MobileGroove

In today’s attention arena, personalization equals profit. This is where AI-powered solutions shine, equipping companies to customize the app experience and explore new areas where greater personalization can yield massive returns. While many companies focus on smart ways to fill the marketing funnel with content and campaigns tailored to treat users like individuals, a few fast-movers are cashing in by offering personalized pricing that makes users offers they can’t refuse. This approach is championed by Cosmic Latte, a maker of LGBTQ+ dating apps that count 15 million users worldwide. Milan Kovacic, Cosmic Latte CEO, joins Peggy Anne Salz to talk about how he works with Assetario, a predictive analytics platform for mobile apps, to make the match between audience segments and the subscription price tag they are willing and happy to pay. Milan also walks through the strategy that allowed one dating app to reach a “double-digit” uplift in revenue. He is joined by Jakub Chudik, CTO and co-founder of Assetario, who reflects on the evolution of AI and reveals the low-hanging fruit, such as personalized recommendations, companies should have high on their radar. 

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro

02:28 - Milan and Jakub's background

06:04 - The perks of individualized pricing

08:59 - How Assetario works

13:31 - Why pricing as a personalization point?

16:59 - When doesn't AI apply?

20:51 - In-house vs outsourcing

26:09 - What to look for in an AI company

31:12 - Driving data-driven decisions

32:57 - What to expect from Assetario and Cosmic Latte in 2024

This summer was a “Barbie” blowout! The blockbuster movie distributed by Warner Bros. brought in over $1.4 billion at the box office this summer, making it 2023’s highest-grossing film—and the topic of social media’s hottest trends. One of these viral hits, powered by an AI photo-editing app, stood out from the rest. With the help of PhotoRoom’s Selfie Generator, 13 million people created, posted and shared custom “Barbie” posters across Instagram and X. Months later, PhotoRoom has been downloaded 100M+ times, and Lauren Sudworth, PhotoRoom’s Head of Brand and Content, joins The Groove to share insider intel into the viral campaign. Alongside host Peggy Anne Salz, she explains how PhotoRoom marries AI and brand identity to deliver UGC at an unprecedented scale and quality for brands on any budget. Lauren says more than powering visual commerce, generative AI is “breaking down barriers to creativity,” even going so far as to produce personalized algorithms and brand IP. The show is one for the books as Lauren shares how any company can start building its brand and how to take advantage of AI tools while maintaining a human touch. 

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Bringing everyone into Barbie World

05:35 - Influencer power

07:57 - Democratizing content creation

10:51 - A strong brand powers strong content

15:47 - Discovering PhotoRoom's brand

20:25 - Monetization and total AI integration

27:29 - Built-in AI brand assets

31:31 - PhotoRoom's competitive moat

Ad dollars follow the eyeballs. But in a marketplace full of channels and congested with paid, social and organic options, marketers must place their bets where attention is high and returns are impressive. One channel that delivers is audio. While other channels are challenged by the cookie-less chaos and squeezed by low audience attention metrics, audio remains the crowd-pleaser. Audio alone accounts for one-third of the media time spent by consumers and delivers significantly higher ad recall. Gayle Troberman, President and CMO of iHeartMedia, the #1 U.S. audio company that reaches 9 out of 10 Americans daily,  joins host Peggy Anne Salz on this episode of The Groove. She tells us why audio, specifically broadcast audio, is “insanely consistent and resilient” and shares best practices any company on any budget can follow to make a standout audio ad. Finally, she dives into how companies can engage with iHeartMedia and harness its Smart Audio tool to reach audiences and rocket ROI. 

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro

00:43 - Audio is a powerful channel

04:31 - Incremental growth through audio

06:43 - A big wake-up call for marketers

11:19 - An example of the best audio advertising

16:21 - The #1 podcast network

18:34 - iHeartMedia's advertising tools

21:27 - Looking to the future

Good marketing answers customer needs. Great marketing anticipates them. With Aampe, businesses can create a hyper-individualized customer experience, increase acquisition ROI, and significantly reduce churn with only one tool. Aampe — a platform built by data scientists to help marketers execute effective mobile campaigns based on customer behavior — uses propensity triggering to flip the script on user retention and engagement. By looking to the future, not the past, marketers can offer personalized discounts, messages, and rewards based on a specific user’s likelihood to purchase or churn. Aampe’s Head of Growth, Jim Laurain, joins host Peggy Anne Salz in this episode of The Groove to explain how Aampe, powered by machine learning and AI, takes predictive analytics and retention to the next level, acting as both a “recommender system applied to every element of a user experience” and a tool to transform your business’ lifecycle marketing and bottom line. 

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro

01:35 - Jim's responsibilities at AMP

02:26 - Inactive triggers create inactive users

06:32 - Tapping into your event stream data

09:55 - When does your A/B test retire?

10:43 - You're triggering at the wrong time

13:01 - Not all discounts are made equal

14:12 - What is propensity triggering? 

16:43 - A recommender system for the entire user experience

18:34 - New customer markets based on timing optimization

20:39 - What's next at AMP?

To effectively make brand voices heard, marketers need a channel that drives traffic while combatting ad fatigue. CTV hits both marks and spells massive opportunity — provided you understand the platform and how to nail the creative. Arthur Querou, Founder and CEO of Vibe, a self-serve CTV ad platform, and Gijsbert Pols, Director of CTV & New Channels at Adjust, take center stage in this episode of The Groove in partnership with The 5 O’Clock Club. Alongside host Peggy Anne Salz, the pair set the record straight, dispelling popular misconceptions about the channel and describing why CTV is the place to be for advertisers who want to effectively increase social and search traffic, strengthen brand image, and optimize retargeting tactics.

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Getting into The Groove with Arthur and Gijsbert 

06:29 - CTV is more than just a branding channel

10:12 - Is targeting worth it on CTV?

15:30 - Marketers need a full-funnel mindset when approaching CTV

19:04 - The challenge with attribution

22:05 - To QR code or not to QR code?

24:40 - Tips for creating a compelling CTV creative

Predicting which users are likely to churn is a superpower that app marketers can wield — if they have what it takes to identify users highly likely to churn early in the game and keep them active longer. Fortunately, marketers have both in a new engine that predicts churn with incredible accuracy and automates the process end-to-end. In this episode of The Groove, in collaboration with The 5 O’Clock Club, Kate Lovejoy, Chief Performance Officer at Adikteev, an advanced app retargeting, churn prediction and cross-promotion platform, has the mic. She chats with our host Peggy Anne Salz about the tech that allows Adikteev’s model to classify and score users based on their likelihood to churn. With these insights, Kate says, marketers can focus efforts and resources on “targeting those users in the highest-liklihood-to-churn bucket to make sure they don’t go away from your app altogether.” Kate also shares some tough love and advice for marketers to make retargeting great (and effective) again and cultivate the curiosity and courage to test, iterate and try new things.

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - What gets Kate into The Groove? 

02:52 - Making retargeting great again

08:06 - Accurately predicting and ranking likelihood to churn

11:15 - A free pre-campaign analysis

14:34 - When doesn't retargeting make sense?

16:27 - Tough love for marketers

Audience segmentation and creatives localization have never been easier with Appier, an AI-powered, full-funnel tech company. Appier’s AVP of US Sales & Market Strategy, Fiona Lin Ferrier, joins Peggy Anne Salz on this episode in collaboration with The 5 O’Clock Club. She is an expert in AI, spotlighting gen AI use cases that optimize ad placement and maximize ROAS. And she’s an expert in human connection. A self-proclaimed “personal development junkie” and first-gen immigrant, she brings her whole self to work and supports fellow immigrants and marketers in doing the same. In the episode, Fiona empowers listeners to embrace AI and themselves, stating, “Unconditional acceptance of yourself is number one” and “I’m really excited to build [marketers] confidence.” 

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - What gets Fiona in the Groove?

03:59 - What is Appier? 

06:10 - How does gen AI empower marketers? 

12:14 - Using gen AI to perfect localization

14:08 - Addressing misconceptions about AI

17:34 - Advice to marketers about embracing AI and themselves

Relationship building is the core of powerful marketing, and it starts with good communication and trust. Heather Gainer, Sr. Marketing Manager at Kongregate and Jordon Weissman, Sales Director at Smadex, demonstrate in real-time what an interactive brand-consumer relationship looks like on this episode of The Groove, in collaboration with The 5 O’Clock Club. Our host Peggy Anne Salz facilitates this back and forth, asking the hard questions and putting Heather and Jordon on the spot by urging them to review their relationship and reveal what they haven’t been saying in their emails. Throughout the episode, the trio discusses how to keep customer relationships fresh, perks that peak consumer interest, and Jordan’s forecast on the future of SKAN4. Moreover, Peggy adds musing magic to the episode as she uses astrology to predict what will perfect Kongregate and Smadex’s marketing strategies for 2023.

“If Michael Phelps [were] a DSP, we'd beat him right now,” says Dharak Desai in a recent LinkedIn post. Comparing your company to the all-time most decorated Olympian is no small statement. Still, Dharak believes that, like Michael Phelps, InMobi has the talent to take it and its customers to the top. In this episode of The Groove, in collaboration with the 5 O’Clock Club, Dharak, Director of Sales & Strategy at InMobi, outlines how the multinational mobile marketing platform’s drive to innovate and constantly push boundaries made it AdWeek’s Readers’ Choice Best Mobile Ad Network 2022 and is now helping thousands of advertisers jump into new waters  and "learn how to swim in this sea of SKAN.” This episode is packed with information as Dharek breaks down InMobi’s SKAN 4.0 Readiness Checklist, its post-SKAN bidder with pre-SKAN capabilities, and how marketers can understand predictive modeling, monetization, and measurement through a contextual advertising lens.

AI... friend or foe? To Boian Videnoff, CEO and Co-Founder of Enote, AI can be an assistant, teacher, or supporter if you embrace it. Our host Peggy Anne Salz orchestrates a captivating conversation with Boian in this episode about our machine counterparts and the creations they compose in Enote. A subscription app with over 70,000 users, Enote sits at the crossroads of music and tech. According to Boian, the app pushes the boundaries of AI development and machine learning, digitizing millions of compositions and organizing their sheet music in one central location. Enote's interactive capabilities strike the right chord with thousand of professional musicians, many of whom have recommended the app to their students. Throughout the episode, Boian explains how Enote's community-first approach defied investors' expectations and shares a mistake that made a massive impact on conversion. "This is the largest digitization project in the history of music," Boian says. "I'm excited about shaping the future rather than waiting for it not to change."