Mobile Marketing Magazine sits down with Lyca Group’s CEO Richard Schäfer to discuss the network operator’s strategic digital strategy, the challenges of navigating data privacy and the company’s vigilance in monitoring emerging trends.

On unlocking loyalty via digital tools

Lyca Mobile launched in 2006 and has garnered over 16 million customers in 22 countries thanks to its ethos of combining the power of connectivity and affordability.

However, the heart of Lyca Mobile’s success lies in enhancing digital tools to unlock customer engagement and foster brand loyalty.

According to Schäfer, who joined the company in 2021, digital segmentation based on user patterns allows the company to trigger personalised offers and catering to various customer segments, which he believes will be more beneficial for its different customers such as students and migrant communities.

“We experiment and leverage offers tied to significant cultural holidays such as Diwali, Lunar New Year and Christmas,” he tells Mobile Marketing Magazine.

“These highly customised, digitally-led campaigns have resulted in an increase in usage on our platform as well as enhanced customer retention by 6%.

“In our focus on value and fairness as our key pillars, we’re successfully positioning ourselves as a consumer champion, targeting a growing segment of customers seeking better value for money in the SIM-only market.”

On offering an improved omnichannel experience

Lyca Mobile’s pursuit of an improved omnichannel customer experience is evident in its cross-channel marketing approach.

Its approach is a mix of high street presence and strategic digital embrace, which Schäfer emphasises the importance of.

He says: “Our increased focus on digital channels, alongside our traditional high street store strategy, contributes to a cohesive and integrated customer journey.”

“Not only are we ensuring a consistent brand experience across our channels, but we are also localising our products and messaging to engage with multiple communities within each of the markets we operate in.”

As a result, Schäfer claims many customers discover and engage with the brand via its digital platforms.

Highlighted by recent out-of-home campaigns and summer promotions, the integration of traditional and digital channels maximises impact and reach, he adds.

Subscribe to Mobile Marketing Magazine

Click here to get the latest marketing news free in your inbox every Thursday

On the ‘crucial’ role of personalisation and data-driven decisions

“Personalisation is crucial to what we see as the next evolution of our mobile business,” the former Lebara and Vodafone exec continues.

“Our digital marketing tools and implementing an improved omnichannel approach. The use of real-time proposition fulfilment ensures that customers receive personalised offers aligned with their individual preferences and behaviours.”

He states that Lyca Mobile’s segmentation strategy, guided by data insights, allows for targeted and relevant campaigns, enhancing the overall personalisation of the customer experience.

According to Schäfer, data plays a pivotal role in shaping Lyca Mobile’s decisions, whether that is marketing strategies or product offerings.

As a result, he stresses the importance of analysing both internal and external data points to guide decisions tailored to diverse customer segments worldwide.

He states: “In our marketing world, data guides how we engage with our consumers and what products and plans we offer to them. We operate around the world and our segments look wildly different in Sweden compared to Spain for example, so a one-size-fits-all approach to how we market is not realistic.”

“This translates to a difference in channel mix, messaging, offers and media choices according to the market.”

However, in terms of how Lyca Mobile ensures it is respectful and compliant with its customer’s data, it adheres to “robust internal policies that guide responsible data use as well as adherence to strict data governance policies”, he claims.

However, as the group trades in over 22 countries, Schäfer branded data privacy across the Lyca Mobile countries of operation as “challenging”, revealing it deals with five different sets of regulations.

As a result, the company invested in a dedicated Lyca Mobile Data Protection Office that works hand in hand with the business to ensure that relevant marketing programmes, as well as data processing activities, are in-line with local laws.

He adds: “Having committed resources that are focused on ensuring that the high standards instilled within GDPR are our reference point.

“We can give marketers the autonomy to roll out initiatives like personalised offers of more beneficial roaming packages as well as bespoke content that demonstrate an understanding of a customer’s interests and needs.”

He states: “Utilising a combination of legitimate interest, customer consent and an analytical approach, we’re executing a customer-centric marketing approach while at the same time respecting user privacy.”

On staying at the forefront of innovation

“We keep a close pulse on emerging industry trends to stay agile, regularly collaborate with our technology partners, and importantly, we foster a culture of innovation amongst all team members at Lyca Mobile,” Schäfer adds.

“Some key things we are doing to stay ahead of the curve is to implement best-in-class attribution software to guide and optimise our digital marketing as well as to integrate our online and offline touchpoint.”

He concludes with revealing these initiatives simplify and allow the group to track user journeys, which in turn increases how it offers personalised communications to its users based on how they are engaging with the brands. 

The post Interview: Lyca Mobile CEO Richard Schäfer on data-driven decision making and driving brand loyalty appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Mobile Marketing Magazine sits down with Vodafone UK’s Brand and Marketing Director, Maria Koutsoudakis, to discuss sustainability, key brand messaging and mobile marketing being a “strategic priority” for the brand.

Positioning Vodafone as the trusted digital partner

Navigating the competitive telecoms market requires a strategic vision, according to Koutsoudakis who has been with Vodafone UK since 2018 joining from retail giant Marks & Spencer (M&S), where she held a series of senior positions including Head of Brand and Marketing and Head of Customer Experience.

As a result, the company aims to be the “trusted digital partner for UK families” and positions itself as a technology communications hub, connecting customers, businesses, and devices to unlock the benefits of digital innovation.

“We try to highlight that we offer customers a reliable award-winning network, and more recently that we were also awarded London’s Best Network,” she says.

Subscribe to Mobile Marketing Magazine

Click here to get the latest marketing news free in your inbox every Thursday

Prioritising mobile marketing

Given that mobile customers form Vodafone’s most substantial user base, mobile marketing takes the spotlight in the company’s brand strategy, Koutsoudakis admits.

As a result, it ensures an “incredible network and fantastic customer experience”, she claims.

The shift to digital platforms is also embraced, with a focus on BVOD, YouTube, social display, and PPC representing the majority of Vodafone’s media budget.

Koutsoudakis adds: “We continue to ensure all our communication is targeted to where the customer is and fit for the platform in execution.”

Embracing sustainability and social responsibility

According to the brand and marketing boss, the telecom giant places a strong emphasis on sustainability and social responsibility.

Using its everyone.connected programme as an example, it aims to bridge the digital divide between those who have access to digital technology, and the 1.7 million households who do not.

As a result, Vodafone has committed to assisting four million people and businesses to cross the digital divide by the end of 2025. However, this is not the only factor Vodafone is committed to.

“Sustainability is also at the heart of what we do,” she states.

As of 1 July 2021, 100% of the grid electricity Vodafone uses in the UK is certified to be from renewable sources.

“Through our Great British Tech Appeal, we also work with our charity partner Barnardo’s to clean up, re-box and give donated tech to someone in need, along with six months of free data, calls, and texts,” she says.

The role of the Vodafone app

Koutsoudakis states the Vodafone app has become a priority experience as she reveals ecommerce is now Vodafone’s biggest store.

“We feel it’s important we offer the best possible experience for customers via our app,” she says.

As a result, all-encompassing features allow users to manage accounts, view bills, make purchases, engage with customer service, and enjoy perks via VeryMe.

Adapting to emerging trends

As the telecom industry surges forward, the mobile service provider predicts two key emerging trends in the mobile marketing industry in time for the New Year.

As a result, Vodafone positions itself to leverage trends effectively, which include continued fragmentation of media formats within different media, as well as a big shift towards creator or native creative within social platforms.

The post Interview: Vodafone UK Brand & Marketing Director on ‘strategic’ brand positioning, sustainability and social responsibility appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

We round up some of our most-read stories on Mobile Marketing Magazine from 2023 so you can take a look back at some of the biggest news stories from the past year and head into 2024 fully up to speed.

Twitter presses ahead with X rebrand

In July this year, the billionaire owner of Twitter announced that the social media giant would cease to exist in name and that X would be the new “everything” app.

At the time, CEO Linda Yaccarino posted: It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.

“X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.”

Read the full story here.

EE boss insists customers are ‘not sentimental’ about losing the BT name

Indeed launches Job Jukebox on Spotify

Read the full story here.

TikTok launches Creativity Program Beta

Snap and Vogue launch Vogue x Snapchat: Redefining the Body AR exhibition

Talking personalisation with Burger King

Spotify’s Chief Financial Officer, Paul Vogel, has announced he will be leaving the streaming platform in March next year, days after the company announced it was laying off almost a fifth of its workforce to cut costs.

In a letter, Founder and CEO Daniel Ek said: “Economic growth has slowed dramatically and capital has become more expensive. Spotify is not an exception to these realities.

“To be blunt, many smart, talented and hard-working people will be departing us.”

Read the full story.

Subscribe to Mobile Marketing Magazine

Click here to get the latest marketing news free in your inbox every Thursday

The post Year in review: Mobile Marketing Magazine’s top stories of 2023 appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

In September, Madeleine Dodd, Digital Growth Manager at Burger King, walked David Murphy through a recent campaign that saw great engagement by giving customers a good reason to share the date of their birthday.

DM: So Madeleine, with this campaign, you were trying to encourage your customers to share the date of their birthday with you, and in return, giving them a free Whopper or plant-based Whopper. It got off to a slow start, but things picked up when you tweaked it, and I’m looking at the numbers for the campaign here, a 55 per cent open rate, 22 per cent click-to-open rate and 10 per cent clickthrough rate, that generated an 800 per cent increase in the number of people sharing the date of their birthday with you compared to the pre-campaign period. This sounds like email, was it all email or were any other channels used?

MD: It did involve email, but also push and in-app messaging as well. With [customer engagement platform] Braze, we tend to use these three main channels, it gives us an opportunity to leverage all of them.

DM: So the percentages are impressive, but are there are figures you can share in terms of the number of orders or revenues generated?

MD: I cant say anything about orders and revenue specifically, but what I can tell you is that 60 per cent of those who engaged with the campaign and provide their birthday data then went on have a look at our menu. So while that obviously wasnt the direct aim of the campaign, it was great to see that customers did go and have a look around and go on to order.

DM: Okay, and then with each of the channels, could you walk me through the process, so I’m a Burger King customer, but you know nothing about me. You havent got my age or anything like that. What was the process for collecting the data?

MD: With this particular campaign, it was born out of the fact that we had set live this birthday journey where we offered customers a free Whopper on their birthday, and we noticed that not many of our free Whoppers were being given out on people’s birthdays, which was a real shame. And there were a lot of customers that we didn’t have any data on who were missing out on this opportunity. In fact, digging into the data, I noticed that there were way over half of our customers who hadnt given us their date of birth, and thats also because we dont require it at sign up like a lot of other brands do. So it was then that I kind of scratched my head and thought, well, how can we ask for this data without doing it in a way which is, you know, very direct, and makes customers feel like theyre not really getting anything in exchange for providing that information.

And thats where this campaign came from. It was quick, we saw the issue, we wanted to solve it quickly, and obviously, not only did it give us the great conversion rate that we saw of that 800 per cent increase in the number of people self-reporting their birthday, but we also had great engagement rates and it created a lot of noise on our social media channels as well, which was great to see.

DM: So you talked about sign up. So was it a case that somebody would walk into a Burger King restaurant and see a sign saying, if its your birthday, we’ll give you a free Whopper or plant based Whopper, sign up online. And was that roughly what happened?

MD: No, we’re not advertising the Birthday Whopper in restaurant. Its very app-based, very mobile-based and web-based. This was exclusively a digital campaign, which ran on email, in-app and push and thats where customers were then educated about that birthday offer. There was also stuff about it on our website. But again, it wasn’t particularly clear from a customers perspective that thats what they were going to get. They didnt even know that they could get this gift, so it was a great opportunity to educate them on that.

DM: Okay, and you say you noticed people werent taking the offer up. Was it a question of, the campaign running for X number of weeks before you had that insight and then changed it? How long did it take to realise that you needed to tweak it?

MD: We normally allow a good couple of weeks of analysis post-launch to really understand if a campaign is performing as expected, obviously, there can be, you know, some random surges on other days, so we just really wanted to get a good overview of how it was performing. I think before wed really looked into the data, I was just expecting a lot of these webhooks from Braze to be firing out with the birthday Whoppers and it just wasnt the case. So then its a case of saying, it’s a shame people arent getting it, what can we do? Lets go and ask people to update their birthday in a fun way, and then we saw the results of this and then immediately that that uptake of webhooks going out was much higher every day.

DM: And was there any element of social sharing to this? “I just got a free Whopper, tell Burger King when its your birthday and you can get yours” sort of thing.

MD: Exactly. We had a paid social post which ran around the same time, so that definitely would have driven some incremental results as well.

DM: So the data for the campaign came from within the app and emails. Looking at the app, do your customers have to create an account and sign in to use it?

MD: That’s right. Once you sign up, youre part of the loyalty programme and then you’re obviously exposed to all of our offers and rewards that you can get.

DM: And in terms of the data, if I sign up for the Burger King app today, what will they ask me for on that first open because I know Braze pretty well and I know theyre very hot on not asking for too much personal data for the first time someone opens the app after downloading it.

MD: Yeah, ours is very, very straightforward for that exact reason. I think, when a customer’s coming into the app for the first time, from a customer perspective, theres nothing worse than being asked a million and one questions, and again, it comes back to that value exchange piece. Its like, okay, why am I giving you all of this data? What is the brand going to be using it for. We want to be very transparent about the way that were using the data and its just to make the experience more personalised. So when youre signing up, its just your email, and you have a couple of optional fields. And then thats really just your first name and second name for validation purposes, and then youre in into the app. And then once youre going through your customer lifecycle as a new user, youre going through the onboarding process, we like to use in-app surveys, delivered through Braze, to start gathering customer preferences. What they like to see, what they dont like to see, what offers they enjoy, what their taste preferences are. And again, its not in a direct way. It appears when theyre in the app, but they have the option to click off it, they dont need to fill it in. But doing that, and a lot of customers do, helps us to understand more about them, it enriches that profiles and it means we can ultimately deliver a more tailored experience.

DM: And is the app a fairly transactional sort of thing? Am I only likely to pick up my phone and fire up the Burger King app when I want to order a burger? Is there any content around food, or other stuff, lifestyle content?

MD: Its a very value driven app, thats its goal. Of course there is content within the app. You can browse the menu. We have nice marketing cards in there, highlighting different offers, but it is extremely value-driven, that’s its main purpose.

DM: So this is one very successful campaign. Is there anything else in the pipeline? Birthdays are one thing, but I guess you could talk about anniversaries and other special days. Do you have any future plans for beyond birthdays now that you’ve seen how well this has worked?

MD: Yes definitely, as you said, I think an anniversary piece would work really well, or maybe we do it as a loyalty anniversary. But I really like what Spotify does with Spotify Wraps, because we have such a rich database now, and it’s definitely something we can leverage using Braze’s dynamic personalization features to deliver something to customers, which is interesting and tailored to them.  So thats definitely one we plan to look into. And I think another really important one for us is tailoring offers. I think its such a polluted environment now, there’s a lot of value messaging out there from brands and from our competitors. And were gathering all this data, the birthday campaign was a great example of that. In-app surveys are another one. And then its how are we going to use that to make the experience for the customer as personal as possible. Maybe Im someone that only redeems a Chicken Royale offer on a Thursday at 5pm, so Im not interested in seeing your Whopper Wednesdays or your Meat-free Mondays. So for us its about really working on our strategy to recognise those individual customer needs and differences and delivering those really hyper-personalised offers and messaging around that.

DM: And just going back to the app, how do people use it? Is it like in a physical restaurant to jump the queue? Or do you have a tie in with JustEat or Deliveroo for home deliveries. When someone places an order in the app, where do they tend to be?

MD: We have many different service options. So we have, obviously, customers that are in restaurant that have the app, and they can use it on our kiosks or they can go to one of the crew members and get their code at the front counter to redeem the offers that they wish to use. We also have click-and-collect, so thats obviously ordering directly through the app and then going into a restaurant to get it, both of which are very, very popular and obviously our customers enjoy that kind of seamless experience. We also do offer white label delivery, so thats our own delivery service provided by Deliveroo. So that means that people can access delivery-only offers from home which arent necessarily available through our aggregators, Deliveroo, JustEat and UberEats. So there are loads of different types of service modes to cater for all different customer needs.

The post Best of 2023: Talking personalisation with Burger King appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Reddit’s VP of International Growth, Durgesh Kaushik, sits down with Mobile Marketing Magazine to discuss the innovative strategies being implemented by the social media platform to scale growth in core regions, enhance accessibility and revolutionise internationalisation.

Kaushik joined the social media forum in December last year, being appointed Vice President of Growth of APAC and Emerging Markets before his promotion earlier this year.

Now as the VP of International, Kaushik is spearheading a comprehensive internationalisation strategy, focusing on responsible scaling and growth across all of Reddit’s core regions.

“My work is focused on creating a truly local and culturally relevant experience for people, no matter where they live,” Kaushik says.

“The more we can deliver this to audiences worldwide, the more benefit we will ultimately bring to local advertisers in these markets.”

On expanding into new markets

Over the past three years, Reddit’s international footprint has “grown steadily”, according to the former Snap Managing Director.

As a result, the company has entered markets including the UK, Canada, Australia and non-English speaking countries like Germany and France.

In all of these instances, Reddit was already, and completely organically, a thriving destination for local users, he claims.

However, before launching into a new market, there are several factors that need to be considered.

“We always look at where people are actively engaged on our platform and how we can continue to add value to their Reddit experience through teams on the ground, who bring invaluable local context and nuance, and ultimately allow us to scale the experience for users and advertisers alike,” Kaushik adds.

On becoming more accessible and culturally relevant

Kaushik’s broader internationalisation strategy at Reddit is centred around accessibility, localisation, cultural relevance and a true sense of “community and belonging”.

Part of this strategy includes connecting with local moderators, to ensure they have what they need to cultivate and grow their communities, which is something Reddit has been doing across multiple countries in the past year.

Another part of this is understanding where and how its local audience is spending their time on Reddit, and serving up experiences that enhance this activity.

For example, to celebrate the Cricket World Cup in November, the platform localised Reddit avatars and custom accessories for the participating countries, turning Reddit into an unofficial second screen for fans.

On future plans

Kaushik hints at ongoing innovations and technologies that will impact the internationalisation of mobile marketing, stressing that internationalisation efforts are inherent in everything Reddit builds.

As a result, he reveals the platform is focused on making Reddit more “accessible” and welcoming to a diverse set of users globally.

“We [Reddit] are trialling and testing products in international markets that will eventually be rolled out across the platform

“We are focused on making Reddit easier to use and more welcoming to a more diverse set of users around the world.

He concludes: “You will continue to see the product and design improvements that will simplify and streamline how people discover, join and contribute to communities, and bring new ways to engage in conversations and content – which is especially important to our growing international user base.”

The post Interview: Reddit’s VP of International Growth on becoming more ‘accessible and culturally relevant’ appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Mobile Marketing Magazine sits down with Ben Gallagher, Co-Founder and Head of Social Media of luxury resale platform Luxe Collective to discuss the brand’s journey, innovative but “attention-seeking” marketing strategies and embracing controversy.

Strategically choosing platforms

Currently, Luxe Collective has 488k Instagram followers and 1.5M on TikTok, an impressive feat considering the brand’s origin on the Meta-owned platform.

Emphasising the pivotal role of social media, he highlights its affordability and its crucial function in attracting attention to its products.

“Instagram is used for conversations and engagement and TikTok is used more for brand reach and growth,” he says.

However, Gallagher admits the company’s dynamic approach aligns with the specific goals each platform serves in its overall strategy.

Subscribe to Mobile Marketing Magazine

Click here to get the latest marketing news free in your inbox every Thursday

Disruptive marketing post-social media

The luxury platforms’ disruptive marketing isn’t defined to the digital realm, Gallagher reveals.

This comes as, the team recently launched an unconventional marketing campaign involving a fake Anna Wintour, where the “Editor-In-Chief” of Vogue was spotted walking around Manchester in time of Chanel’s hotly anticipated Metiers d’Art show, emphasising the brand’s shift toward low-cost, high-impact campaigns.

“Dressing someone up as the fake Anna Wintour and walking around Manchester is very cheap to do and has a high impact,” he says.

However, Gallagher admits he didn’t reach the targets he set out for the campaign, as grocery giant Aldi, had a similar idea, instead, dressing a fake Kate Moss to promote its offering during the Chanel show.

He states: “If Aldi had the same campaign as us and they were the first mover on it, they’re always going to come out on top unless we continue to cause more disruption and get our name out there as disruptive marketers”.

Embracing controversy and cancel culture

“Being loud, controversial and going against the norms of what pre-loved luxury means is why we have seen immense growth,” Gallagher claims.

This is evident as the company grew 100,000 followers last month, by simply tweaking its strategy.

“If everyone is on the same path and you go odd on a different one, all eyes are going to be on you as curiosity will be peaked,” he continues.

“Every campaign we do is never going to be everyone’s taste, even within the company not everyone is going to be on board, but, to get to the 20% of the population who are our audience, we have to break down that 80% first.

“As long as your intentions behind the campaign are good, then respectfully, cancel culture, in the kindest way possible, can fuck off,” he jokes.

Future partnerships and expansion

Earlier this year, Luxe Collective opened up its first-ever pop-up store in London, footsteps away from luxury designers Louis Vuitton and Hermes, hosting a range of pre-loved designer items from the likes of Fendi, Chanel and Dior.

He reveals that when launching, Luxe Collective skipped traditional out-of-home marketing, relying solely on social platforms and emails.

The result? An 800-person queue, showcasing the “power of social media in driving real-world engagement.

Despite not having any plans for more pop-up stores in the near future, Gallagher hinted at potential partnerships with major department stores but emphasised the need for “nimbleness and speed” as a startup.

He says: “In the past, we might have perceived a partnership with a department store as an enormous achievement, however, in reality, such collaborations often impact our progress and serve as distractions.

“I can’t help but wonder if these larger companies are intentionally slowing us down, recognising that we’re moving at such a rapid pace,” he questions.

As a result, he expresses a desire to collaborate but asserts that Luxe Collective’s focus remains on its disruptive journey.

As Luxe Collective looks to the new year, the brand’s Co-Founder Head of Social Media envisions a future marked by disruptive marketing campaigns, a continued social media presence, and a steadfast commitment to its unique brand identity.

The post Interview: Luxe Collective CEO on disruptive marketing beyond social media appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Mobile app marketing is a thrilling, fast-paced, and ever-changing field. The last several years have demonstrated how one small change may cause a ripple effect that disturbs the entire ecosystem and calls years of learning into question.

COVID-19, the introduction of ATT and SKAN, and a worldwide recession have all put pressure on the industry in the previous three years, resulting in long-term, drastic changes.

With so many mobile applications available and so little time to make an impression, it is only logical for us to concentrate on mobile app onboarding. The initial touchpoint of the app experience that determines whether a user will churn or stay is onboarding in question.

Any mobile apps onboarding is the ultimate example of how many departments and needs come together to create either a terrific experience for users to discover the app or a terrible series of requests and pop-ups that result in failure.

Mobile app user onboarding in 2023: What changed?
Its reasonable to conclude that the condition of mobile onboarding has irreversibly changed by now. Nowadays, after installing an app, a user must approve the privacy policy, click okay to share IDFAs with MMP, say yes to receive push notifications, and, if applicable, allow location tracking.

Moreover, a user must complete your onboarding pattern completely convinced by its features, USPs, and UX/UI design in order to return for more.

That means your onboarding experience must protect your users privacy, highlight your products features, and provide functionality in a way that is both seamless and compelling so that your user enters their login information at the end of the flow.

Its not going to be an easy process from the start. And unfortunately, given the complexities of the process, numerous companies continue to battle with incorporating all of these pieces into a smooth user experience in 2023.

After investing thousands of dollars and euros on user acquisition strategies, many companies today overlook the most critical touchpoint: the onboarding process itself.

But how did we end up here? What factors have made onboarding so challenging?

App utilisation and COVID-19
In several ways, 2021 was a turning point for applications. Lets start with the giant elephant in the room: COVID-19. Like all major verticals, the pandemic significantly influenced mobile app users. What is the most significant difference? The number of apps available in the ecosystem.

The number of apps was growing even before COVID. In 2018, Google Play had over 2.6 million applications (source: Appcues), while the App Store had approximately 2.2 million. COVID, on the other hand, has accelerated the expansion of apps even further: there are currently 3.5 million apps on Google Play and 3.8 million on the App Store (source).

The result? The competition is extreme, and typical user behavior is changing drastically. Users are downloading and using more apps than ever before, and competition has soared as companies shift from online to mobile.

Today, 53 percent of applications are uninstalled within 30 days after download (source AppsFlyer), and Android users are twice as likely to delete your app as opposed to iOS users. Furthermore, 45 percent of uninstalls within 30 days occur within the first 24 hours, indicating that the seamless onboarding process is crucial.

The way users download, install, and utilize apps has evolved tremendously. In 2023, the average user will onboard, explore, and churn quicker than ever, forcing a fresh understanding of old retention metrics.

Therefore, one thing is certain: having an excellent onboarding experience is more important than ever.

Privacy taking the lead since 2021
Aside from COVID, another significant development impacted how app developers structure their onboarding processes. In April 2021, Apple stated that iOS 14 upgrades would give users additional flexibility to opt out of tracking on their devices by introducing ATT—a new pop-up that app developers must present if they wish to track the IDFA of the users.

As a result, advertisers now face an entirely new set of challenges in tracking how customers interact with any given app. ITV analysis, retention, and retargeting—these three critical components of understanding user behavior have become more challenging since the 14.5 updates.

One more thing. GDPR will be four years old on May 28, 2023. The day serves as a reminder that one significant change has been a greater emphasis on privacy. Consent is now king.

The traditional trackability methods, measurement KPIs, and performance marketing activities that were popular three years ago no longer work for marketers.

Nevertheless, for your onboarding, app developers must consider including critical privacy and opt-in permissions in ways that do not interfere with the onboarding phase.

Why is mastering your onboarding process critical today?
Onboarding is hour zero in a mobile app in 2023. It is the first time a user encounters your app and gets a taste of what it has to offer.

Its also a crucial time to introduce your user to the apps features and advantages, allow them to register with their login details, and, most importantly, capture personal information that can be used to send tailored content and notifications. Your mobile apps success and durability begin with an efficient onboarding approach.

But where do businesses go wrong? What are the quick gains for perfecting your onboarding experience? And, more crucially, how can you keep your users engaged until the final onboarding screen?

That we will find out in the second part of this app user onboarding series. By then, be sure to download our ebook on this topic.

Find every crucial information for a successful user onboarding. From best practices, examples, and industry experts’ quotes – get the free ebook now.

The post Why Mastering Your App User Onboarding Experience in 2023 Is Crucial: Part 1 appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Partnerships are in vogue at the moment. The last few weeks alone have seen EE team up with The Beano to help parents keep their kids safe online; Sky Sports and Audi Launch a technology partnership. And EasyJet launch a collaboration with Spotify that aims to enable travellers to discover their holiday mood based on their listening playlists and get matched to tailored travel experiences across Europe.

These are pretty substantial partnerships, each involving two big, well-known brands, who feel that by working together the whole will be greater than the sum of the two parts. But alongside these “headline” partnerships, thousands of companies are finding that partnering pays. The Partnership Management Platform (PMP), impact.com alone, is currently managing thousands of partnerships.

So why do companies partner, how do they choose the right partner, and what makes for a good partnership?

Alex Gordon, Channel Partnerships Development Manager at impact.com, says the essential intent of partnerships is to forge long-lasting relationships with businesses that have access to a brand’s customers, and measure these partnerships to ensure both parties are achieving their goals. 

“In a time where 85 per cent of millennials don’t trust traditional advertising and 90 per cent of digital ad spend is attributed to Google and Facebook, partnerships create an opportunity for brands to find their customers, wherever they may be on the internet, as well as to promote a positive brand image,” he says.

And, he adds, anyone can benefit from the revenue uptick that partnerships offer.

“Due to the rise in content sites, influencers and technology plug-ins, it’s not just enterprises that can benefit from partnerships. SMEs and early stage companies are able to engage partners to help grow their business in a meaningful, authentic way,” he says. “A report by Forrester revealed that companies with the most mature partnership programmes are driving 2x faster revenue growth than companies that have less mature partnership programmes.

Accountability
For Helen Southgate, Chief Global Officer at Acceleration Partners, the real appeal of partnership marketing is its accountability. She says: “Partnership marketing is a highly effective and measurable marketing channel. It is outcomes-based, meaning you only pay for the outcome you require e.g. a sale or a lead. Because you only pay for the most desirable outcomes, you can be sure that your budget is being used as wisely as possible. Partnership marketing is also scalable. You can connect with thousands of partners that can engage with your target consumers in a unique and successful way.

So what makes for a good partnership? It’s one that works for both sides, says Southgate. “A strong partnership is mutually beneficial,” she says. “Both parties need to have a shared objective, such as acquiring new customers or audience members, and both must have a clear and equitable incentive for doing so.  

“A good relationship is also based on open and responsive communication. Make sure that your partners know how to contact you when they need to – and that your partnership manager is equally available and empowered to make timely decisions, when necessary.”

impact.com’s Gordon agrees. “Good partnerships are those which consistently and reliably deliver value for both partner and advertiser,” he says. “Many partners’ business models rely on their engagement with advertisers, and partnerships are becoming increasingly important as a revenue stream for advertisers. As such it is difficult to overstate how vital partnerships are within the digital mix. 

“We’ve seen lots of our clients partner with other companies in really interesting and unique ways, from app integrations to strategic B2B partnerships. ‘Good’ in this context can be described as partnerships that break the mould, and feel natural and organic to the customer, in contrast to other advertisements that can feel incongruous or intrusive.”

A creative approach
When it comes to choosing a partner to work with Gordon believes that a creative approach can pay dividends. This can involve finding partners that have quick access to the customer base. So if your company sells fitness products, looking for partners who are specifically talking about fitness and health. Or finding partners that don’t talk specifically about the types of product a company sells, but are still engaging with the ideal customer for your product.

For Acceleration Partners’ Southgate, the process of choosing the right partner starts not with the companies you are considering partnering with, but with the type of customer you are trying to reach.

“You should start by carefully defining the customer personas you are trying to attract,” she says. “The more detail you can include in these profiles, the better. Then, you can work with potential partners to understand if those personas are part of their core audience.”

Any potential partner should also be aligned with your own company’s brand values, she adds.

“Perform due diligence on their core target audience and values, and don’t be afraid to ask questions if there are any red flags. Reputational management is crucial when working with partners, and you will need to make certain your brand is protected.”

Measuring success
So you’ve done all the hard work to find the right partners, possibly with the help of a PMP, but how do you know if it’s working? The process of measuring the success of a partnership starts before the partnership begin, says Southgate.

“Brands need to clearly define their measures of success before the partnership begins. Common metrics include site traffic, actual sales, new lead signups, or increases in average order value (AOV). These measures are easily monitored with marketing analytics tools and give a concrete sense of whether a partnership is effective.”

The timeframe is also a consideration, she adds. “Brands should set milestones for when they expect certain metrics to be achieved. These milestones should be ambitious, but realistic, based on the size of the partner’s audience, their engagement rates, and the frequency with which you launch events or release new products.”

As impact.com’s Gordon points out, the KPIs will differ depending on the type of company you are partnering with.

“From the perspective of the advertiser, metrics such as year-on-year or month-on-month growth, revenue, or number of leads generated (depending on the commercial model), are key measurements of success,” he says. “Increasingly, partnerships such as influencers are being measured on metrics such as engagement, clicks, likes shares etc. 

“From the perspective of the partner, they are measuring their success with advertisers on the amount of revenue generated, or how frequently they work together on placements, tenancies etc. A good PMP will help track all of these metrics, and measure partner success by considering the number of programmes partners are active on.”

Shared ambition
The Easyjet and Spotify collaboration mentioned at the top of the piece was arguably one of the more off-the-wall ones. But Jess Ridley, Account Director at VCCP, which helped to broker the deal, says it’s a great example of what can be achieved when two companies have a shared ambition.

“In this instance, this was to develop something that was really innovative but that was rooted in insight and could provide a genuine benefit to customers,” she says. “Through this particular collaboration, we are able to connect two key consumer passions – music and travel – by providing people with personalised travel experiences based on their listening habits.

“It came about through an insight that your music habits can reveal a lot about someone. Therefore why not see if it could inform the travel experience someone should book next? Pairing together Europes leading airline with the worlds largest music streaming platform was a natural fit for making this happen.”

Rapid growth
So where is the partnerships market heading? Acceleration Partners’ Southgate says she is seeing rapid growth in the space. “Brands are eager to invest more of their marketing budget because it’s a transparent and measurable way to achieve strong ROI,” she says. “We’re seeing more brands experiment with unique and innovative partnership models, including working with social media influencers and investing in media buying. These trends are likely to continue as consumer habits shift toward omnichannel consumption.”

For impact.com’s Gordon, three trends stand out. Firstly, a huge increase in brands moving to SaaS solutions, as well as more activation across emerging partner types such as podcasts and TikTok. Secondly, more and more clients reacting to changes in tracking and privacy (such as iOS 14.5). And thirdly, an increasing trend towards tracking mobile performance in partnerships. 

Talk of podcasts and TikTok is highly relevant in the partnerships discussion. As everyone knows, the digital marketing world moves at breakneck speed. Few people had heard of TikTok a few years ago and BeReal is looking like this year’s new, new thing. If, as a company, you think you need to be active in a certain space or channel, such as TikTok, but have no experience of it, and don’t know where to start, then partnering with a firm that understands the space, for your mutual benefit, makes a lot of sense.

“The partnerships channel presents one of the best opportunities to align a businesses revenue stream to shifting consumer habits,” concludes impact.com’s Gordon. “This means there is inherent longevity in the partnerships channel, and its a safer bet for businesses that grow their revenue through partnering with other businesses. Added to this, advances in technology mean that these partnerships are becoming more scalable, more transparent, and even more automated, meaning that it is becoming less resource-dependent.” 

The post The Partnership Principle appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

It’s been lauded as the next version of the internet, a place where all brands need to have a presence – and many already do – and a place where people will be able to meet, work, train, play and socialize with friends and work colleagues from all around the world, without leaving their bedroom. It is, of course, the metaverse. But what exactly is the metaverse, and is the current excitement around it justified?

Before we address those questions, it’s perhaps worth noting that the metaverse is not the new, new thing many people make it out to be. Yes, most of the current hype can be traced back to last October, when Facebook changed its name to Meta. But it’s worth mentioning that some of the major metaverse players have been around for some time. The first iteration of Decentraland launched in 2015, Roblox appeared on the scene in 2006, and Second Life made its bow almost 20 years ago in 2003. And in the immediate hype surrounding Second Life’s launch, just as now, the received wisdom was that every brand needed to take it seriously and have a presence on it – I know this, I was there – something which relatively few did, with arguably no harm to their business. So why should things be any different now?

The metaverse defined
Well, it might help to answer this question if we have a better understanding of what the metaverse is, so let’s start with an attempt to define it. Adipat Virdi, a Partner at Harbour Immersive, describes the metaverse as: “an evolving network of immersive environments, which can be experienced IRL (in real life) digitally, or virtually. Imagine a 3D website that your ‘digital twin’ will get to walk around and experience. But if you take away the tech element of it, the metaverse is, essentially, an ecosystem to bring content, consumer and brand closer together.”

Csaba Szabo, MD EMEA, at Integral Ad Science (IAS), believes there will be many iterations of the metaverse as it develops over time, but that what will unite them is a blend of cutting edge visual and audio technologies to build immersive worlds for its users to create and interact with other users and brands.

“While at the moment its most utilised environments are games such as Roblox and Fortnite, with the more widespread adoption of VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) these spaces will become a far more integrated part of our everyday life,” he says. “Speculating what exact shape it will take is tough, but it is already clear that this is going to be an incredibly important ecosystem as we move from Web2 to Web3.

For Andreas Soupliotis, CEO of Hivestack, the metaverse is a simulated universe that runs parallel to our real, physical universe. “In the physical universe, our five senses experience the world through our bodies. Instead, in the metaverse, consumers experience a virtual, parallel universe via their avatar entity that is your counterpart representation in the metaverse,” he says. “Just as we shop in physical and online spaces, attend live music concerts in physical venues or watch them streaming live online, and buy or rent finite-supply real estate, our avatars will shop in carbon copy versions of retail stores, attend concerts in the metaverse alongside other avatars and even buy or rent finite supply land in meta verses that are being built.”

Other commentators, however, believe it is still very much a work in progress. “Todays metaverse is an idea thats still being tinkered with, with the vision of a network of interoperable 3D worlds where netizens will go from surfing the web to being immersed and traversing the web with newly minted metazens,” says Nirish Parsad, Head of Emerging Tech at Tinuiti. “Fully realized, the metaverse is a combination of several technological innovations that all operate seamlessly together. Some of these technologies include blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs, virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality (VR, AR and MR).

And Brian Bowman, CEO of Consumer Acquisition, has serious doubts about the metaverse being truly open for business anytime soon. He says: “The metaverse is 10-20 years away due to challenges with access (e.g. poor 5G wireless across the country), and mediocre computing power in mobile devices (eg, devices that arent capable of real-time volumetric 3D rendering). For Snow Crash or Ready Player One worlds to be a reality, were years and years away from achieving the tech innovation necessary, along with massive investments needed for both tech companies and consumers to access and adopt.

“Additionally, 3D poses key challenges to navigation and usability – think back to the hype around VRML and why that failed to gain traction. The metaverse sounds great as the future of consumer experiences, but like virtual reality, it is going nowhere fast.”

A bit of a messyverse
And Ben Richards, Chief Experience Officer at VMLY&R, says: “The vision for the metaverse is pretty amazing – it’s an expanse of persistent virtual and semi-virtual worlds interoperable with each other and accessible to everyone. However, currently, it’s a bit of a messyverse. At the moment it’s multiple corporations and start-ups fighting for ownership across different platforms. For us to move in the direction of reaching the vision promised we need these players to align their languages and experiences so they are seamless for the consumer. If the metaverse truly is for everyone, brands need to make it so.”

In this respect, Richards may be encouraged by last week’s announcement of the formation of the Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 – OMA3 – to jointly address the industry’s interoperability challenges.

OMA3 is a consortium of leading blockchain-based platforms for the metaverse and Web3, including Alien Worlds, Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, Decentraland, Decentral Games, SPACE, Superworld, The Sandbox, Upland, Voxels, and Wivity.

At launch, OMA3 said its mission is to empower a metaverse without restraining walls, where individual platforms are interconnected and interoperable. Its core principles are based on transparency, inclusiveness, decentralization, and democratization. It also said that it would be established as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) to ensure a governance system that is transparent and user-centric.

The organisation will focus its efforts on opportunities and challenges that arise specifically from metaverse blockchain-related topics such as standards for Non-Fungible-Tokens (NFTs); protocols; transferable identity; portals between virtual worlds; mapping; and indexing. It said it intends to join the recently announced Metaverse Standards Forum to participate and contribute to the general standardization work of this broader group, as well as other standards groups that are working on relevant topics for the metaverse.

Hype or hope?
With any new tech that comes seemingly from nowhere, there is usually a disproportionate amount of excitement and hype. What Gartner, in its ‘Hype Cycle’ terms the ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’ followed almost inevitably by the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’. So is the hype around the metaverse justified?

For David Ripert, CEO at Poplar Studio, the answer is clear. “Definitely,” he says. “Metaverse-related technology including VR, AR, MR and Blockchain/Crypto, among others, are already disrupting several major industries, including on the enterprise side, with wide adoption beyond what seems to be limited to gaming on the consumer side: Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Healthcare, Energy and Utilities, Oil and Gas, Agriculture, Residential and Commercial, Retail and Consumer Goods, Telecommunication, etc.

“Use cases include training, simulation, planning, industrial design, automation, etc. which already make corporates using the technology more efficient and ROI positive, (while) on the consumer side, metaverse gaming platforms like Roblox are seeing 190m average monthly players, particularly on the younger user side, and a large number of top international brands are experimenting with presence on these platforms. The financial impact for these brands is not comparable to their real world counterparts, but there is clear recognition that it is critical to start building their metaverse capabilities now.”

Ripert adds that IMARC Group expects the ‘digital twin’ market to be worth $54.6bn (£45.6bn) by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 31.7 per cent between now and then.

Rolf Illenberger, Founder and CEO of VRdirect, accepts that the media buzz around the metaverse is in part hype, but adds that it is clearly not hype in terms of actual technology development, adoption and investments flowing in to metaverse-related technologies such as VR, AR, XR, Voice, Cloud, Edge and Blockchain. “In fact, there has probably never been a time, where such an amount of investment by the biggest (tech) companies of this globe were poured in the advancement of one technology vision,” he says. “To downplay the metaverse as hype would be the same as asking if the ‘Smartphone hype’ is justified just after Steve Jobs has presented the first iPhone. The metaverse will be the future of technology and ultimately disrupt the way we are commonly using technology today.”

For Ken Weiner, CTO at GumGum, whatever the level of hype, brands should approach the metaverse just as they would any other channel. “Brands should always be looking for ways to reach consumers, so they should be experimenting as the metaverse evolves to stay ahead of the curve,” he says. “I wouldnt worry about being perceived as jumping on the bandwagon. I would focus on whether there are consumers to reach, how much it will cost to reach them, and whether or not ROI can be measured.”

And Ben Putley, CEO and Co-Founder at Alkimi Exchange, notes that there is already a cohort of digital natives making these spaces their own and exploring the possibilities that they offer. “Many are even beginning to carve out careers from the skills they have attained in these virtual worlds,” he says. “As more and more people flock to metaverse worlds, build communities of their own and spend money on exclusive characters, items or areas, brands and advertisers will have to follow.”

Hivestack’s Soupliotis believes the hype is justified, given the ferocious battle brewing to own the metaverse space. “Today, the main outlet for experiencing the metaverse is through Oculus Quest glasses from Meta,” he says. “These will get smaller, lighter, and I personally believe other great hardware companies like Apple may release beautiful, lightweight VR glasses in the future. The battle will be for the App Stores. Today the Oculus App Store is how most metaverse apps are delivered. But if Apple launches glasses, they will launch with an Apple VR App Store. The fight will be on as to which ecosystem will be garnering the highly coveted App Store tax that has made fortunes on phones.

“I believe that whoever will build the most beautiful glasses with the best hardware: resolution and frame rates and audio will win – and that company will dominate the metaverse app store ecosystem. I see a world where Android, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple all have glasses with their own Metaverse App stores, ferociously competing for app developers to build apps on their APIs and stores.

“So is it worth the hype? Absolutely! If I am right that giants like Meta, Google, Apple and Microsoft will get into this business, you can expect the innovation to advance at a ferocious pace. 2023 could become the ‘war of the metaverses’. Each of these players will try to achieve ‘metaverse vendor lock-in’. May the best hardware and app store ecosystem win!”

Getting it right
So if you accept the hype is justified, how, as a brand, do you approach the metaverse, and your part in it? Danielle Gale, VP of Partnerships at AudienceX, believes that brands need to examine the different options available and understand how their current audiences are playing within these new ecosystems.

“There isn’t a single metaverse yet and all these separate ‘small-M’ metaverses aren’t cross-collaborative, meaning that efforts brands and agencies will develop for metaverse-style engagement will need to be replicated across the different ecosystems,” she says. “The metaverse is rapidly becoming a new buzz-term, and brands need to think long about their strategy and budget, before they look to immersive experiences and potential NFT plays to increase membership loyalty and engagement. What is true is that these digital worlds will be native to younger audiences as these younger audiences are less likely to purchase products and assets IRL. Everything will be digitally owned and enabled.”

Sarah Leccacorvi, Head of Content and Creative at Havas Entertainment, says the first question she asks any client who has an appetite to explore this new frontier is ‘Why? “Whilst I talk positively about its bottomless opportunity, we also have to ask those more difficult questions to make sure it’s the right decision to make,” she says. “Does it marry with your brand values? Is the CFO on board? Is it a vanity job? Did the idea come from the CEO’s teenage son or daughter? Yikes…

“For us, approaching a metaverse brief is very different from tackling a campaign brief. You need to either put a stake in the ground, think long-term and build a business proposition around that, or you simply put a toe in the water and treat it as a test bed, from which to learn from and hide in your training budget. Gaming is the most developed area, so it’s a good place to start. Either way, you must think about the financials beyond FTEs and hard costs, and consider accessibility, operability, and sustainability.”

Not forgetting brand safety. For IAS’s Szabo, this is as important in the metaverse as anywhere else online. He says: “As with all emerging spaces, brands need to consider the safety aspects of metaverse spaces before diving straight in. These hyper-visual, highly interactive spaces can pose many problems in terms of brand safety, and no company wants to start its metaverse journey off on the wrong foot.

“One way to negate this is considering the exact spaces ads are being placed in, deciding whether they are both relevant and suitable. AI-powered brand safety and suitability solutions can be a tool in achieving contextual ad placements, rapidly ingesting the nuanced signals that these hyper-visual environments present. Not only will this ensure safer placements, but they will also let advertisers better reach their target audiences and make the impact of their creative even greater.”

Emma Lacey, SVP EMEA at Zefr, agrees. “The main challenge for marketers will be establishing brand safety and suitability regulation in this widely unknown space,” she says. “The risk is that brands could enter the metaverse without considering what controls exist to protect their reputation. Marketers will need to apply the same measurement and verification rules and taxonomies to their advertising as they do in the real world, which will in turn foster a new wave of technological innovation to help them achieve this.”

Tom DuBois, Chief Product Officer at Remio, meanwhile, believes that any brand targeting young adults needs to be involved in the metaverse now.

“Young adults are connecting and socializing in immersive computing environments now, whether thats Roblox or Fortnight or on the Oculus,” he points out. “But, you need to do it in an authentic way or it can seem like youre just jumping on a trend. Take the time to understand this new media environment to make sure your brand is represented in an authentic way.”

Endless possibilities
Jenny Stanley, MD at Appetite Creative, believes the possibilities for how the metaverse can be harnessed by brands are “endless”.

She says: “Decentralised finance (DeFi) is an emerging financial technology based on secure distributed ledgers similar to those used by cryptocurrencies. The system removes the control banks and institutions have on money, financial products, and financial services putting it directly into the hands of the customer and brand. It creates an economic ecosystem anchored in blockchain usage, with tokens as payments and NFTs playing the main role..

“Brands can incorporate NFTs to make their loyalty programs more interactive, engaging, and, because the ledger is built on blockchain technology, 100 per cent trackable and less open to fraud. NFTs can be just about anything. Any digital form of media including images, music, videos, a game accessory, or concert ticket. They can also be used to benefit NFT holders by giving them access into any given project or community. For example, the NFT could be a simple ‘VIP pass’ into a community.”

And in the metaverse, she says, experimentation is to be encouraged.

“There are so many options – it’s worth picking a few and trying them out,” she says. “For example, we’re seeing requests to create shopping experiences in the metaverse. Brands are looking to enter a virtual reality shop to browse items and try on clothes etc. It creates an interactive shopping experience rather than just an ecommerce site. 

“Another popular option is to create a company trade zone or a branded custom marketplace. Perhaps you want to build an exclusive club, start a loyalty club or have a company or brand reward system for so many years or service, purchasing a particular item or comparing a particular achievement.”

Tinuiti’s Parsad offers this advice for brands looking to create great metaverse experiences: “Were in the pumpkin-spice era hype cycle of the metaverse. Many efforts feel forced and tacked on. But there are good ideas brewing. If you think of the metaverse as a place where people hang out, start by examining what you can offer in the existing metaverses vs creating your own world. Talk to creators and influencers who hang out in the metaverse who have a following and know their audiences – this is where authenticity is key, and the metaverse was built for creators.”

For Ed Delfs, CMO at Adriel, brands’ approach to the metaverse should be informed by their real-world brand values. He says: “Given its newness, all metaverse strategies by definition will be experimental and risky, so more conservative brands may want to let more experimental brands take the lead and make their mistakes and then learn from those mistakes.

“Red Bull should go nuts as its customers expect innovative, forward-looking branding and any backlash over poorly-produced experiences will be limited, while Citi should hold back and take a watch and learn approach as their brand risk is much higher. Another risk is that there will be countless charlatans popping up claiming to be experts in developing metaverse experiences so brands should select their agency or development partners very carefully. Lastly, the development costs will be massive so these should be mapped, like every other form of media, against total targeted audience size. It’s hard to see the math working out in the early going.”

Thomas Bedenk, VP Extended Reality at Endava, believes it would be a mistake for brands to completely transform their entire business to accommodate the metaverse. “Rather, they should consider how implementing the metaverse can support, and augment, their current digital approach,” he says. “Given the rapid rate at which the metaverse is developing, such sweeping, ‘one-and-done’ metaverse initiatives are likely to end in a disappointing fashion, rather than success.”

And Poplar Studio’s Ripert believes bricks and mortar retailers should be thinking about how to connect the in-store and metaverse experiences. He says: “In the future, a physical retail store might have volumetric cameras that can capture the customer and create a very realistic avatar of them. Customers could then use these avatars, which will have their exact measurements, to try on clothes and other items without leaving their homes.

“I expect to see the forward-thinking physical retailers making a push to amalgamate physical and digital experiences, like adding magic mirrors or virtual rooms in-store. Otherwise, they’ll be at risk of becoming a relic of the past.”

The here and now
So much for the advice, which brands are doing good stuff in the metaverse right now? Niklas Bakos, Founder and CSO at Adverty, says he has enjoyed some great metaverse experiences. “One of the best is the Vans Skatepark in Roblox,” he says. “Vans have had an audience in skateboarding and extreme sports for decades, and they’ve built their world so well, it sees four times as many players as the Nike world does. Another fantastic example was the Charli Cohen x Pokémon collaboration from Selfridges, a digital shopping experience in a virtual world that was tied to a physical clothing collection. Those were two cool and immersive experiences where you could explore and unlock elements, where players are rewarded for interacting with the brands.” 

David Berkowitz, SVP Corporate Marketing and Comms at Mediaocean, believes entertainment brands are a natural fit for the metaverse, aiming to deliver the most immersive experience possible, while gaming brands have set a precedent for virtual experiences.

“More recently, we’ve seen the likes of Snapchat introduce even more powerful AR capabilities and Spotify enter the metaverse with its launch of Spotify Island,” he says. “But beyond this, retail brands like Nike have come to the fore, seeing great success with their metaverse excursions and collaborations. The space will see rapid innovation, as other high-profile brands and industries follow suit with their own innovative ventures but, more crucially, it will increase marketer’s awareness of the deepening gap between our old conception of marketing and how it must function in this new world.”

Poplar studio’s Ripert quotes several good examples, including Levis and Ralph Lauren, both of whom have released a line of virtual clothing for Bitmojis that people can also buy in real life; Nike’s launch of virtual stores; Harrods creation of an immersive online space to celebrate the release of Burberry’s Olympia bag; Hermes’ release of a digital NFT of a handbag to be used in the metaverse; and Balenciaga’s GTA-esque game, produced to launch its Fall 2021 collection, plus many more.
Havas Entertainment’s Leccacorvi references Elvis On Chain, a multi-metaverse NFT project commissioned by Elvis Presley Enterprises. It enables like-minded Elvis fans from across the globe to meet and hang out, and experience rare concerts and generative collections. Next in line will be access to play-to-earn games, Elvis avatars, wearables and iconic collections.

And Appetite Creative’s Stanley points to the island resort of Sentosa in Singapore, which reacted to the pandemic and lockdown by creating a virtual version of the island in the game, Animal Crossing, giving consumers a feel for what the island has to offer in order to encourage visitors post-lockdown.

But Adriel’s Delfs is not convinced everyone – the fashion brands in particular – are getting it right. He says: “I see most current branded metaverse experiences as reflections of the visions of creators in the gaming and animation spaces rather than true reflections of a brand’s ethos. In my personal opinion, luxury brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton aren’t doing themselves any favours by creating cute little animated worlds into which they are awkwardly embedding their highly esteemed brands. On the other hand, Vans or Lego launching a virtual skatepark on Roblox makes much more sense than Gucci doing the same.

“It all comes back to audience size and engagement, and with attention spans shortening there will also be a disconnect between these deep, immersive experiences and consumers interest and ability to sustain interest in them. That said, if a deeply immersive experience connects with some segment of a brand’s target market and they are able to capture data to retarget those potential customers, move them through a brand journey and convert them to customers then I say go for it!”

Despite Delf’s concerns, there does seem to be a great deal of enthusiasm among businesses for the metaverse. For a recent study on Disruptive Technologies commissioned by Wunderman Thompson Commerce & Technology, Censuswide surveyed 600 senior decision-makers and leaders in digital commerce, marketing and IT, equally split across the UK, US and China. 85 per cent of respondents said that cutting-edge technology like the metaverse would be essential to their businesses in the next two years, helping to unlock new revenue streams and future-proof their companies.

And back to that question of hype, in conclusion, Adverty’s Bakos believes it’s not about whether the metaverse is worth the hype now, but whether it will ultimately be. “The more hype that gets drummed up, the faster the metaverse will evolve,” he says. “The excitement we’re seeing and the money that is being invested from companies such as Meta, Google and Apple facilitates more development to reach the full potential of what the metaverse can be. The emerging metaverses we’re seeing today all have dreams of being the grand concept we want in future, and we’re getting a taste of what that might look like. That’s the real excitement.”

The post Metaverse 101 appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

It’s challenging to find positives that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020 was a tumultuous year for everyone, especially the health care community. Medical frontline workers stepped up to the plate to fight the spread of the virus and provide treatment to patients.

But perhaps one positive thing to come out of the pandemic is the widespread use of telehealth apps and websites to meet virtually with their doctors. In addition, the emergence of telemedicine has offered patients alternatives to visiting a health care facility to receive proper care.

With the spreading capability of COVID-19, it’s no surprise that telemedicine became more prevalent. When doctors’ offices closed, doctors and their practices needed to find alternative care options. As a result, many offices had to receive their telehealth accreditation to offer appointments to their patients.

The CDC reports that there was a sharp increase in telehealth encounters in March 2020. So, as COVID-19 changed many aspects of our lives, telemedicine as a practice will likely be here for the long run.

Here are six telehealth apps that patients can benefit from as they manage their health moving forward.

1. MDLive
The MDLive platform builds on the company’s existing behavioral health, urgent care and dermatology services the company is already known for. The company served more than 36 million active members as of January 2020. Its primary goal is to help existing platforms and unburden existing health care infrastructure by offering a predictive and proactive approach to care rather than a reactive one.

Signing up for MDLive services takes only 15 minutes. From there, patients can search through a network of board-certified doctors to choose the proper care for their health needs. During a visit, doctors can provide diagnoses and prescribe medication to retrieve from your local pharmacy. Access via mobile app is also available for MDLive patients.

2. Amwell
Amwell offers 24/7 doctor visits, and all of them can be done from virtually anywhere on a phone, laptop, or tablet. Prescriptions can be sent electronically to a patient’s pharmacy of choice, and there’s no need to wait for an appointment. Aside from physical health problems, it’s also possible to visit licensed therapists and psychiatrists.

One of the biggest challenges in health care is the influx of patients to emergency rooms and practices who don’t need to be there. Resolving minor conditions that are nonlife-threatening, nonurgent or easy to treat at home, without driving to a doctor’s office, is one of the key applications of telehealth Amwell hopes to capitalize on.

3. Teladoc
The multinational Teladoc Health uses telemedicine, data analytics and artificial intelligence to connect patients with physicians and render expert medical opinions. To meet the growing demand for its services, Teladoc acquired several companies between 2002 and 2018, including BetterHelp and Advance Medical.

Medical experts are only a few taps away from patients seeking medical care. It’s simple to sign up for a Teladoc account — it only takes a few minutes to chat with a virtual assistant beforehand. During signup, it’s also possible for patients to enter their medical history to give doctors further insight into their current conditions. This allows for safer care as we emerge from the pandemic.

4. Doctor on Demand
Doctor on Demand provides anywhere, anytime connectivity with the medical community through mobile and desktop computers. It’s also a covered benefit for 98 million Americans. With urgent and chronic care available, as well as behavioral and preventive health assistance, it’s a fully realized telehealth platform.

As the name suggest, it’s easy to find a doctor to consult with over your medical needs. Doctor on Demand has a mission of achieving its trademarked Total Virtual Care, where patients can access doctors in a pinch. Doctors on Demand have licensed medical professionals that have an average of over 15 years of experience.

5. BetterHelp
The massive changes people faced during the pandemic caused some people to seek therapy and alternative mental health treatments. As a result, therapists transitioned from the office to online video conferencing. BetterHelp offers mental health treatment services for individuals, couples, and teens. They enlist licensed counselors for their operation and match their patients accordingly. It’s 100 per cent online, and memberships range from £40 to £70 per week, billed 4-weekly.

BetterHelp has a lot to offer. With tens of thousands of vetted counselors available to talk and more than 150m messages sent through its platform since launch, it’s a mature offering that’s already helped thousands of people achieve their best lives and work through whatever’s holding them back.

6. Talkspace
Another telehealth app that centralizes around mental health counseling is Talkspace, with over 1m users worldwide. They accept most major insurance and offer services for many age groups. Talkspace also offers a mental health checkup for patients curious about their state of mind and whether therapy is a suitable option for them.

Onboarding at Talkspace is a welcoming and accessible experience. A brief assessment offers a chance for patients to give insight into their preferences and frame of mind, and the resulting list of recommended therapists provides both choice and privacy.

Regardless of the reason for a doctor’s visit, patients must have access to proper medical care. But, as the pandemic shifted many priorities in health care, it also shone a light on the communities that struggled to find affordable, expert-level doctor appointments.

The future of telehealth 
Telehealthcare options will likely be here to stay in the upcoming years. The benefits certainly outweigh the drawbacks – more access to medical professionals, convenient scheduling capabilities, and prescriptions are only some of the positives. As more patients rely on digital services to receive medical care, doctors need to digitize their practice and transition to offering online appointments.

The post Telemedicine comes of age during the pandemic appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.