Apptivate: App Marketing Explained

Today’s guest is Georgiana Ciobotaru, the Associate Director of Product at the meal-kit company HelloFresh. She started as an operations analyst and moved into product management before joining the digital product team at HelloFresh. Questions Georgiana Answered in this Episode:Can you speak a little bit about the lateral moves in your career and how that’s helped you to progress?What recommendations would you give to our listeners who are trying in advance in their careers but don’t necessarily have an available opportunity?How do you decipher what you can take on and what you can’t at work? How do you find that balance and how do you know when it’s okay to say “no”?Can you walk us through your day and share what habits help you be successful?As a manager, how do you help others develop their careers? How do you manage delegating tasks?What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve received?What advice would you give to coworkers who feel less represented at a company to feel more confident in speaking up?Timestamp:1:40 Georgie’s background5:04 Making lateral progress11:41 When considering a new opportunity15:35 Georgie’s success-forming habits20:43 Managing junior teammates25:24 Different types of decisions30:35 Speaking upQuotes:(12:23-12:41) “What I’ve realized across the years that excites me the most is definitely to have a great challenge, something that’s hard to solve. But also, something that I’m going to be able to learn from and to do it together with a team that I know cares about it as well.”(21:35-21:45) “For the person reporting to me, I think it was very important for us to make sure we had a plan. So I tend to say, ‘Love the planning, not the plan.’”Mentioned in this Episode:Georgiana Ciobotaru’s LinkedInHelloFreshEducated: A Memoir by Tara Westover (Book)How I Built This (Podcast): https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this?t=1624260883464

Fiona Lauredi is the Lead User Acquisition Manager at Gameloft, an established and leading mobile video games developer worldwide. She is based in Paris.Questions Fiona Answered in this Episode:What’s the biggest takeaway that you’ve gained in your experience working across gaming genres?What have you learned to put less emphasis on in your role as a performance marketer and what are the things you place the most emphasis on to strive towards the Pareto Rule?Was it a big learning curve for your team to adopt the Pareto Rule?What’s the process of how you determine a concept for a particular creative?What have the results been from executing this kind of a strategy? Have you found that you drive better performance for your titles?Timestamp:3:08 Fiona’s background8:29 Biggest learning for marketing across gaming genres10:06 Applying and adopting the Pareto Rule in performance marketing16:09 Benchmark! Benchmark! Benchmark!18:30 The results Fiona’s seen from her teamQuotes:(8:58-9:25) “One of the big things I’ve learned and taken away with me is Pareto Rule. So for everyone that is not familiar with that rule, it’s essentially saying that 20% of your actions will make 80% of the value. It’s cutting down on a lot of things that aren’t value based, you stop doing these things. It doesn’t matter that you’re 100% perfect. It matters that you can do 5 times as many things as what you could do before.”(10:20-10:43) “My belief is that the human race is not intelligent enough that you can make decisions on more than two metrics, three at most. If you look at more things than this, you’re probably not going to be making any decision at all. So I would say that one thing that can be used anywhere is looking at a lot less metrics but the ones that count.”(19:03-19:27) “In my opinion, creatives are 50-60% of our performance, and I’m talking hardcore data, ROAS, scale, all that--it’s all for me on creatives. So obviously, being able to produce more, to produce better, to produce smarter, and to have more people involved in this process has definitely shown results on the bottom line.” Mentioned in this Episode:Fiona Lauredi - LinkedInGameloft

Stephen Siegel is a User Acquisition Manager at Scopely, an interactive entertainment company and a leading mobile games publisher. He cut his teeth in the mobile gaming sphere at Machine Zone and hails from a background in math and economics. Questions Stephen Answered in this Episode:You’ve been in the mobile gaming space for 4 years, how many different platforms and networks do you think you’ve tested in your career? And how often does someone reach out to you to pitch a new product?Where do you spend the majority of your time as a UA manager?Is there anything that really interests you about retargeting or that you find fascinating about these campaigns? What are some of the most successful ways that you’ve found to message users when it comes to retargeting?Most people that come to us in the mobile gaming industry want to retarget churned users. Would you say that’s the most predominant form of retargeting in the industry or do you see other game studios or yourself testing additional audiences outside of the lapsed players?  How do you see game studios effectively retargeting churned users from a messaging perspective?Do you have any experience or have you heard of studios leveraging promos to drive engagement?Why do you think having a retargeting strategy is not yet ubiquitous among performance marketers or gaming studios? Do you think that the industry is doing a good enough job of leveraging incrementality for acquisition campaigns as well? How is retargeting being affected by what’s happening with iOS14.5 and the ATT prompt? Have you heard of any solutions that will allow you to keep retargeting or are you exploring them?Timestamp:4:06 Stephen’s background & current professional focus7:58 Retargeting messaging - knowing your audience10:18 Figuring out why users lapse12:00 Using promos in retargeting14:40 Industry barriers to owning retargeting strategies17:16 Leveraging incrementality in acquisition campaigns19:30 Solutions to retargeting on iOSQuotes:(7:33-7:50) “With new UA, you don’t have quite the same ability to meet users where they’re at. And then with retargeting, you know so much about these users and about their past behavior, so we have more opportunity to message them in ways that we think will be more successful.”(19:34-20:10) “I think it’s going to get harder to retarget on iOS; that you’re going to lose IDFA access to some percentage of users, which will be some percentage of the audience that you want to retarget. You also need the opt-in on the publisher side, which you have no control over. So, it’s an uphill battle but it’s not going to eliminate retargeting on iOS entirely. It’s a run-what-you-can and then try to find creative ways to continue to reach users you can’t retarget through the traditional IDFA method.” Mentioned in this Episode:Stephen Siegel - LinkedinScopely

Jean-François is the co-founder of Purchasely, a company based in Paris that helps apps grow their revenues by streamlining In-App Purchase integration. He is also the CEO and founder of 2 App à Z, a consulting firm specialized on mobile technologies. Jean-François was one of the first 500 developers of the iPhone developer beta program. He’s helped many companies build their first apps, and in 2020 was awarded the worldwide App of the Year.Questions Jean-François Answered in this Episode:Is there a product that you’re most proud of having played a role in developing?What does Purchasely do and why did you start the company?As a developer, when you’re trying to build out the in-app purchases that are involved with an app, how much time does that process take up?Is this a problem that most startups see or does this solve problems for apps of any size?Are you seeing more apps shift to subscriptions? And if so, what kind of apps are you seeing make this move?How does that impact the overall app economy if everything shifts to subscriptions? What might be the limit to how many apps consumers would be willing to subscribe to?Timestamp:2:57 Jean-François’s background6:07 What is Purchasely and why was it created8:12 Why in-app purchases are a pain in the apps10:42 The movement from advertising to subscriptions15:44 Who is shifting to subscriptions and why19:42 Is there a consumer threshold for subscriptions vs adsQuotes:(10:42-10:57) “The world is moving very fast on subscription. Two years ago, the advertising was so high, very few people were considering subscriptions. But, as you’ve seen, there is a drop in the volume and value of advertising. There is also the ATT that is coming in. So, the world of advertising is in trouble right now.”(17:25-17:38) “We had a lot of apps that were ads-oriented and that were playing on the frustration of the users to get money. But the game of subscription is very different. The game of subscription is more a seduction than a frustration.”Mentioned in this Episode:PurchaselyJean-François Grang - LinkedInTwitter - @purchaselycom

Taylor Gobar is the Head of Growth at Bloom. Bloom is an app that provides you with tools to help you experience better sleep, reduced stress levels and a more relaxed lifestyle with our guided meditations, relaxing music, activities and mindful experiences.Questions Taylor Answered in this Episode:Was there something inside of you that made you want to move more in the direction of healthcare and wellness?Do you find that because Bloom is a company focused on mental health that wellness permeates the environment or there is greater awareness of it in general?What is the central goal and mission of Bloom?How does cognitive behavioral therapy manifest in the app?How has the app world changed our awareness of mental health in your opinion?What are some measures organizations can take to elevate the diversity of their brands?How do you create repetition of behavior and engagement with a product like yours when the cost is low?What is the evolution here and how do we improve?Timestamp:2:13 Taylor’s background5:35 Mission-driven, wellness work culture9:48 Bloom’s central goal14:07 Cognitive behavioral therapy17:30 Accessing healthcare and wellness via apps20:05 Injustices in accessing healthcare in the U.S. today23:33 Steps to greater equity in the workforce28:02 Engaging users33:00 The evolution of mental health contentQuotes:(9:22-9:27) “The cultural piece is not just who do I want to grab a beer with, it’s who do I want to save the world with.”(20:03-20:25) “Access in this country is first and foremost dictated by your financial situation, and in that sense I think the apps create more access. The price point is lower and it is not tied to things like your insured status or your employment status. In the United States, your chance of accessing any healthcare when you’re not employed is really rough. Mentioned in this Episode:Taylor GobarBloomBook: Utopia for Realist by Rutger BregmanInstagram @enjoybloom

Today’s guest opens up about her first professional work experience as a mobile marketer working for a gaming company. At the time, she didn’t realize the level of stress she was experiencing was not “normal.” Now, as the Associate Manager of Digital Marketing at Reebok, Jocelyn Paz reflects on how Rebook is doing a good job creating open lines of communication for employees to have honest conversations about mental health. Questions Jocelyn Answered in this Episode:What made you want to go in a different direction with your marketing career? How did you approach the experience of burnout? What helped you cope or reduce burnout?Did you find yourself accepting and normalizing having mental breakdowns once a week or was there a point where you said ‘this is not normal’?How did you create boundaries you set in place in order to take care of yourself? How can organizations be doing to improve communication at work around stress and breaking down its stigma? How has working from home played a role in burnout at work? Timestamp:4:23 Joceyln’s background5:56 Working for a product and brand you believe in9:00 An excessive workload? 11:45 Justifying burnout, blurring boundaries12:30 Perfectionism and compassion15:55 Open lines of communication18:23 The blurred line when working remotely21:12 What “productivity” really meansQuotes:(10:32-10:44) “To put it simply it’s like you’re getting pressure from two sides. You’re getting pressure from one thing that you can’t control, which is the company. And, you’re getting pressure from yourself internally.”(11:45-12:18) “At first I tried to justify it but saying, ‘You don’t know as much as you should, you’re not handling it well.’ I started making excuses saying, ‘This will pass, as soon as you learn more you’ll be able to handle it better.’ But as time went on, I realized that saying that to myself was sort of just making excuses and what I was really doing was just blurring those boundaries. I had a complete lack of boundaries between me and the work that I was doing, and what I’d say ‘yes’ to.”Mentioned in this Episode:Jocelyn Paz’s LinkedIn

Today’s guest is Shan Huang, the Senior Applied Scientist at Zalando, a multinational e-commerce platform for shoes and fashion. Shan is also the co-founder of the German-Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, a nonprofit advancing the exchange of education, research, and public resources between Germany and China in the field of AI.Questions Shan Answered in this Episode:Can you give me an explanation of what an experimentation platform is? What is an example of how it’s used? How do you set the limitations? How do you define what can be experimented? What are the biggest challenges to building such a platform? If you could go back in time and could give yourself one hint or remove one obstacle in building this platform, what would that be?Are you running automated optimization a/b tests? Are there any tricks to increase the efficiency or decrease the runtime of the experimentation? How do you support people knowing what experiments to run, what’s interesting, possible to test, etc? What was the reason for creating the experimentation platform?Timestamp:2:53 The many use cases of Zalando’s experimentation platform 6:45 Putting together the right team10:19 What’s important in the beginning11:27 Hypothesis testing methodology13:14 Adaptive experimentation15:03 Methods for improving experimentation efficiency 18:44 Setting up a process for running a/b tests 23:04 Power to the product teamQuotes:(6:50-6:57) “I think one of the biggest challenges is that building this kind of platform requires a team of different experts in different domains.”(10:31-10:56) “In the beginning it’s about providing infrastructure and also helping our stakeholders with other teams learn a/b testing, understand a/b testing, because statistics is sometimes a very confusing thing--confidence interval, significance--it’s not so easy to explain. And I think it might be helpful to get a solid groundwork on this stuff.”Mentioned in this Episode:Shan HuangZalando“Experimentation Platform at Zalando: Part 1 - Evolution” blog postGCAAI

Yoann Pavy has started a new role as Vice President of Marketing at Diem. Previously, he was the Head of Digital Marketing at Depop. He’s recently launched his own podcast, Digital Marketing Finesse. Yoann is based in London.Questions Yoann Answered in this Episode:How do you source sneakers to consumers?How was the marketing strategy at Depop developed and the level of success you saw from it?How did Depop’s UGC perform across channels? Were some better than others?What was your process for going to get more of this kind of content? How do you identify who’s a good candidate, and what was the process from there?What are some of the risks or challenges when going through this process?Can you tell us what is “Digital Marketing Finesse”?Timestamp:2:51 Yoann’s background: from engineering to marketing14:15 What does Laced do?18:00 Depop’s street filming creative strategy24:04 Bad UGC vs Good UGC25:19 Making it native for each channel28:40 Depop’s process for developing its UGC29:58 Challenges33:01 Digital Marketing FinesseQuotes:(21:57-22:26) “Going back to the marketing strategy side, it’s like the marketing 101 that says testimonials are the key. Now you’re in b2b, you want testimonials. You’re in b2c, you want testimonials. Everyone talks about testimonials like the bread and butter of marketing to sell your product. So, we kind of made Gen Z testimonials, the new version of them—they were very raw, they were very real, and completely unscripted.”(24:32-24:50) “So it’s like really keeping the truth of [user-generated content] is I think the key ingredient. And I do think that it almost doesn’t matter what the market base is about; it could be about anything. As long as you put the people using it at the forefront, it’s going to be real.”Mentioned in this Episode:Yoann Pavy’s LinkedInYoann Pavy’s Instagram: @yoannpavvyDiemLacedDepopDigital Marketing Finesse Podcast

Liz Emery is the Senior Director of Mobile and Ad Tech Solutions at Tinuiti, the largest independent performance marketing agency across Google, Amazon, Facebook, and beyond. She oversees their mobile executions on strategy, ASO, including A/B testing through all of their user acquisition channels as well as lifecycle email marketing.Questions Liz Answered in this Episode:When Apple announced the data privacy changes that were coming with iOS14, what was your reaction to that?In your opinion, what are the forces driving these changes?How are your clients feeling about this, and are you see a large disparity in how clients are dealing with these changes?Is there any advantage to the “waiting and seeing” approach?What are the proactive marketers doing to set themselves up for success in this new paradigm?Why do you feel that SkAdNetwork won’t be enough to give you the attribution that you’re looking for?What is a conversion value schema? How are smart marketers putting up their conversion value schema?Timestamp:2:35 Liz’s background5:18 What is Tinuiti?7:29 Why Liz enjoys the agency life10:07 The reaction to Apple’s announcement12:45 The fear is real14:50 Proactive strategies to be prepared20:23 SkAdNetwork & data privacy changes22:09 Conversion value schema28:00 Our role as marketers with the new normalQuotes:(12:07-12:15) “I think the four forces at work are people, regulations, and browser and device-level changes, all driven by government and big tech.”(16:58-17:15) “I don’t think you have to be like, ‘Oh, my core media strategy is wrong. Everything I’ve been doing for the last couple of years is wrong. I need to stop spending x, y, z.’ That’s not what I’m saying. You do need to keep spending with those consistent channels, but just be cognizant that the kind of targeting and the results you’re going to get are going to shift.”Mentioned in this Episode:Liz Emery’s LinkedInTinuitiTinuiti’s Privacy Hub

Jon Lau is the Senior Director of Growth at Weee!, a company delivering Asian & Hispanic groceries with zero service fees and free delivery. Previous to the e-grocer app, Jon hailed from a background in banking and then mobile marketing for gaming companies, like DraftKings, Smule, and Playsonic.   Questions Jon Answered in this Episode:Can you tell us about what Weee! does and who you serve?What would you attribute the company’s jump from being valued at $600 million last year to $2.8 billion now? What do you attribute that growth to?Have you found that the general consumer is now using Weee! or is it predominantly people from the cultures you serve?What is your creative strategy? Is it mostly focused on educating a consumer base? Celebrating heritage?How do you establish social validation for your brand?How do you go about telling a story about your brand on platforms like Facebook and display?Timestamp:3:06 Jon’s background: gaming to e-grocer10:46 What’s is Weee!12:27 Weee!’s explosive growth14:45 Growing the second-generation Asian and Hispanic user base 16:19 Creative strategy: cultural heritage, food discovery, education18:00 Establishing social validation for a brand21:51 Telling your brand story Quotes:(12:31-12:55) “It goes to show the grocery potential of different ethnicities in the U.S. So, specifically here, we’re talking about the Asian and Hispanic population in the U.S., which by and large I would say, depending on where you live, can be relatively underserved. And these are populations that have the wallet share that can actually make the purchases, they just don’t have something nearby.”(18:29-18:55) “There’s this conception that it’s ‘too good to be true’ type feeling. And so, we realized this was an issue. And at the same time, we actually found out that the most common search phrase for Weee! was, ‘Is Weee! legit?’ And then we were like, ‘Okay, this is a completely different challenge we have to tackle because it’s no longer about reaching the audience--we’re reaching them--but people are skeptical about whether this service is real.”Mentioned in this Episode:Jon Lau’s LinkedInWeee!