The post Talking Mobile with ConsultMyApp appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The post Talking Mobile App Maturity with Airship appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The post Talking Mobile with Yodel Mobile appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Mobile Marketing: So what’s the background to WeAre8 please Sue?

Sue Fennessy: So Ive spent 35 years in media and technology. I built two companies in Asia Pacific, sold one to Omnicom. And then the second one is a sport media and entertainment business in China. And I realised that media was essentially being traded in the dark and advertisers spent $500bn a year getting their ads in front of people, and there was no visibility. So I built this company called Standard Media Index, where we put systems inside all the media agencies, tracked all the ad spend around the world, and its used by Omnicom, Publicis, IPG, all the big groups, to track all the ad spend. And for the first time, you could see where all the moneys going. So Disney, Warner Brothers, etc., they could see how much their competitors were getting, and they realised that they were leaving billions of dollars on the table with their pricing of advertising distribution. So they can see the price essentially of a Friday night football ad versus anything else.

And when I looked at the macro market, I could see how much was going to television, radio, digital outdoor, how much was going to Google and Facebook, and I just saw over 12 years, all of this money going to Facebook. And the ridiculous thing was, the average engagement rate on a Facebook ad is under 0.4 per cent. So the joke is digital ads, people dont ever want to watch them. Theyre interruptive, theyre annoying. And so what we saw was this quite broken model.

And then at the same time, I thought well, $120bn went to Facebook in 2020, and none of it was shared with the people. And then I sort of felt the economic crisis, the climate crisis, the mental health crisis, all those things fuelled by social media.

So were focused on two things. The first is, can we reimagine a digital ad, a mobile ad in a way that guarantees someones attention and leaves them feeling loved, valued and rewarded? So we spent years working with behavioural scientists to do that. So every time you watch an ad on WeAre8, tiny micro payments, go into your wallet, and donations go to charity. And you can use this to pay your mobile bill, your Spotify, or it can go into your PayPal account, but you can also pay it forward to a charity, and 54 per cent of our people do that, supporting around 50 charities. 

So we reimagined the ad model in a way that is transformational. So on the WeAre8 app, youll see this little yellow button, and if you want to watch ads, you tap that and you watch an ad. So when you watch an ad, you consciously accept, bring it on, or you say no thanks. So Nike would love to value you. You tap on that, say yes please. You watch the full ad, you answer a couple of questions and you can click through and learn more, and then tiny little micro payments drop into your wallet and people celebrate you. So its this beautiful ad model. We’ve built a world where people want to watch ads, and every time they watch an ad they change the world and get little micro payments into their wallet.

The bigger reason for our existing is because around this beautiful ad model we’ve built a social home where you can invite your friends and see your friends in a private feed where its just your friends, because no ones seeing their friends on social.

The 8 stage is where you follow creators, so our version of the blue tick, like the Twitter/X blue tick is the Golden 8 halos. So you can follow creators. Weve got loads of footballers, so Rio Ferdinands a big investor and partner. Weve got loads of artists, actors, creators, musicians. So the 8 stage is where I follow creators, my friends feed is where I follow friends in a private feed, free of algorithms. And then were launching groups at the end of this month. Then if I feel like watching ads – over 95 per cent of people watch ads every day – they watch the ad and then they get little micro payments into their wallet. So we share 60 cents of every dollar or every pound we get from every advertiser. So 50 cents goes to our citizens, one cent goes to climate projects, four cents goes to a charity of the brands choice, and five cents to creators and publishers, because all the publishers are getting screwed on social as well.

And as I say, people can pay it forward to a charity or they can use it to pay their Spotify. Weve also done an integration with EE where people can use it to pay some of their mobile bill. But we just share money.  

MM: Okay, if we could just stick with the ad thing for a minute. I appreciate your motivations for doing this are different from others I have seen in the past, but there have been there have been so many “get paid to watch ads” schemes down the years, and theyve all been a bit of a joke really, because the amount of money that you would get paid, you would literally have to watch, you know, like 100 ads a day to make £5 a month. So whenever I hear of anyone talking about paying users to watch ads, Im always interested to know, how many ads could they see in a typical day, and if they watched all the ads, they could watch how much money would they make from that? None of the other schemes Im talking about have had this philanthropic element to them, the charitable angle, but the other problem with it is you it feels like you’re targeting a demographic that, if they are that desperate to earn a few cents for watching an ad, have they got much spending power to spend with the advertisers? 

SF: So I have obsessed over this for eight years. And by the way we skew high socioeconomic, but let me tell you about the other part of our tech. On one side weve got the WeAre8 app, which is transformational social media thats free from hate, zero tolerance of anonymity, and built to unite a billion people every day to do tiny actions in support of big problems. And people can earn. If you watched ads for five minutes a day, youd earn about a pound for that. At the moment were scaling up the advertisers. To date, weve run campaigns with more than 66 clients, including brands like Nike, BayBliss, Co-op, Rexona and Pact Coffee.  

Our citizen growth has also been really fast, and it’s going to get faster, because people are coming on here because they love the content, they want to follow people. They want to see their friends in a private feed. Were launching groups, and when we launch groups, its going to go ballistic. But on the other side of the tech, weve built our version of Facebook Ad Manager, which is a buying engine for advertisers. And its all self-serve. Its all sustainable, Its beautiful. Ive had two ads today. I had three yesterday, so I can earn about 20 to 30p today.

MM: And you have only been offered two to three ads because your demographic only appeals to two or three advertisers?

SF: Were hustling. It’s growing really fast. By the way it skews higher income interestingly, and it works so much better. It drives more attention, its more sustainable, its better on every level. But the thing is when it’s pay users to watch ads, and that’s all it is, you get really shit behaviour. As you say, its exactly as you predict and you get a low skewing group which by the way, theres lots of brands that want to reach those people, McDonalds etc. But on 8, you actively, consciously accept, you watch the ad, you answer questions, but youre doing it in a context of “were changing the world together. Thats why were really here. And were on social media that has zero tolerance of hate and its good for the planet.”

Were really all here because the economic crisis, the climate crisis and the mental health crisis are all interlinked. And its the sense of injustice, that if we can help people pay their Spotify, their Netflix, their mobile bill and make positive impact every day, then bring it on. So its the injustice of the big guys, honestly, dividing us through their algorithms, and taking all the money that pisses me off.

MM: So if youre giving away 60 cents in the dollar, youre basically saying “were going to run this social media network this way. If we did it normally we would make more than twice as much profit as were going to do, but were giving up 60 per cent of it.” That is as it is, its not “well it looks like were giving 60 per cent back to our citizens, but actually its only 30 per cent because of whatever.” So thats the figure?

SF: Thats right. And we have done the numbers on it. So our margin, transparently, is 21 per cent, and its a scale place and we deliver cost per completed video view. Were B Corp. Were all about sharing, but we have to be a profitable, sustainable business. But the current world is built on greed. It is disgusting if you saw how much money those companies are making and how greedy and destructive they are.

MM: Fair enough. So if somebody clicks on an ad to watch it and doesnt see it through to the end,  the advertiser doesnt pay and they dont get paid?

SF: That’s exactly right. The funny thing is, though, firstly, we dont call people users, we call them citizens, because you have power to change the world. But dont come here to watch ads and get paid. Go somewhere else to do that, Im sure theres easier ways to make money.

MM: I once heard someone remark that the only other industry, other than the app business, that calls its customers users, is drugs.

SF: That’s so right, David. Were going to look back and go, “oh my God, we as humans, we’re the largest unpaid workforce in human history. What just happened for 12 years?” And so all we’re really about is waking up to our power as human beings to come together. Where the old world divides us, we unite us. Where the old world’s based on greed for them, we’re based on sharing for others. They’re based on hate. We’re based on love and unity. And I think all the things that are transactional, are broken. If they dont have a higher purpose, theyre a bit fucked coming out of the gates.

MM: You talked about a Facebook-like ad manager. Would you also go as far as a Facebook Audience Network type scenario? I know its harder to do now with less people being tracked, but where advertisers could reach your users when theyre doing things outside of your app.

SF: So were collaborating with a lot of people. Weve got a big eCommerce play coming up. The old world, one of the things they do is they keep you controlled in it. When youre on 8, if youre a verified creator, you can tap the little link out button and go out to this guys website or whatever. So in the true spirit of collaboration and freedom, you can take people wherever you want to take them. And so we when youre on 8, we want you to make as much impact as possible, so you can still tweet on Twitter, dance on Tik Tok, but change the world here and from 8, your home base, if youre a creator, you can take them anywhere you want. So, in terms of collaboration, we just want to make creators and publishers as much money as possible, and we want to make citizens as much money as possible. I mean, even influencers arent making the money that they did even six months ago. And they dont control their audience. So its a very, very broken model when the big platforms are taking all the money.

MM: And when you talk about the likes of Rio Ferdinand and musicians and athletes, are you only getting into bed with people like that? What about that guy in his bedroom whos doing wonderful stuff, but hes unheard of? And how do they get to be a creator on your app and potentially earn some money? Do they need to have a certain following?

SF: No. In fact, our whole thing is we dont care how many followers you have. So if you go to your profile, go to settings and apply to become a verified 8 creator.

MM: And how many verified creators do you have on the platform at the moment?

SF: Weve got about 6,500

MM: Okay. And since when, when did you launch?

SF: Well, we launched about 12 months ago. That said, weve been applying elements to our product all the time. So now were actively, actively driving forward

MM: While were on the subject of numbers, what about users and whereabouts in the world are like?

Were just shy of 1m downloads across Australia and the UK. We only launched in Australia six months or so ago, and now were just putting our foot to the floor with all the marketing because we have the product and all the creators where we want it now. We launched back in the US a few weeks ago, and were scaling there. So we’re partnered with BBC Studios, Channel 4, and were about to announce a big partnership with one of the US broadcasters who want us to scale fast, because the current world is so broken.

MM: Okay. And then the hate-free element of it, how does that work?

SF: This has been me putting everything on the line, investing $40m and eight years, because youve got to reimagine the ad model so that its sustainable. You have to reimagine social. Ive got a 65-person tech team, and thats going up against the big guys, So firstly, you cant be anonymous, which is a big thing. We verify every citizen with a mobile phone number, because remember, they are getting paid and they are making donations so theyre verified as real people. And theyre verified with mobile numbers and all sorts of other things. And then we have AI integrations, video and audio recognition and then we have 24-hour moderation. And then we have community moderation as well.

And theres been one breach and actually it was…because of the construct of the platform, where I have to invite friends and friends have to be connected with me to see my friends’ feed, if youre a random and you post something, you have to have friends on platform for them to see it. You know how the other platforms are automatically public? So our system picks it up, but it means no one sees it. We had one breach. It was picked up and taken down within three minutes. No one saw it because they didnt have any friends, but we also had their IP address and their mobile phone number. And we told the police. Look, we just want to live in a safe, beautiful loving world where we can have differing opinions, but we learn to meet somewhere in the middle. Thats where we are.

MM: Whats the whats the approach to getting new users? Is it a combination of mainstream advertising, social advertising, user-get-user, or rather, citizen-get-citizen?

SF: So Facebooks thing was, “invite seven friends in the first seven days and youre good”. You know, so the 10-day experience, the first 10-day experience is really important to us. So were doing a lot of citizen-get-citizen, lets change the world together stuff about to come out. We actually give a shit. And if you dont give a shit, dont come. So “get inspired see your friends, there is an alternative now.” So citizen-get-citizen is big, but thats why we did the deals with Channel 4, with BBC studios, UK TV, Spotify. All these massive media companies are investing in us and partnering with us to give us airtime, exposure. And thats why were using big talent like Rio Ferdinand and others, plus small creators, our citizens, the TV networks – its the media mix of all of that happening together that drives collective change

MM: With the media partnerships, is it literally that theyre giving you advertising airtime?

SF: Theyre all really different. Some of them, we’re buying the airtime. Its no different to building anything, right? So we activate our core, we activate our creative base. We incentivize people to invite people. We activate all our creative base and reward them. We partner with publishers and then the big media companies, sometimes they give us airtime, in a lot of instances, yes. But were also doing loads of other partnerships. So its a mix between media on-platform and off-platform.

MM: And you say you plan to get 1 per cent of the population using the app by the end of 2023. Youre talking global population there?

SF: Yeah, global so weve got 8bn people on our beautiful planet earth, and our goal is to get 80m people taking tiny actions every day in support of the planet. And if we achieve this, it would mean $95m to charity; $23m to climate; and $1.2bn back to our citizens. And then, imagine them paying half of that forward to charity. I mean, even imagine this, David: theres 5m people across the UK that cant get enough food every day. 5m citizens watching two minutes of ads a day paying 25p forward to FareShare, who can get someone a meal for 25p: boom!  Weve created a sustainable end, and yes, its not a perfect framework, but we can make massive impact.

MM: Okay, and if somebody wants to come on the platform, but theyre not interested in earning money from ads, so theyre of no interest to your advertisers effectively, because theyre never going to look at an ad, are you cool with that?

SF: I love that Do whatever you want, because do you know what? Remember, I researched this and worked with 12 behavioural scientists to work out if we could build a digital ad model that didnt just get someones attention, but it made them feel loved. But if they dont want to watch an ad, just come and join the community. See your friends. 95 per cent of people want to watch ads and change the world and get celebrated and make positive impact like that. And pay their mobile bill and Spotify bills. But if they dont want it David, thats fine. Just come here and just enjoy the community.

MM: And that is the proportion of your citizens that are currently watching ads, 95 per cent?

SF: Yes, but as I say, if they don’t want to watch ads, just come here and just enjoy the community. I just can’t see how else we’re going to save our planet or our species actually. I hear every day about the mental health crisis. Kids are scrolling for 4-6 hours a day, isolated in their rooms, and social has fuelled that, and social has fuelled the climate crisis, but it can be more inspiring and more fun than ever. So we’re not saying “get off those platforms,” we’re just saying “come here and feel the love and feel valued, because we’re not in a good place as humans and Mother Earth is screaming for our help, so I’m passionate about it because I can’t see how the fuck else we’re going to get ourselves out of this mess.”

The post Socially-responsible social media appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

How does programmatic in-app retargeting work compared to other strategies like user acquisition (UA)?

Güven Soydan: Programmatic advertising outcomes are largely influenced by four critical elements: creative design, targeting, bidding, and budget allocation. The latter two, (bidding and budgeting), help to determine the predicted value of an ad impression, which is also contingent on the segment of users that the ads are shown to. This bidding process is usually governed by machines, because impression prices change dynamically and are driven by market demand.

If you first look at user acquisition (UA), which accounts for a major portion of the in-app advertising market, the total addressable market is massive compared to the available budgets. Success often lands in niche verticals like casual gaming, or remains elusive due to the complex task of targeting and segmentation. Targeting specific publishers or interest areas is common practice, and although valuable, it’s hyper-competitive – which often leads to advertisers bidding against each other.

Retargeting on the other hand is different in the sense that it targets individuals already interested in your product – its akin to fishing in a pool rather than the ocean. Coupled with a detailed understanding of customer behavior within your app, it offers huge advantages for targeting – particularly when paired with the appropriate algorithms, data science techniques, and the right expertise.

Moreover, in-app retargeting focuses on a wider variety of objectives and conversion funnels, such as boosting engagement, reducing churn, or increasing purchase size per user – just as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) does. As a result, the focus shifts to optimization for re-engagement and retention – rather than UA’s typical goals of installation and onboarding. Retargeting, therefore, promotes repetition and sustainability to drive retention and combat user churn.

All these factors contribute to making retargeting incredibly beneficial for established app products with a large and segmentable customer base. Especially in times when macroeconomic factors impact both companies and consumers, retargeting offers a wealth of opportunities due to its versatility and its potential to cost-effectively reach your most likely-to-convert users.

Why is mobile advertising going privacy-first?

GS: The transition toward privacy-first mobile advertising mirrors a significant consumer trend in the digital age. This trend is the aftershock of a seismic event – the surge of hyper-personalization in digital experiences, which was heightened by the advent of social media. Todays digital products, such as personalized feeds, playlists, gaming experiences or job and purchase recommendations, owe their existence to ingenious product managers, engineers and designers who have harnessed behavioral data.

However, this data-driven personalization and the subsequent value created for advertisers by free services has given rise to unforeseen consequences. Its evident from our brief journey through the last century how advertising, public relations, propaganda, and psychology are intricately linked. Yet, it wasnt until the mid-2010s that the impact of digital products with access to personal behavioral data was felt – even influencing critical decisions like democratic elections. Simultaneously, or perhaps slightly earlier, a more straightforward question arose: who has access to this data?

Data privacy, (which is critical in the relationships between nations), has hit a crucial juncture as it impacts people from all walks of life – from citizens to nation leaders. A perfect storm of consumer apprehension and classified information has emerged. Revelations of rampant data collection, made public by whistleblowers, have triggered serious calls to action. This set the stage for regulations like GDPR to establish order in what was becoming the wild west of data.

The advent of GDPR and similar laws sparked a global awareness surge due to company compliance requirements which pushed advertising into the spotlight. Interestingly, advertising within walled gardens, (such as social media platforms), largely escaped this scrutiny – possibly due to the user experience. This may be because users typically only have to consent once to their data being shared – something they do when they initially sign up for these platforms.

Post-GDPR, the user experience became arduous as users were required to repeatedly grant consent to consume content, play games, or use services. This also exposed users to the extent of data sharing with multiple partners, raising privacy concerns. I believe this experience was deliberately designed to mainstream privacy demands. Apple responded by integrating this demand into their product core, leveraging their strengths in encryption, security, and reliability, and introducing an OS-level mandatory consent framework called App Tracking Transparency (ATT), for all iOS developers. The unfolding of these events is now part of tech history.

In summary, the shift towards privacy-first mobile advertising is a classic consumer response to market dynamics, largely fueled by the democratic and bureaucratic power that citizens have to drive change.

Why does the privacy-first era matter for advertisers?

GS: Advertisers should prioritize privacy because it aligns with their customers desires. The global free-market has often operated on a ‘push the boundaries until youre stopped’ principle. While this may not change soon, experience shows that in the long haul, companies attentive to their customers needs and concerns are those who tend to prosper most. They win business by delivering high-quality products and services at prices their customers are willing to pay. Likewise, advertising that respects privacy boundaries fosters healthier long-term relationships with potential and existing customers.

Beyond this ethical imperative, there are also practical considerations. Privacy-first advertising necessitates changes to algorithms, database infrastructures, in-app event collection technologies, relations with third-party technology providers, and segmentation decisions. Failure to adapt to a privacy-first approach, both in compliance and transformation, can lead to significant long-term business impact. Working with the right partners and building skilled teams internally to navigate this shift is crucial. The earlier that businesses start this transition, the better – as expertise in this area will be a valuable strategic investment for the future.

What is Google’s solution for a privacy-first future of Android retargeting?

GS: Google is spearheading the privacy-first future with its Privacy Sandbox, a suite of tools and frameworks for app and web developers to build privacy-centric advertising solutions. The Sandbox addresses various facets of the advertising ecosystem and technology that (1) interacts with user data, and (2) facilitates non-personal data sharing across partners. It provides solutions for tracking and reporting via the Attribution API, targeting through the Topics and Protected Audiences API, and data collection and handling via the SDK Run Time.

How is Remerge helping as a mobile DSP, and AppsFlyer as an MMP?

GS: Remerge and AppsFlyer are working directly with Google to play a defining role in the development of this privacy-first solution for mobile retargeting and segmentation. After substantial development, weve crafted a solution enabling advertisers to target their existing users through the Remerge platform, with the AppsFlyer SDK enabled in their app. As a first iteration for our customers, our objective is to provide advertisers with a seamless transition, where their experience remains largely unchanged, but a user’s personal data never leaves their mobile devices. This preserves their privacy, which is the fundamental goal of our work with leading Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) and Supply Side Partners (SSPs).

Remerge as a DSP is in the front and center of the change when it comes to building products on the Protected Audiences API. Not only do we aim to support the Protected Audiences API, but also the Attribution API too – and in doing so, adapt Remerges optimization algorithms to function within this new framework.

Retargeting on iOS had to be relearned when Apple rolled out ATT. How do you think the roll out of Google’s Privacy Sandbox will compare?

The development of the Privacy Sandbox has been underway for some time, having been announced in August 2019, and it has already been implemented on Chrome with the ongoing depreciation of cookies. The myriad of involved parties and developers, as well as the solutions offered for industry-wide challenges, highlight Googles thoughtful approach to the subject.

For Android, Remerge has been engaged from the early stages in designing and constructing solutions. The reception from advertisers and the broader industry has been very positive. The collaborative effort and intellectual investment in this process are fostering a community-oriented dynamic that will benefit the entire industry in the years to come. So, indeed, I believe that this transition has been, and will continue to be, significantly smoother than ATT was.

How will retargeting on Android work when device IDs like IDFA or GAID can no longer be used?

GS: To answer this, we need to briefly delve into the current retargeting flow. Presently, retargeting via Real Time Bidding (RTB) operates as follows below. However, it should be noted that differences exist in walled gardens, where the Demand Side Platform and Supply Side Platform are already integrated.

1. App user behavior is tracked and users IDs are added to segments either in real-time or retrospectively (daily). These segments are defined according to various criteria, based on the advertiser and DSP’s decisions, such as users who havent purchased anything in the last 7 days, or users who completed a tutorial but have not played a certain level for example.
2. When a user engages with an app that uses ads for monetization, their advertising ID is passed to the Supply Side Platforms SDK (Software Development Kit), which then transfers this information to the DSPs.
3. The DSPs match the users ID with their segment lists to see if there are any suitable ads for this individual.
4. The DSP sends the ad to the SSP along with a bid price for that ad impression.
5. An auction is held among the DSPs bids, and the winning ad is sent to the app to be displayed.
6. Mediation often comes into play in most apps to ensure maximum income for the app publisher.
7. In cases of mediation, the winning ads are taken by the mediation SDK and another short auction occurs among the winners of the SSPs.
8. The winning ad is displayed, and information about the ad being shown, watched, and possibly clicked, is sent to the DSP.
9. The DSP sends this information to the measurement partner.
10. The measurement partner tracks all events of all users on the advertisers app, enabling them to attribute certain events to the ads that are shown to, or clicked by the user.

With Android Privacy Sandbox, this flow is now undergoing significant technological changes. The difference lies in the fact that while user segments are still defined by the advertiser and potentially the DSP, the user is added to the ‘segment’ in advance and on device, rather than the DSP servers evaluating if a potential ad placement is for a user belonging to a ‘segment’.

Moreover, ad selection decisions are not made in real-time. Instead, some ads that are suitable for a segment are sent beforehand – and are selected on the device itself. This means that the additional calculations for pricing and ad selection are done in a completely privacy-centric way. Whatsmore, the user data collected by all the SDKs is controlled by the advertiser – and the SDKs are no longer embedded in the apps that the users enjoy – therefore providing strong protection.

In summary, while almost everything will change from the technology providers perspective, the advertiser will see minimal change with the buying experience, except in the ability for absolute personalization. The most notable change will likely be in personalized ads that display products or services perfectly tailored to a users behavior or consumption habits. ??For example, due to the absence of user-level behavioral data, it will no longer be possible to show users products that they added to their shopping cart, but did not end up buying.

This shift will spur substantial innovation in the industry, (which I’ll touch on later), but the overall need for creating value wont change – necessitating investment in new or additional ways to engage users.

What can advertisers do now to prepare for an ID-less future?

GS: As the industry builds the mobile retargeting tools of tomorrow, it’s important for advertisers to express their needs, ask about possibilities, and emphasize their specific use cases to help product developers and engineers address problems and design the appropriate solutions. Maintaining contact with experienced advertising partners like Remerge will be beneficial as we navigate this transition to Google’s Privacy Sandbox.

What should advertisers look for in a DSP to ensure great retargeting results in the privacy-first era?

GS: For effective retargeting in the future of privacy-safe advertising, crucial components include adept segment management and decision-making capabilities for budget distribution, bidding, and ad selection. Also, a DSP must be able to effectively employ algorithmic optimization that utilizes anonymized and aggregated data.

Remerge stands out by offering these key capabilities, combined with a deep understanding of industry dynamics, value creation metrics, and a unique company culture. We have extensive experience in in-app retargeting, working with a diverse range of customers across the globe from a variety of different industries.

Remerge has a clear and pragmatic strategy to ensure a smooth transition for our clientele of advertisers when the Android Privacy Sandbox rolls out. Heres a more detailed overview of our plan:

1. Promote a breadth-first product design approach:
   We are committed to covering a wide range of topics before delving into specific long-term problems in certain areas. We are striving to become generalists in the Android Privacy Sandbox space before tackling niche subjects.

2. Stakeholder-centric product development:
   We are committed to producing well-thought-out, extensively tested, and well-documented products that are designed in close collaboration with our clients and stakeholders.

3. Leverage existing knowledge:
   We aim to build upon the wealth of knowledge and technical concepts weve built over the years, avoiding the need to reinvent the wheel. We aim to reuse existing technical concepts while considering possible improvements in our new, decentralized bidding approach.

4. Cultivate industry relationships:
   Our goal is to strengthen our position as leaders of in-app retargeting and continue to collaborate with new and existing partners. We conduct regular meetings with Google, the major MMPs, and SSPs too.

As part of our strategy, we are also investing into algorithmic optimization to ensure the best outcomes for advertisers. Were not just refining our product, but evolving together with our partners at the industry forefront, making Remerge a valuable partner for advertisers in the future of privacy-safe advertising.

Do you have any predictions for mobile retargeting in the privacy-first era?

GS: Looking ahead, it appears that the significance and value derived from first-party data will grow exponentially. This will likely bring CRM, analytics and advertising products closer together than ever before. Both in B2B and B2C businesses, a companys ability to craft customer lifetime management experiences will increasingly define success, particularly given their dependence on marketing, and the retargeting aspect of it. While its uncertain exactly how this will transpire, we may witness mergers between large CRM companies and advertising technology companies aiming to create a holistic circle of customer engagement for retention purposes.

Another trend likely to emerge even faster is the enhanced importance of ad creatives and content, combined with the power of generative AI. As devices become more sophisticated, running these algorithms on users mobile phones will become a fascinating challenge for advertising technology builders.

I foresee that advertising products in the next few years will generate personalized ad experiences for each individual, right on their device, without sharing their data with anyone except the AI on the device. Imagine ads for products not pulled from an e-commerce companys product feed, but from the photos on your phone.

The AI would analyze your style and show you products youd love, possibly even items that dont yet exist. But once youve expressed interest and liked how it looked on you (via the AI-generated image in the ad), manufacturers can use this information to refine and develop their ranges and create even more desirable products for their customers.

While this may sound like a distant dream, I firmly believe its not far off. Were on the precipice of a major shift in advertising, one that combines advanced technology with a deep understanding of consumer preferences to create more personalized and effective ad experiences.

Apple is now showing interest in building their own privacy-safe retargeting solutions. What are your thoughts?

GS: While the specific details are not yet clear, there are indications, such as the updates in SKAdNetwork 5.0 that support remarketing attributions, suggesting that Apple might be considering more active involvement in the space.

However, its important to note that the shift of advertising dollars to Android has strengthened and diversified the ecosystem there. Combined with Googles collaborative approach to building a privacy-first advertising future, Apple may be realizing the need for a healthy, functioning ecosystem without compromising its main lifeline – in-app advertising.

Apples strategy to distribute value through its payment and subscription services to creators hasnt resonated well with the market, affecting both developers and advertisers operating on iOS. Retargeting could be a part of a larger plan where Apple aims to invigorate the advertising-fueled economy that its own products havent fully supported yet.

Given the amount of work Apple has put into its own advertising platform, retargeting is likely to be a crucial part of their strategy to remain competitive with other market offerings. Its certainly an area to watch closely as the landscape continues to evolve.

The post Retargeting on Android is changing: here’s what you need to know appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Mobile Marketing: Can you tell us about the Science-Based Targets initiative?

Simon Jonansson: SBTi is a collaborative effort between the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and CDP which empowers businesses to establish ambitious emissions reduction objectives which align with the most up to date climate science. Almost 5,000 businesses around the world are already working with it – and the numbers are growing all the time.

SBTi’s rules are stringent but it is encouraging more companies to set science-based targets as it continues on its mission to accelerate and consolidate the process of supporting the world’s companies and organisations on their journey to reduce emissions to as close to zero as possible.

MM: Please tell us about your approved targets, what this all means for SeenThis?

SJ: We’re thrilled to announce our pledge to significantly decrease our carbon footprint by 2030, with our near-term science-based targets having been approved by SBTi. Through the SBTis SME pathway, SeenThis has committed to reducing our scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent from a 2021 baseline by 2030, as well as measuring and reducing our scope 3 emissions. As part of this initiative, we will publicly disclose our emissions and monitor our progress towards our goals on an annual basis.  

MM: Why did you choose to take this path?

SJ: SBTi drives ambitious climate action by defining and promoting best practices in emissions reductions and targets in line with climate science. It enables companies to set science-based emissions reduction targets in accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. The framework provides a valuable, goal-setting standard and we believe our industry can greatly benefit from using measurable standards such as this one.

Committing to significant carbon footprint reduction and setting science-based targets approved by SBTi also showcases our dedication to sustainability and corporate responsibility. It aligns our business strategy with global efforts to tackle climate change and ensures our targets are grounded in the latest science.

MM: Has this always been important to SeenThis?

SJ: Certainly. Since 2017, SeenThis has been on a mission to create a more energy-efficient internet, starting with digital advertising and the media industry and transforming the distribution and climate impact of digital content. Our adaptive streaming solution is built to be smarter about if, what and when data should be sent. By eliminating data that is never consumed by a human, SeenThis enables advertisers to reduce data waste, avoiding an excessive carbon footprint and helping to drive a high-speed yet energy-efficient internet.

Our technology minimizes unnecessary data in digital advertising, resulting in both enhanced user experience and the enabling of reduced climate impact. We are all about combining performance with sustainability and transparency and we aim to place more power in the hands of advertisers to improve ad performance whilst contributing to a more sustainable industry. For instance we recently launched an Emissions Dashboard to enable clients to measure data transfer and related carbon footprint, with performance insights at creative, campaign and agency level. It includes key insights such as measurements of data transfer and carbon footprint of the ad delivery, and estimations on reduced data waste and avoided emissions.

MM: What would you say to others thinking of embarking on a similar journey?

SJ: It’s important to minimize your own negative impact; your global footprint. In regards to the environment and climate, this relates first to building an understanding around where you stand in terms of your carbon footprint in your value chain. It’s important not to focus only on the emission driving activities that you yourself have direct control over, but rather all areas of the value chain where you have an influence – so, scope 1, 2 and 3. But with that said, don’t wait for precise numbers or exact calculations – act early where you can to start to reduce your emissions.

Meanwhile, aim to maximize your positive contribution; your global handprint. At SeenThis, our handprint is closely tied to our product: By using SeenThis, other players in the value chain can reduce their footprint, and by that our solution can avoid emissions.

Climate change is our generation’s most challenging and pressing issue. We are committed to the evolution of transformational technologies and to empowering our clients in their sustainability efforts. Adhering to science-based targets can help to drive ambitious corporate climate action – leading the way to a low-carbon economy, boosting innovation and driving sustainable growth.

In all of this, evidence-backed targets have an important role. They show organizations how much and how quickly they need to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to prevent the worst effects of climate change and why. What’s more, a climate-secure world goes hand-in-hand with successful business operations – and we must act now. We have limited time.

About Simon
As Sustainability Lead at adaptive streaming technology company SeenThis, Simon works to integrate sustainability into organizational strategy; collaborating to develop and implement initiatives which drive positive impact for both business and environment. Simon and the wider SeenThis team are on a mission to create a fast internet with a smart footprint by reimagining how digital content is delivered.

Read more about SeenThis’ sustainability efforts, state- of-the-art adaptive streaming technology and carbon footprint measurement here.

The post Talking sustainable advertising with Simon Johansson, Sustainability Lead, SeenThis   appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Mobile Marketing: Hi Peter, thanks for taking the time to speak to us today. What was the talk surrounding cookies (and their fate) on the showroom floor?

Peter Wallace: However you look at it, at some point in the near future, third-party cookies are going away. It’s been delayed for a little while, but there’s no doubt their demise is coming. Everyone needs to be prepared for that, so the industry must consider the way in which it will undertake targeting in the future, and the way we all measure campaign performance.

In a way, the demise of the cookie is something of a sideshow, because either way, digital advertising should be moving towards boosting performance via creativity and context. GumGum’s Mindset Matrix framework describes the way in which contextual advertising, high impact creative and attention metric will provide the best way of targeting consumers, and measuring their engagement with a campaign.

MM: How important is privacy when it comes to advertisers choosing a solution to manage the cookieless future?

PW: For GumGum, and indeed everyone, privacy is paramount. I firmly believe that advertising should be focused on a privacy-first world… the consumer should be first in all things. Let me be very clear, audiences do not want their data shared, consumers want natural, unobtrusive advertising, and therefore putting privacy first is a fundamental need.

MM: How important is a user-first approach to marketing, and how can advertisers do it well? 

PW: There are a few hard and fast rules here. First of all, don’t use personal data. There’s no need, and users don’t want to share it. Serve fewer ads, but better ad experiences. Historically, we’ve bombarded audiences with many thousands of ads on a daily basis, the majority of them are ignored – we’ve all got a finite amount of attention to give, after all – so you’ve got to deliver better experiences and offer more meaningful moments for consumers. Better user experiences equal better business outcomes.

MM: What areas of ad tech are on the up?

PW: I’m really excited about the advent of new channels like gaming and CTV (Connected TV), and the opportunities they offer advertisers and publishers. Ultimately, contextual advertising is relevant for all channels because it allows advertisers to analyse all types of data signals within an online environment, from text and video to image and audio. For gaming and CTV in particular, creative is critical. It’s important not to employ overly intrusive formats, such as big interstitials that will detract from the user experience, and the industry needs to consider how to integrate ads seamlessly into gaming and TV experiences. The measurement of all this is also very interesting. Clearly, we have to think away from the ‘click’. While this metric retains some relevance in a desktop environment, for emerging channels like CTV and gaming it is simply not fit for purpose, and tells us nothing about the users that may have seen an ad without physically engaging with it. Conversely attention – and the value we place on it – offers the most exciting opportunities regarding measurement.

MM: Where do you stand on the metaverse and the opportunities it presents?

PW: Haha, well… whatever your view, it looks like the metaverse – when it eventually hits the mainstream – is a platform that’s likely to stay, and we’re excited about the potential it offers the digital marketing world. It is going to be really interesting to see how advertisers approach and engage users in the metaverse, because this is an environment unlike any that’s come before. Adapting to this new platform, with its unique user experience and variety of different environments, will not be easy but it presents huge rewards for those that get it right. In short, amazing opportunities await and advertisers need to be ready, but that time is not here yet.

MM: Finally, what is your biggest takeaway from DMEXCO 2022?

PW: The big takeaway for me is how critical it is to work with context, especially in light of the privacy challenges the industry is facing. And, work with the best type of context. Not all context is created equal, and if you can identify the best context for you and your audience you are going to drive performance. GumGum’s advanced contextual intelligence platform (called Verity) helps advertisers and brands do this by analysing a huge variety of triggers, including video, audio and imagery, and is 1.7x more accurate than other contextual vendors.

MM: Will we see GumGum there again next year? 

PW: Of course, one hundred percent! GumGum has been coming to Cologne for years, and we don’t want to miss one of the largest events of the European scene. We’ll see you all in 2023.

The post Exclusive: DMEXCO debrief with GumGum’s Peter Wallace appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Mobile Marketing: Tobias, youve worked with Andre before. How would you describe him in one sentence to someone who’s never met him?

Tobias Berner: Andre is the living example of HANDS-ON MENTALITY.

MM: Andre, how would you describe Tobi in one sentence?

Andre Kemp: Oh, that is easy: Tobi is an energetic, fast thinking and perhaps one of the most innovative and inspiring people I worked with.

MM: How is this new offering different from what you have been doing the last few years, weren’t you always helping apps to grow?

AK: Admiral Media in some way always did growth consulting, but with a very strong focus on performance marketing. With Tobi on deck our expertise has now become much broader and with him, we are able to look much deeper into the product, your app itself and help with improvements in onboarding, user journeys and much more. Which will certainly have a massive impact on our performance marketing as well because a 5 per cent better conversion rate on your paywall will easily enable you to bid higher for more customers, which means we will have more budget available to scale your Facebook or other ads.

MM: What are the main services you are offering?

AK: So far, we were focused on ad operations and campaign management, help with tracking and attribution, creative services and content creator acquisition, but now we can offer consulting around app onboarding, paywall optimization, user journeys and CRM but also build landing pages for our customers who have a web flow or run web-to-app campaigns.

MM: What does the process look like?

TB: Our experts analyze the brand or apps over a period of two weeks. We get a picture of the customer journey and the entire communication. Based on this, we develop a report with improvement possibilities to make your application even more successful.

For those who are interested in getting a light version of this: we are offering an exclusive first workshop in Marbella where 10 people will get the unique opportunity to dive deep into the above topics and get advice from me as well as mobile legend Thomas Petit.

MM: Where do you usually see the biggest levers for growth and engagement in the customer journey? 

TB: The biggest impact often comes from small adjustments without much effort for the dev teams. This is preceded by natural years of experience and thousands of A/B tests. We like to call this Low-Hanging Fruits, and it should be well known to most app companies.

What’s more effort is the installation of a well-thought-out user lifecycle. We often see very advanced brands that have no or insufficient mobile CRM. On the basis of this, we are, of course, talking about a completely different dimension of activation, monetization, or reactivation.

MM: What are some common issues and common threats that you see in CRM?

TB: Communication with the user always resembles a tightrope act. It’s about finding the perfect balance between communicating with the user often enough so that he integrates the use of your app into his or her natural behavior, and not annoying them with too much communication. We’ll explain how you can find that balance. It depends on what stage the customer communication is in, but it can be said that very often the right execution fails. Another problem, which is not uncommon, is that the CRM team is hardly listened to by the product manager. This circumstance makes it very complicated to really develop the full potential.

MM: What kind of clients do you work with, and what should a company bring to the table that is looking to work with you?

AK: Admiral Media has many customers with subscription-based apps, often from the health and fitness segment, but we also have food and grocery deliveries, fintech, some great gaming titles and mobility apps. I do not see a big difference between app categories or business models, to be honest. Like saying “only gaming agencies can promote games well” – from my perspective, this attitude doesn’t match reality: if you are having a broader experience from many different industries, you will always be able to make better decisions and learn new tools faster and adapt to new situations faster.

If you are interested in working with us, we have some minimum requirements in terms of budget or scalability, and, more importantly, we are also looking to see if a company is a fit for our values, which I hold very high. Our core values need to be met not only from our colleagues, but also from our partners and customers.

MM: Do you have a dream company you admire or always wanted to work for?

AK: We love to work with founders and decision-makers or teams who are as passionate about impact as we are!

MM: With your combined decades of marketing expertise, what are three annoying mistakes that companies are still making in 2022?

AK: They become slow and anxious. Advertising becomes more and more homogenous, boring and less innovative. Most advertisers embrace a new technology and create stunning visual effects, e.g., the large 3D displays you see on your social media lately, but that is not innovative or long-lasting campaigning with a sales effect. It is only a gimmicky use of technology.

Also, I see us discussing LTV and ROAS every day all day, investing millions in media but forgetting to allocate the right percentage of budget to creative directors, let alone copywriters. When was the last time you spoke with a copywriter about how she or he discovered a headline that drove sales for six months? Exactly.

For those who are interested in a light version: we are offering a first workshop in Marbella as a warm up for our GrowBoat Event! See more information here: https://growboat.io – max 10 people have a chance to dive deep into the above topics with Thomas Petit and Tobi!

The post “Communication with the user is a tightrope act” – Tobias Boerner and Andre Kempe talk about growth, user relations, and gimmicks vs. value appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Mobile Marketing: What do you consider to be the main findings of the study?

Thomas Toftdahl Jensen: Well, what came out of our original global study is that viewability in advertising – just being able to see something – is not the same as actually seeing it. And we have really gotten a lot of insights into the differences between those two key metrics in the past few years, including here.

But the main thing this new piece of research shows is that the longer you look at an ad, the more effect it will have. That, for me, is the central point, and you can use that information as a metric across all channels – not only digital, but also out-of-home, TV and others.

MM: What are the main implications of that insight?

TTJ: It enables this new metric that we’ve introduced, which is the attentive CPM (aCPM). We believe that this will lead to a shift in the industry, where instead of buying impressions, we’re transitioning to buying seconds of attention.

When we look at aCPM, we see that the most cost-efficient media is video formats and high impact. Those come out really strong here compared to, for example, social media and standard display advertising which had high viewability but low attention.

MM: Do you have examples of specific format insights?

TTJ: In general, we see that video formats and larger formats are better at getting noticed than smaller formats. On desktop topscroll, for instance, we achieve an average of 6.3 attentive seconds with the user, and with mobile midscroll we get 3.2 seconds with the user, which respectively corresponds to 3.9x and 2x more time than on standard display formats. And that is important, because we need about two seconds with the user to create ‘The Golden Window for Recall’, where the probability of higher ad recall increases.

MM: The value of attention seems to be increasingly well recognised, but there has been some pushback regarding reach and frequency, hasn’t there? The idea that the bigger formats perform well, but if you need to have a national reach, it might be difficult…

TTJ: So, this is really an important point. These things that we know about attention now give us the possibility to push budget towards formats that get a proven higher attention. But at the same time, if we dont reach the number of eyeballs or the right eyeballs that we need in order to have an efficient campaign, it doesnt make sense.

So our approach to it, at least in Denmark, is that we need to plan a campaign for reach first, frequency second, and attention third. So we need to still get a high reach to the right people – we cant just take social media or move standard display advertising out of the equation. We still need to figure out, how many people do we need to reach with the campaign? But then how can we do that with the highest possible attention?

MM: What does this mean from a practical planning point of view. How do agencies apply it?

TTJ: A lot of it is doing what we used to, but we are now able to use aCPM instead of a standard CPM. Through Lumen Research, we have the possibility to use a custom-bidding algorithm directly in the auctions, when buying high impact and display formats programmatically. So for example, if its this device, this screen size, this time of day, we can use that information to estimate how much attention we will actually get on that placement and then we can adjust the bid accordingly.

MM: What is the value of research like this to Adnami as a technology platform providing high impact formats?

Peter Østrem: It’s a landmark. It changes the way media measurement and media quality should be understood. But it is also just a starting point. The important thing is to have a metric that works across brands and channels. Once we can measure it and scale it in a cost-efficient way, then we can say, okay, how do we optimise? It’s about media planning, buying, modifying bidding algorithms, understanding the context you’re buying from. It goes much further than just measurement.

MM: And how are clients responding to this shift towards attention?

PØ: We certainly have clients who have found that attention is the missing piece of insight they have been looking for, and that attention-grabbing formats can leverage that. I think its also important that basically were not just comparing a big format with a smaller format, but we now have evidence that high impact is genuinely doing the things that we at Adnami have been preaching for quite a long time. And that is a game-changer.

MM: And, finally, Adnami has always stressed the importance of creative – where does creative sit in all of this for Dentsu?

TTJ: Well, we should stress that the creative is by far the biggest driver of effect from attention. Our research suggests that the more relevant an ad is, the better it works. And I think, for a while, all the digital possibilities kind of made us forget to be creative. Advertisers moved away from being seducers of people’s attention to being stalkers. However, with this, were really trying to get back to a situation where advertisers have better insights for how to earn peoples attention, rather than trying to claim it.

This is not something we as media agencies can succeed with alone. We need to work together across the industry – technology providers, publishers, media agencies, creative agencies and advertisers. And with this research globally and in Denmark, we have started that journey.

The post “Advertisers went from seducers to stalkers” – how attention metrics are putting them back on the right path   appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Mobile Marketing speaks live from Cannes with Laura Stephens, Senior Account Director at Exit Bee, to get the lowdown on what’s in store for brands and vendors this year.

Mobile Marketing: Cannes back and bigger than ever. Are you surprised by how popular the event is this year?

LS: For me, Cannes is like a networker’s dream. Ive done a couple of these before, and it is literally networking on steroids. Youre able to meet people that in a normal year, you just wouldnt meet, because people’s diaries are normally so busy. But here in Cannes, you get to talk to these senior people properly, and you’re able to have longer, more meaningful conversations. I do think its the most valuable event of the year, especially from a new business perspective.

First, everyone is gathered from all over the globe to talk about business, understand each others products or needs, see whether they can work on B2B partnerships, etc. Second, I think with Cannes having not happened for two years, there has been a real desire for people in the industry to get together, and go back to the enjoyable part of the industry, which is being able to meet up in a lovely location but also do really meaningful business.

MM: What are brands looking for from platforms, solutions and formats?

LS: I think innovation is key. Theres been a lack of it in the last few years in the industry with Covid. And now a lot of brands are having to compete, especially with economic challenges such as the cost of living coming into play. At the moment, were seeing a push towards Q3 and Q4 – which will be massive for brands this year. It feels like everyone has started off the year in a conservative way, and a lot of brands are waiting until that Q3/Q4 point to start looking at advertising at larger scales again.

MM: Exit Bee is growing – what are the key highlights right now?

LS: Id say were getting a really positive response from brands at the moment. Were still at an early stage in the UK but its exciting because of the brands that were working with, the briefs we’re seeing and the traction we have in the market – for instance we’re working with clients such as VW, Dell, Adobe and Sky. Were really excited for the year ahead because we’re expecting significant growth for the company over the next few quarters.

MM: Which sectors do you see growth coming from?

LS: At the moment, automotive is really picking up. The chip shortage has eased, so a lot of car brands are spending again. Automotive in particular works really well with our format, because were able to drive lots of traffic to the site, and tailor our ads towards the conversion journey thats needed for automotive brands and we’re able to target based on the content a person is reading such as in-market car buyers. We’re also seeing an uplift in the Travel sector pick up again which is great to see following a difficult time for this industry in particular given the covid regulations and shut borders they have had to contend with.

MM: Talking about mobile specifically, how would you describe the strengths of the Exit Bee format?

LS: Our product works by detecting and predicting the moments users disengage from website content and are more likely to interact with an ad campaign. So it is great for driving qualified data-driven traffic to mobile websites. When Im out in the market, I always talk to brands about marrying up their digital plans with how they see users engaging with their site. So whether its on desktop or mobile, they just need to make sure that they mirror that user journey on their own site with how they execute on their media plans. If theyre seeing a lot of conversions come through mobile, then we help them tailor the plan to make sure that were running this same push and split between devices.

A few years ago, mobile was a much smaller part of a digital plan and has had to fight to be beside desktop based plans gradually, but we’ve seen a big shift towards it, especially during the summer months, with people being outdoors and on the go. In the winter months, there tends to be more of a push towards desktop, but overall, mobile is definitely seen as a relevant channel today.

MM: In the two year absence of Cannes, the mobile market has really moved on. What are the biggest changes youve observed?

I think, being back in the industry post-Covid, it’s all about driving creativity and innovation. Specifically, it’s about getting campaigns to work harder; making sure they are more performance-driven.

Were being measured a lot more for how campaigns are performing at a deeper level, not just on their own but as part of the wider campaign mix. So we’re being looked at to see what part we’re playing across all touchpoints in the customer journey, to determine influence on the end purchase; whether that is post-click, first-look or post-impression. And I think brands are being a lot smarter with their plans to make sure that they’re driving more efficiencies in the path to conversions. A few of the reasons why I love digital advertising is how creative, data-led and efficient we can all be at the same time. It is also such a fast-paced and always changing industry.

MM: Finally, where are the places to be for the rest of Cannes?

LS: Where to start? There’s the LADbible event, which will be great and always has good traction. And actually, it’s great to see all the collaborations between adtech vendors happening in our industry right now, too. Cannes is great because everyone is so welcoming and willing to talk and look at how they can partner with companies in a similar space – for example I always go to the Teads event. So with those types of events, everyone is learning a lot from each other and new relationships are built. I usually come back from Cannes with at least 50 new connections in our industry – I really do love networking!

And I love the fact that theres a lot of women and diversity events this year, as well as sustainability and authenticity. And of course, Fatboy Slim will be tearing it up at the Yahoo! event – so you’ll definitely see me there!

The post Live from Cannes: Exit Bee on campaigns, collaborations and key events appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.