perhaps most importantly, having your own portfolio of live applications demonstrates your capabilities to potential clients more effectively than any case study or technical specification could achieve. You can just point them to the App Stores and it shows that you don't just build software for others; you build and maintain your own digital products with the same care and attention you'd apply to client work.
Inspired?
Whether you're a startup looking to build your first mobile app, an established business considering a React Native development project, or a fellow Glasgow tech company interested in collaborating on local innovations let's chat. You can book a call with myself at a time that suits you best.
Or alternatively drop us a message from the contact form.
