Apptivate: App Marketing Explained

Pablo Bereskyj is the Marketing Operations Manager for Etermax, an international gaming company headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Previously, Pablo worked in business intelligence and financial analysis at Acuris, The Mergermarket Group, and Debtwire.Questions Pablo Answered in this Episode:Did you have any fear or reservation about jumping into the gaming industry coming from a financial services company?What do you think held you back from moving to a third party retargeting vendor?When you look at retargeting in retrospect, what was one of the things you found most challenging in getting it off the ground or maybe one thing you would have done differently?Timestamp:4:26 Pablo’s professional background8:17 From finance to gaming12:40 Learnings from internal retargeting operations15:25 Moving to a third party vendor for retargeting18:27 Maximizing the value of your core customers23:35 Top pillar underestimated with retargeting integrationsQuotes:(17:30-17:45) “You have to derive an internal ecosystem of tools; you need to be looking at all these variables; and if you want to run this constantly, it means that you have to have a really hands-on exercise with that.”(17:59-18:09) “The discovery of payers as a potential target, that was the other thing that drove a lot of the decision behind us using a third party vendor essentially.”Mentioned in this Episode:Pablo Bereskyj’s LinkedInEtermax

Patrick Eichmann is responsible for all revenue operations, including sales, account management and ad operations, in North and South America for Remerge. He is based in New York City.Questions Patrick Answered in this Episode:What is Remerge? And what is app retargeting in general?How is app retargeting still possible with iOS 14 and iOS15?What’s the business case for advertisers to still run app retargeting campaigns?Can you give some examples of verticals and companies that are using app retargeting right now?Android or iOS?What features would you miss most?What’s missing from mobile app tech?Timestamp:2:27 Patrick’s background4:05 Remerge & app retargeting6:05 What the data is showing9:05 The case for app retargeting today11:24 Who’s using app retargeting right now?15:13 What’s ahead for Remerge17:25 Get to know PatrickQuotes:(6:29-6:48) “We’ve developed a dashboard that provided a view into what was happening from an operating system adoption rate perspective. And then also a view into what was happening with the inventory itself. Meaning, how many impressions were out there that had IDs—the IDFA appended to it, how many didn’t?”(8:40-8:54) “That’s roughly 30 billion requests a day that are coming through that have an ID associated with it. So, it may not be what it once was, but that’s still a pretty sizable chunk of inventory that you can still extract value from.” (9:14-9:22) “With Android, it’s still intact. There may be changes that happen in the future but that makes up the lion share of available inventories now.”Mentioned in this Episode:Patrick Eichmann’s LinkedInRemergeThe State of App Retargeting ReportBusiness of Apps Ep.90: The state of app retargeting with Partick Eichmann, General Manager, Americas at Remerge

Ludie Veloso is the VP of operations for the AirBrush app at Pixocial, a subsidiary of Meitu. Before her current role at AirBrush, Ludie was their Global Growth Lead, managing teams around the world. Prior to AirBrush, she was the content director for Naranya Market Brazil. She is based out of Spain and has a background in economics.Questions Ludie Answered in this Episode:What are some keys to your success merging people from different cultures around the world into a unified team? What’s the rationale and advantage of having a team of 35 people spread out across the world? What had the most impactful effect on your app’s growth besides the people who make up your team?How do you categorize a micro-influencer? Are influencers at this stage getting paid like an affiliate would? What’s your strategy for managing so many micro-influencers? How do you safeguard against influencers not being a good fit for your brand?What are you excited about for the future of influencer marketing?Timestamp:1:55 Ludie’s background5:02 What brings a team together9:57 Localization 12:30 Growth with micro-influencer marketing16:39 The campaign that proved a point20:31 Paying micro-influencers22:47 The different uses of micro- vs enterprise-level influencers25:00 Influencer managers28:56 Quality control with influencers 31:21 The future of social influencersQuotes:(5:17-5:29) “The first challenge was you’re going to die unless you do this, this, and this. So we kind of had to come together as a team in the very beginning with a shared sense of, ‘We need to make this [app] happen.’”(26:08-26:15) “It made a lot of sense to us to actually bring influencers to help influencers succeed because they share the same problems.”(31:46-32:08) “For a long time we would have influencers who this was just their side, their job hustle. Now it’s actually their lives. They grew so much. So I think what’s exciting to see is how much more professional this is and how much more we can actually achieve because now we’re getting into campaigns and partnerships with our eyes open.”Mentioned in this Episode:Ludie Veloso’s LinkedIn profileAirBrushMeituPixocial

Eva Juretić is the Growth Marketing Manager for Pocket Worlds, a metaverse mobile game developer company pioneering social-first gaming. Eva is also the Senior UA and Growth Manager of her consulting company, ClickBite Consulting. Previously, she was the lead of the Growth Team at Misplay and a user acquisition specialist at Social Point. Questions Eva Juretić Answered in this Episode:Have you always identified this game as a metaverse platform? Have you seen a rise in user growth that you can correlate to the explosion of “meta” and “metaverse” as a concept?What does it mean to integrate blockchain into High Rise? What’s changing from a consumer perspective?How do you educate your users on NFT, if at all?Will it cost cryptocurrency to acquire an NFT?How do these advancements and changes related to blockchain technologies affect your role and how do you think about driving growth?Timestamp:4:30 Eva’s professional background14:04 About Pocketworlds and social-first gaming16:10 The explosion of “metaverse” in branding17:22 Play and earn: Introducing blockchain technology18:48 Cashing game currency - the first NFT drop21:33 Educating users on NFTs23:00 Buying NFTs with cryptocurrencies24:15 Giving users ownership with blockchain25:22 How will blockchain tech affect how marketers drive growthQuotes:(14:15-14:49) “Pocket Worlds is pioneering in social-first gaming, which means the social part of the game is the core part and the game is built around it. Unlike, for example, if you have an RPG game, they test the idea, the concept, the product; they see it’s working, and then eventually they add some social components like chat or whatever it is. In Pocket Worlds, in High Rise, the main app we’re talking about, this is the core of the game. The game wouldn’t exist without that social component.”(17:59-18:15) “Us entering that space and introducing blockchain technology into everything, it’s not only making the now popular ‘play to earn’ but a ‘play and earn’ concept, and this is what we’re most excited about.”(24:16-24:40) “So we have the economy, but we don’t want to be the owner of that. We want our users to have ownership of whatever property they have. So if you have any items, outfits, rooms, whatever you have in High Rise, like we know that because we have it written in our database. But we really want our users to own it, and a way to do it is translating that on blockchain.”Mentioned in this Episode:Eva Juretić’s LinkedInPocket WorldsHigh RiseHigh Rise Creature Club)

Bryce Boothby is the Director of Global Tech at McDonald’s. He’s responsible for aligning the 150+ markets McDonald’s serves. Previously, Bryce oversaw the growth of McDonald’s digital marketing in the U.S., including its rewards app and mcdonalds.com. Before McDonald’s, he was the Sr. Operational Cost Analyst at Ford. Questions Bryce Answered in this Episode:What piqued your interest in digital marketing when you were at Ford?How challenging was it to evolve McDonald’s digital ecosystem when you first joined the company?Can you tell us about the evolution of the MyMcDonald’s Reward program? What components of your strategy do you think really made a big difference?When you’re doing customer research for a brand of your size, do you have to meet a pretty high minimum threshold of consumers that you’ve engaged with before you can make any sort of determinations, and do you have to do that across multiple geographies?When you ran the test pilots in Phoenix and New England, did you have any unexpected results that drove changes within the loyalty program?What’s next for the mobile loyalty program?Timestamp:2:38 Bryce’s background7:25 Selling McDonald’s on the need for digital10:20 Massive growth of their loyalty rewards app13:10 3 key strategies to growing the app15:35 Innovative integration with Twitter16:35 Audience research at McDonald’s17:37 Surprising results from test pilots19:26 Why the McDonald’s workforce was key21:21 What’s nextQuotes:(11:47-12:04) “Just as a point of reference, granted McDonald’s scale is pretty significant compared to some of our competitors, but we essentially have 21 million members over the course of four months. Starbucks I believe had about 25 million members over the course of seven or eight years.”(16:40-17:03) “I think one of the statistics that really astounded me when I joined McDonald’s is, I think it’s something like 80 or 90 percent of the entire U.S. population visits McDonald’s at least once a year. So if you take that scale, that’s massive. So how do you understand what drives all our different types of customers? What’s compelling to them? Because they all have different need-states, different demographics. So, it is challenging.”(19:59-20:04) “In the world we live in, it’s really about connecting both the digital to the in-person experience.” Mentioned in this Episode:Bryce Boothby’s LinkedInMyMcDonald’s Rewards App

Sarah Polli is the Senior Director of Marketing Technology at Hearts & Science, a global marketing agency. Sarah began her career in digital media 10 years ago at the Washington Post.Questions Sarah Answered in this Episode:What’s it been like to experience the growth at Heart & Science over the last 5-6 years firsthand and what would you attribute it to?What got you into marketing technology and what do you still find interesting about it?Tell us what’s going on with Chrome.When these changes happened with Safari and Mozilla around 2018, did marketers shift their spend to Chrome or have you seen marketers actively working towards solutions since 2018 to present?Was it possible to measure the impact of those campaigns? Or were you using proxies to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns?How do you guide your partners through what’s going to happen? What are smart marketers doing today?What does it mean to be open and agile to you?Timestamp:7:08 Sarah’s background9:36 The growth of Hearts & Science11:30 What keeps MarTech interesting13:09 Changes with Google Chrome15:30 The loss of third-party cookies since 201818:55 First-party data: the new gold19:58 How Hearts & Science is preparing its partners28:11 On being open and agileQuotes:(14:30-14:53) “[Google] Chrome is actively building these APIs and we should start to see them being released toward the end of next year. So really 2023 for advertisers will be the big year of understanding these APIs--what do they look like, what are the ones for targeting, what is for retargeting, what is for measurement, and testing to see what they look like against what it is we have today, and determining how we want to proceed in the future.”(16:46-17:14) “The CPMs for Safari drastically went down. So smart advertisers, and we did this with our clients, you could take what was happening in Chrome, understand your audiences and use that to then go and target Safari by similar audiences, take advantage of that CPM decrease and still reach these users instead of just completely ignoring those people. Similar to what’s happening today with iOS apps and Android.”(19:16-19:24) “It’s really important for brands to focus on the data they collect on their site and on their apps because that is the new gold.”Mentioned in this Episode:Sarah Polli’s LinkedInHearts & ScienceAgents of Change Blog 

Alexa Wieczorek is the Growth Marketing Manager for Electronic Arts (EA). Previous to EA, Alexa was the Growth Marketing Analyst at DraftKings, and a Data Analyst at Glu Mobile. She is based in San Francisco.Questions Alexa Answered in this Episode:Do you have any thoughts on why EA, one of the largest game developers in the world, had not made any significant investments in DSP as part of their strategy until you joined?Why do you think it is important to be investing in the programmatic landscape? What are some of the advantages?What more data do you get from a DSP?What do you find yourself gravitating more towards: the self-service or the Bidder-as-a-Service as a managed service?You mentioned that DSPs that offer creative services can be more appealing. Is there anything else when you’re looking at DSPs that really matters? When you’re vetting DSPs, what are you looking out for?Have you found that most programmatic partners have been ready for the challenges presented by the ATT prompt and the lack of access to the IDFA? Are you confident that DSPs are doing the right thing?Timestamp:6:17 Alexa’s professional background9:46 Barriers to investing in DSP11:05 Advantages of a DSP11:56 The data you get from a DSP13:21 What you’re in for with managing DSPs15:05 Self-service or Bidder-as-a-Service19:15 Vetting managed DSPs21:41 Shifts in what DSPs are offering22:45 Tackling ATT and IDFA changesQuotes:(13:34-13:45) “I think it comes down to two things: a lack of understanding and I think it’s a lack of resourcing because going through a managed DSP is a lot more hands-on than a lot of Facebook or Google campaign management is.”(15:15-15:34) “The self-service option can be a little more cost-effective. The fees are a lot lower and they’re transparent. Whereas depending on the manager service partner, the fees aren’t always transparent. So I think that when you’re spending at a certain level of scale it makes sense. But if you don’t have the internal support, or you’re a smaller company, I think managed services are a great option.”(21:59-22:18) “I think that’s why a lot of people are moving toward a self-service or an in-house approach. I think also just being transparent about the data is important. All the DSPs don’t share exchange and publisher-level reporting, just to some degree. So I think working with a DSP that will share that level of data with you is also super important.”Mentioned in this Episode:Alexa Wieczorek’s LinkedInElectronic Arts

Questions Erin Answered in this Episode:What was the transition like from director to VP?How did you become comfortable with not having all the answers and being a little vulnerable?What is it that you’re doing every day for yourself so you can be the person and leader you need to be? What are some of those non-negotiables for you?Tell us about your career journey.What’s the worst advice you’ve received in your career?How do we encourage women to feel more confident in speaking up?What do you go to for inspiration?Timestamp:1:14 About Lose It! and Erin4:25 Stepping into the VP role during Covid7:38 Not having the answers9:15 Perspective from peers12:00 Working with an executive coach14:00 Non-negotiable self-care habits18:11 Erin’s career journey26:45 The worst advice Erin’s gotten29:02 Hacks for speaking up32:30 Sources of inspirationQuotes:(8:27-8:45) “Getting really inquisitive. Trying to be more of a coach and not a manager, and create space for the team to do their job. I realized over the last year, that’s what I should have been focused on instead of trying to understand everything that I needed to know as part of this job.”(11:03-11:20) “That notion of confidence and uncertainty, I think of it as, ‘I’m confident that we’ll find the answers. I’m confident that we’ll be able to solve this problem. I don’t know how we’re going to get there, but I believe in the team or I believe in my ability or whoever to get us to the place that we need to go.’”(13:02-13:25) “The whole mindset of this coaching program is that people will become better leaders when they’re more in tune with themselves, essentially. When you know who you are as your person, your authentic self with a capital ‘S,’ you’re more likely to show up in a way that’s authentic to you and to be a leader that people can believe in and follow and they want to work for.”Mentioned in this Episode:Erin Webster-Shaller’s LinkedInLose It!erin@loseit.comHarvard Business Review - Leadership E-NewsletterHBR Women at Work PodcastThe Skimm

Diane Le is the Senior Growth Marketer at Curtsy, a thrifting app for buying and selling women’s clothing. Diane’s specialty is scaling emerging channels like TikTok and Snapchat. Previous to Curtsy, Diane was a growth marketing consultant at Right Side Up. Questions Diane Answered in this Episode:What job experience do you think was most influential to your career? Are you still in performance marketing today? How have you felt during this period of privacy changes? You mentioned reverting back to old strategies. What does that look like for your team at Curtsy?Do you still buy media on a platform like Facebook and Instagram? Have you seen your media mix within these social channels change dramatically as a result of the privacy changes? Has it been challenging for you as a performance marketer to shift to this new mentality of mobile marketing, or has it been eye-opening or refreshing to you? Does this make you more meticulous in where you decide to spend your ad dollars? What do you spend your day focusing on?Timestamp:4:34 Diane’s background10:07 What is performance marketing today?12:06 Diane’s revamped strategy for app marketing15:42 Measuring aggregate performance over time19:22 Investing ad dollars in the right channels23:28 Tapping into existing, loyal users for content25:56 Cracking emerging social channelsQuotes:(11:20-11:42) “I think at this stage we’re kind of in the Wild Wild West of growth marketing. We’ve kind of reverted back to the olden days where we really just need to take a step back and get all of the learnings just because the historical data doesn’t count anymore. You can look back at your yearly metrics, but what are we going to learn from that at this point? So this is like year-one and then we’ve got to continue learning and move on from that.”(17:12-17:33) “Look at the holistic growth numbers, like where are we trending? Because we don’t have granular data anymore, we can’t afford to just get in the weeds like that and optimize based on A, B, CTA, things like that. We really have to take a step back. But I think integrating brand campaigns with performance, you should effectively see that growth.”(22:20-22:32) “Now advertisers need to really get creative. Can you incorporate your brand message in a TikTok dance? Can you leverage a trending song? Are you picking the right influencers?”Mentioned in this Episode:Diane Le’s LinkedInCurtsy App

Anna Yukhtenko is the Senior Games Analyst at Hutch, a mobile gaming developer and publisher known for its racing games. Previous to Hutch, Anna was a marketing analyst at Next Games. She is based in London.Questions Anna Answered in this Episode:When you were in university did you have an idea of what you wanted to do?Were you a gamer prior to joining Next Games?Why do you find game analytics more interesting than marketing analytics?Where do you find yourself spending the most time as it’s related to gameplay or game analytics?Is intuition a part of your strategy or is it really all data-driven?How do you make data and your explanations of data accessible to those who are not necessarily data savvy?What tools do you use for data analysis most often?Timestamp:4:03 Anna’s background7:20 The advantage of being a non-gamer8:41 Why Anna loves game analytics10:50 What to analyze14:45 Making data analysis accessible to team members16:45 How to make data easy to understand21:53 The best data presentations23:03 Memes27:26 Data analysis tools and applicationsQuotes:(15:15-15:28) “When it comes to presenting the numbers and the data to people who are not analysts or who are not working in the data, I would say that it’s part of an analyst’s job to make your analysis accessible, to make your analysis readable.”(19:21-19:24) “The job of an analyst and the point of data is to tell a story.”(10:52-11:03) “As a game analyst, quite frankly I feel the most efficient way is for game analysts to work in sprints with the game team. So basically, you’re there with them and you’re following the development of the game.”Mentioned in this Episode:Anna Yukhtenko’s LinkedInHutch