Mass Appeal

#31. Learning the Language of Loyalty: CRM Strategies from Babbel - Alejandro Hernandez (Babbel)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 4 Jun 2025 07:00:00 +0000

CRM today is much more than sending an email or push notification. It’s about predicting user behavior, understanding their motivations, and finding ways to support them on their journey. In this episode, Tommy chats with Alejandro Hernandez, the Senior CRM Notifications Manager at Babbel, the renowned language-learning app. They discuss what his role looks like today, including the collaborative work being done with data scientists, data engineers, and product teams to develop deep learning models that enhance customer communication. They also dig into CRM strategies to reduce churn and re-engage lapsed users.

Questions Alejandro answered in this episode:

How much of what you learned in school translated to real-world experiences?
What does CRM mean to you today? What is the main objective that you have within your role of CRM?
In terms of CRM, what information are you looking for to understand how to communicate with someone?
What other information are you looking for to leverage machine learning? And when you leverage machine learning, how does that affect your day-to-day work?
Can you tell us about your strategy for reducing churn and reactivating users?
What kind of details do you include in a push notification to prevent someone from churning?
What are you looking forward to doing with CRM in the future?

Timestamp:

2:08 Intro to Alejandro
6:18 What does CRM look like today
9:10 Mapping out the learning journey
12:08 Leveraging deep learning
15:00 Strategies for reducing churn
18:16 Reengaging dormant users
24:25 The future of CRM

Mentioned in this Episode:

#30. Keeping Crypto Investing Fun: Inside Product Development at EmberFund - Trishul Patel (EmberFund)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 21 May 2025 07:00:00 +0000

Trishul Patel is the VP of Product at EmberFund, an app that allows you to play popular sweepstakes casino games, learn about crypto investing, and earn Bitcoin for free. Trishul focuses on keeping their product fun. In this episode, he touches on EmberFund’s evolution from a crypto fintech app to a gaming app, what drives product development, and what keeps their users coming back to engage with their app.

Questions Trishul answered in this episode:

Tell us about your background prior to joining EmberFund.
What was the first opportunity you noticed at EmberFund that you could impact when you joined?
Why don’t you tell everyone how you see EmberFund and what you think it is?
How do you point your attention to what's next within a superapp?
What does the app landscape look like for your industry?
Where do you spend the most time drawing influence from?
What’s got you excited in terms of new features?

Timestamp:

2:54 Trishul’s background
8:21 The Google survey test
10:29 What is EmberFund?
15:52 Product development within a superapp product
18:06 EmberFund within its market
20:02 Players we pay attention to
23:38 What our users want
25:05 What’s to come

Mentioned in this Episode:

#29. Product-Market Remix: How Discotech Found Its Gen Z Groove - Ian Chen (discotech)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 07:00:00 +0000

Ian Chen is the CEO of discotech, an app for booking live events and nightlife amenities. In recent years, nightlife demographics have shifted, and Gen Z doesn’t party in the same ways Millennials did. In this episode, listeners learn how discotech adapted its mobile marketing strategies to appeal to the next generation.

Questions Ian answered in this episode:

How did you arrive at creating discotech?
How do you create value for customers and vendors?
How do you identify and acquire the right customers?
What changes have you noticed in your industry over the last few years?
How does discotech meet the needs of Gen Z?
What does the experience look like when booking tickets to Cirque du Soleil?
How do you determine what kind of events might be interesting for Gen Z?

Timestamp:

2:15 discotech’s origin story
4:36 What is discotech?
8:22 UA for nightlife goers
11:38 Nightlife culture: Millennials vs Gen Z
16:26 Appealing to Gen Z
19:15 Partnerships strategy

Mentioned in this Episode:

Ian Chen’s LinkedIn
Discotech
Socials: @discotechapp

#28. The Network Effect: How to Grow a Company Organically - Rodney Williams (SoLo Funds)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 12:18:29 +0000

Questions Rodney answered in this episode:

Tell us about your background.
How did you go from brand management at P&G to co-founding SoLo Funds?
At what point do you realize you’re ready to go full-time into your endeavor?
How does SoLo Funds benefit working-class people?
How did you grow SoLo Funds to where you are today?
What are you looking forward to this year?

Timestamp:

2:45 Rodney’s entrepreneurial beginnings
8:07 From P&G to SoLo Funds
19:35 What is SoLo Funds?
27:00 The network effect for organic growth
32:12 Big things coming

Mentioned in this Episode:

Rodney Williams’s LinkedIn
SoLo Funds
Social handle: @rodneybwilliams

#27. Building a Loyalty Rewards Coalition with 200+ Brands - Wei Tak “Tuck” Nyou (Loyalty Marketing, Inc)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Tommy interviews Wei Tak “Tuck” Nyou, the Senior Manager of Loyalty Marketing at Ponta, a loyalty rewards coalition in Japan with over 200 brands and 120M Japanese members – more than 90 percent of Japan’s population. You’ll learn some of the reservations brands commonly express about joining such coalitions, as well as the value proposition for brands. You’ll also learn Ponta’s perspective on what makes a brand attractive to acquire. Finally, you’ll hear about the challenges and opportunities of expanding their loyalty rewards coalition overseas to Taiwan, Vietnam, and Hawaii, the potential for new verticals, and integrating mobile games with their reward program.

Questions Tuck answered in this episode:

Can you tell us a little about your background?
Why did you want to shift your career from B2B to B2C?
Can you tell us about Ponta and Loyalty Marketing?
Why would a brand not want to join a loyalty coalition? What are the challenges of getting brands to join Ponta, for example?
Is there an element of customer acquisition built into these programs?
How do you determine which new brands would be most valuable for you to add to your coalition?
Is there anything unique about the loyalty market in Japan? Does that make it difficult to expand into new regions overseas or are there opportunities to expand?
Were there any challenges you encountered when you expanded to either Taiwan, Vietnam, or Hawaii?
Are there new verticals you’re considering expanding into?
Has your team considered integrating mobile games into your rewards program?

Timestamp:

2:20 Tuck’s professional background
7:18 What does Ponta do?
11:11 Common fears with loyalty coalitions
15:20 Determining what brands to acquire
17:24 Ponta research members
18:50 Expanding our point system overseas
20:23 Challenges to expansion
23:01 New verticals
26:17 Integrating mobile games

Mentioned in this Episode:

#26. Gamifying Fashion: How BELLEMINT Is Changing the Game for Fashion Lovers - Amanda Lulewicz (Muus Collective)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 09:00:00 +0000

Questions Amanda answered in this episode:

Were you a gamer or what prompted you to take the huge leap from PR to mobile games?
What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve faced since joining Muus Collective in your role as Head of Marketing?
How are you leveraging partnerships with BELLEMINT? What do you think makes a good partnership with game studios?
How are Bellemint users interacting with Revolve?
What role do community and social experience play in BELLEMINT?
What’s your strategy for UA?

Timestamp:

5:00 Amanda’s background
11:06 Fundraising challenges in Silicon Valley
14:50 Approaches to partnerships
20:21 Bellemint and Revolve’s partnership
25:30 Who are the “gamers”?
28:19 UA for fashion gamers and lovers

Mentioned in this Episode:

#25. Deconstructing AI for Beginners - Bani Malhotra (Walmart)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:00:00 +0000

It’s no secret: AI has been all the buzz lately. But, what is it, really? In this episode, Tommy talks to Bani Malhotra, the former Senior Director of Product Management for Site Experiences and Omnichannel Personalization at Walmart U.S. eCommerce, who demystifies the many terms we hear related to artificial intelligence, including machine learning, deep learning, LLMs, SLMs, and Generative AI. She covers its many use cases for marketers and product managers to advance efficiency, productivity, creativity, and even business development. She also touches on some of her concerns about the technology regarding its drawbacks.

Questions Bani answered in this episode:

What was your first foray into a product role from your finance and strategy background, and what was one of the biggest challenges in making that leap?
Were you implementing AI to help tackle some of the challenges you faced in your role at Walmart?
When does a decision go from a logic tree to AI?
How do outlier consumer purchases affect AI predictions?
Could you define SLMs and LLMs?
Where do you see AI benefiting marketers the most?
Do you have any fears of what AI may threaten?

Timestamp:

2:38 Bani’s background
9:58 Bani’s role at Walmart
17:42 Use cases of AI for user experiences at Walmart
21:10 The difference between heuristics and AI
23:52 The spectrum of machine learning
28:20 AI model confidence scoring
31:10 What is AI? Defining AI-related terms
41:00 Benefits of AI for marketers
54:45 Concerns for AI

Mentioned in this Episode:

Bani Malhotra’s LinkedIn

#24. How to Leverage AI for Growth Marketing - Norman Nielsen (Omio)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Questions Norman answered in this episode:

Tell us about your background in growth.
What is Omio?
Do you have localized marketing support in each market? Or are you able to centralize most of what you do in Berlin?
What are some of the biggest hurdles you face when penetrating a new market?
Why are you a big proponent of AI? How do you use it?
What is AI incapable of helping you with today?
How is your team leveraging AI around engagement and loyalty?
How do you port data into AI models?
How do you discern what is a good AI solution from others?
How much is this about training your employees how to effectively prompt AI?

Timestamp:

3:13 Norman’s background
8:24 What is Omio?
10:03 The future of localization for foreign markets
12:18 Hurdles to breaking into new markets
14:00 5 ways AI enables his life
15:45 Limitations of AI (it’s not creativity)
19:15 AI for engagement and loyalty
21:55 Tools to port your data into AI Solutions
24:29 The 5 foundational AI models
25:55 A/B testing AI content and training LLMs
28:28 Training your employees to prompt AI

Mentioned in this Episode:

#23. Democratizing Mobile Programmatic Advertising for All - Tomás Yacachury (Kayzen)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Questions Tomás answered in this episode:

Tell us about how you got into programmatic advertising.
Does your mathematics degree still play a role in what you do today?
What is Kayzen? And what sets it apart in the marketplace?
What does the democratization of programmatic mean to you? And how are you doing it?
Do you see ad inventory changing marketing strategies for your customers?
Are you seeing creatives being tailored to specific apps?

Timestamp:

4:32 Tomás’s background
8:20 About Kayzen
9:53 How we “democratize” programmatic advertising
16:00 Kayzen School of Programmatic
19:54 What marketers can learn from ad inventory indexes
25:45 Customizing creatives to app gameplay
27:15 Misconceptions around games for app advertising
31:10 Clicks and engagement in programmatic

Mentioned in this Episode:

#22. Walking into Success: Inside the Growth of Macadam - Benjamin Daudignac (Macadam)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 1 Jan 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Benjamin Daudignac is the co-founder and CEO of Macadam, a European app that pays people to walk. Since its launch two years ago, the app has gained 2 million daily active users. In this episode, Tommy digs into Benjamin’s entrepreneurial journey creating Macadam, the challenges Macadam faced coming to market, and the strategies they use to keep app users engaged—and walking more!

Questions Benjamin answered in this episode:

What brought you to Barcelona?
Why escape Paris?
Where did the idea for Macadam originate? Tell us about the story of starting it.
What was your biggest challenge in getting this product into the market and having it adopted by consumers?
How do you leverage the community you’re growing within your app to deliver more engagement?
How are you thinking about keeping users engaged in the future?
How do you decide where to expand your business?

Timestamp:

3:08 Choosing an environment for entrepreneurship
10:07 Ben’s entrepreneurial start
14:27 Macadam’s origin story
19:15 Bringing Macadam to market
22:12 Leveraging community
24:20 Gamifying walking to drive engagement
29:32 Considering where to expand

Mentioned in this Episode:

#21. Holiday Season Insights for Mobile App Advertising - Seema Shah (Sensor Tower)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Questions Seema answered in this episode:

Do you have a sense of why a platform like Sensor Tower gets labeled as “alternative” data?
What attracted you to pivoting to the mobile space, for a company like Sensor Tower?
I assume the most resurrected users are in streaming and dating spaces. Am I on point or way off?
What evolutions have you been seeing in advertising within social networks?
Heading into the holiday season, what do you expect will happen with large e-commerce brands? Where will they be investing their mobile advertising?

Timestamp:

5:14 Seema’s background
9:53 What is Sensor Tower?
14:55 Where are the most resurrected users?
20:17 Trends in-app advertising on social networks
31:33 Holiday advertising for e-commerce brands

Mentioned in this Episode:

#20. Marketing Management Tips for Large Portfolios of Apps - Ekaterina Samohovets (AIBY)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Ekaterina Samohovets is the Head of User Acquisition at AIBY, a company building businesses that specialize in mobile app products. With over 50 apps and more than 2 billion downloads across their portfolio, Ekaterina shares insights into her approach to managing performance marketing across a team of 25 people.

Questions Ekaterina answered in this Episode:

What is AIBY?
What kinds of apps are in your portfolio? What are some of your biggest hits?
How do you organize managing growth strategies for such a large portfolio?
How do you help people on your team get up to speed with channels that they’re not as familiar with?
What else is key to your success?

Timestamp:

2:45 Ekaterina’s performance marketing background
6:30 What is AIBY?
9:47 A look inside AIBY’s UA team structure
13:00 Internal sharing system
18:00 Tips for success

Mentioned in this Episode:

#19. The Growth Potential of Niche Apps: BlueThrone's Approach to Acquisitions - Josh Peleg (BlueThrone)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0000

BlueThrone acquires great apps and takes them to the next level. Josh Peleg is the Head of the Business Development and Mergers & Acquisitions department responsible for building relationships with app developers and overseeing the acquisition of apps to their portfolio. In this episode, you’ll learn what app metrics are most interesting to venture capitalists and app acquirers, macro trends in the app M&A market, and how to present your app for a successful exit.

Questions Josh answered in this Episode:

What’s more common for BlueThrone, partnerships or acquisitions?
How and where do you draw the line of distinguishing which niche apps have even potential to grow?
When are you considering M&As, are you looking at the metrics of an app or are you looking at the macro trends of the verticals they’re in?
How do app developers present their apps to potential acquirers such as BlueThrone?
What app metrics are venture capitalists and acquirers more interested in?
What metrics matter most for the gaming vertical?
How important is the experience level of app developers to you?
What’s an app or vertical that surprised you in its ability to produce fantastic results for you all?

Timestamp:

1:34 Josh’s background
4:50 What makes an app interesting to acquirers
7:00 How are app ratings used as a signal?
9:00 Pros and cons of niche apps
10:48 Where the dating app market is growing
17:14 Consideration of macro trends for M&As
20:27 Presenting your app for an exit
23:09 What metrics matter
26:28 Gaming industry: what’s most important
31:20 Why experience level matters
33:13 Virality: what works

Mentioned in this Episode:

#18. Building Human Connection Through Mobile Puzzle Games - Anastasia Zaiceva (ZiMad)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 04:00:00 +0000

What do mobile jigsaw puzzles have to do with tugging on human heartstrings? In this episode, Anastasia Zaiceva, the Chief Communications Officer at ZiMad, a reputable mobile game developer and publisher, reveals how branding can be used as a tool to evoke emotions and build relationships around mobile games.

Questions Anastasia answered in this Episode:

Why has ZiMad put a big emphasis on communications?
Where do you put most of your energy? Is there a particular initiative you’ve been focused on over the last year in communications?
With something like a jigsaw puzzle, how do you approach the idea of emotion? And how do you separate it from entertainment?

Timestamp:

6:21 Anastasia’s background in mobile gaming
13:50 About ZiMad
15:58 Communications vs user acquisition
17:50 Building community around games
21:48 Puzzle packs & love stories
28:30 In-game features that connect people

Mentioned in this Episode:

#17. The Symbiotic World Behind an Arcade App’s Success - Diego Kafie (Playbite)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 04:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Tommy interviews Diego Kafie, the Co-Founder and CEO of Playbite, an arcade app where players can win real prizes or earn money by creating games. They discuss taking the leap of launching a startup, monetization strategies, and the three-way relationship between app developers, players, and users who can learn how to make games through Playbite’s creator platform.

Questions Diego answered in this Episode:

Was leaving your job and jumping into venture funding for Playbite scary for you? What was the learning curve like?
What is Playbite and how did you get backers to believe in Playbite?
What models do you use to monetize Playbite?
How do you overcome the obstacle of teaching aspiring creators how to code games?

Timestamp:

4:54 Diego’s background & origin of Playbite
11:17 Launching Playbite
12:54 Chuck E Cheese to Playbite
17:53 Creator platform: a symbiotic relationship
25:00 Monetization models
30:30 Coaching aspiring game creators

Mentioned in this Episode:

#16. Affordable Life for All: The Story of an App with Good Intentions - Akshay Krishnaiah (Beem)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Learn the story of Akshay Krishnaiah, the founder and CEO of Beem, an app harnessing the power of AI to improve the financial wellbeing of the world’s working population. Unlike most fintech apps focused on markets that will produce a profit, Beem intentionally serves people regardless of income, immigration status, or credit score. Five million downloads later, find out how Beem has grown organically, thanks in part to their pressroom that cranks 400 to 500 pieces of content every week.

Before founding Beem, Akshay was the Global Product Head of Research Labs at PayPal, where he led a team of innovators and filed 75 consumer fintech patent publications in areas such as digital wallets, identity platforms, and hybrid tokens. He is based in San Francisco.

Questions Akshay answered in this Episode:

What drives you to be an entrepreneur?
What were some of the transformative experiences you had on your way to founding Beem?
How do you go about educating people about your product?
How is AI exemplified in your product?
How did you get 5 million downloads organically?

Timestamp:

2:50 Akshay’s background and first hustle
10:20 Akshay’s path to founding Beem
15:18 Beem’s origin story
22:18 Beem’s approach to financial empowerment
27:35 Finding Beem’s market
31:07 Bringing good intention to AI
36:10 Growing Beem’s millions organically

Mentioned in this Episode:

#15. How Loyalty Programs Can Help Monetize Apps - Alex Saul (Loyalty Expert)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Do you understand your customer’s needs and how to satisfy them, at the right time? Alex Saul, an expert and consultant with 25 years of experience in customer loyalty, joins the podcast to talk about loyalty. He distills the essence of any effective loyalty program – hint: it centers around the customer – as well as ways that loyalty programs can help brands meet their strategic objectives, including monetization. You’ll learn how variable rewards can increase user engagement, how retail media can generate revenue, and how loyalty programs can help change user behavior, track omnichannel traffic, and bring valuable customer insights.

Questions Alex Answered in this Episode:

What experience was most important to your career?
How do you go about understanding what a customer’s needs are?
How have you seen the way loyalty brands view monetization change?
What are variable rewards?
What monetization strategies do you see work well in addition to variable rewards?

Timestamp:

2:00 Alex’s background
5:43 Challenges in the loyalty industry
7:55 Learning the true meaning of loyalty
10:05 Understanding the customer
12:00 The science behind loyalty
14:30 How loyalty can support monetization
18:00 Variable rewards
23:35 What is retail media?
25:23 How loyalty can help brands track omnichannel traffic
28:37 Responsible retail media
31:45 Consumer insights help monetization

Mentioned in this Episode:

Alejandro “Alex” Gonzalez Saul’s LinkedIn

#14. Re-Engagement Strategies to Stay Competitive in the Transportation App Vertical - Bruno Rodrigues (FREENOW)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000

In this episode Tommy chats with Bruno Rodrigues, the Regional Digital Marketing Lead at FREENOW, to learn about the European transportation super app’s approach to re-engaging users and measuring the incremental uplift of their campaigns in one of the mobile app industry’s most competitive verticals.

Questions Bruno Answered in this Episode:

How do you approach engagement and what importance does your business put on engagement as a strategy?
How do you develop your audience clusters?
How do you communicate with customers to re-engage them with your app?
How do you measure incremental uplift?
What challenges do you have working with different platforms that have different methodologies for measuring incrementality?

Timestamp:

2:14 Bruno’s background
8:10 Bruno’s approach to engagement
9:45 Developing audience clusters
11:38 Re-engagement communication tactics
13:30 How FREENOW approaches incrementality
19:07 Extensive creative testing is key

Mentioned in this Episode:

#13. Data-Driven Dining: Loyalty and Customer Engagement Strategies for Restaurant Apps - Kevin Nemeth (Authentic Restaurant Brands)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 5 Jun 2024 04:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Tommy interviews Kevin Nemeth, the Chief Digital Officer for Authentic Restaurant Brands, about the evolving landscape of digital loyalty programs for quick-service and casual dining restaurants. You'll learn how Kevin’s team differentiates their loyalty programs by offering value to their customers through special offers, ease of sign-up, and personalized experiences -- without disrupting the established brand's identity. Don’t miss this deep dive into leveraging first-party data to drive customer engagement and create compelling digital strategies for restaurant brands that keep customers coming back.

Questions Kevin Answered in this Episode:

What staying power did Covid’s effects on restaurants have?
Is there a cost benefit to bringing customers to your website or app?
How do you translate in-person restaurant experiences into a digital environment that’s useful for customers?
How do you drive adoption to your loyalty program?

Timestamp:

2:58 Covid’s lasting impact: ordering food through apps
6:00 Economics of driving customers to first-party platforms
10:10 Overview of Authentic Restaurant Brands
12:20 Regional Fortress Brands strategy
16:33 Translating in-restaurant experiences to digital
21:51 Importance of differentiation in loyalty programs
22:02 Overcoming barriers to loyalty program sign-ups
22:35 The success of PJ Whelihan's loyalty program
25:20 The value exchange in modern loyalty programs
27:27 Customer data is currency
30:59 Gamification and brand recall strategies
37:10 Building digital capabilities for restaurant brands
40:17 What's ahead

Mentioned in this Episode:

#12. How to Acquire Subscribers to Your Brand’s App - Tobi Lüder (Delivery Hero)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 8 May 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Tobi Lüder is the Head of CRM at Delivery Hero, a food and grocery delivery app operating in over 70 countries. In this episode, Tommy and Tobi talk about how to keep customers engaged with your app and converted into subscribers. You’ll learn how to win the loyalty of your customers, the difference between heavy users and loyal users, how to measure the incremental lift of your marketing efforts, and more!

Questions Tobi Answered in this Episode:

Does CRM strategy change significantly from one country to another?
How do you keep customers engaged with the Delivery Hero brand?
What is the process for identifying your heavy users that require less incentives?
How are you measuring the incremental lift of your marketing efforts?
Are your customers actively engaged in your loyalty program? Is that an important tool for them?
How do you determine who to heavily market your subscription to and articulate the value proposition?
Is frequency the most important metric when segmenting your audiences?

Timestamp:

2:40 Tobi’s background
5:16 Changes to CRM strategies in different countries
6:40 About Delivery Hero
9:38 How to win the loyalty of your cusomters
14:40 Heavy users vs loyal users
18:12 Measuring results with control groups
20:48 Attracting customers to our loyalty program
15:25 Acquiring subscribers in the app
28:09 Importance of frequency as a metric

Mentioned in this Episode:

#11. Cross-Promoting Mobile Games Within Your Studio’s Portfolio - Janos Perei (SYBO Games)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Janos Perei is the Head of Growth at SYBO Games, the makers of Subway Surfers, one of the most downloaded mobile games in the world. Janos and his team have been working on migrating users across the various games in SYBO’s portfolio in a meaningful way, which he calls “cross-promotion.” He discusses the merits of this growth strategy, the experience of cross-promotion for the user, and the challenges.

Questions Janos answered in this Episode:

Are you a gamer?
Outside of Subway Surfers, are there any mobile games in the marketplace that impress you in terms of growth?
Why has Subway Surfers been so successful?
How do you define “cross-promotion”?
How does the experience of cross-promotion manifest for your users?
Do more active users get different in-app messaging?
What stops game studios from trying to do this? What are the challenges of trying to build a cross-promotion mechanism?

Timestamp:

1:25 Janos Perei’s background and role at SYBO
5:34 Mobile games moving the needle
7:24 The secret behind Subway Surfers success
10:00 What is cross-promotion?
12:32 SYBO’s pillars of privacy controls
15:38 The user experience of cross-promotion
17:45 Mitigating “cannibalization” within game portfolios
22:00 Segmenting cross-promotions
23:00 Can smaller game studios do cross-promotion?
25:50 The challenges of cross-promotion

Mentioned in this Episode:

#10. App Leaders in Gamification – and Why They Knock It Out of the Park - Tara Kirkpatrick (Apptopia)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 3 Apr 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Why do app users spend more time on Temu’s app than Walmart’s or Amazon’s? In short: gamification. In this episode, Tara Kirkpatrick, the Director of App Marketing at Apptopia, explains why apps using gamification are crushing their categories.

Apptopia is a platform providing brands with mobile app performance data and mobile usage insights. Prior to Apptopia, Tara was the manager of product content and communications at Insight Timer.

Questions Tara Answered in this Episode:

What attracted you to Apptopia when you joined?
What is Apptopia’s core focus in the market?
Why does Temu see higher engagement in the app than Amazon?
Why is Duolingo a leader in its category?

Timestamp:

5:19 Tara’s background
7:58 Measuring scalable impacts for B2C
10:45 What does Apptopia do?
14:00 Why does Temu see higher engagement than Amazon?
18:00 Why Duolingo kills the app monetization game
23:07 Gaming runs upstream of all consumer tech
25:41 Community as a driver for app engagement
31:14 Diverging app monetization strategies

Mentioned in this Episode:

#9. Unlocking the Power of Rewarded Gaming Experiences in Apps - Marc Bearman (Fetch)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Marc Bearman, the General Manager of Fetch Play, chats with Tommy about the potential of rewarded experiences in gaming, particularly at the intersection of reward platforms like Fetch and game studios, and how it can lead to innovations and new opportunities for engagement, loyalty, partnerships, and revenue streams. They cover the evolution of rewarded video as a monetization strategy, how gaming studios might benefit from designing games with rewarded experiences in mind, and what the future holds for this exciting new intersection.

Questions Marc Answered in this Episode:

Tell us about your background and what you're doing today at Fetch.
What do you think makes Fetch special?
Why do you think it makes sense for Fetch to integrate gaming into its rewards platform?
What about the Fetch audience makes them attracted to games?
What’s got you stoked about 2024?

Timestamp:

1:27 Marc’s role at Fetch and background in ad tech
5:04 The evolution of rewarded video
7:51 Integrating gaming into a rewards program
12:31 Navigating user feedback and the importance of data-driven decisions
16:24 Fetch’s unique position as a rewards and loyalty app
22:23 Exploring user engagement and data accuracy
23:54 The Fetch Play Initiative
26:15 Win-win-win: Fetch-game studios-consumers
34:47 How fetch appeals to gamers and non-gamers
39:46 Looking ahead: the future of gaming and rewards with Fetch

Mentioned in this Episode:

#8. Building Apps with Empathy - Nico Ritschel (ATM)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 04:00:00 +0000

How do we translate the pains of our consumers into a product that benefits their life? Join Tommy as he chats with Nico Ritschel, the Director of Engineering at ATM, about how he helps the rewards app develop features that empathize with the needs of their users.

ATM helps people monetize their personal data. Users can earn rewards, make money, and invest it by taking surveys, playing games, and more. Prior to ATM, Nico worked as a software engineer at Acorns and Netflix.

Questions Nico Answered in this Episode:

What can ATM app users do with their rewards?
Since its start, how has the company decided what features to add?
Are “daily questions” different from surveys?
How do you determine what is a pervasive sentiment among your users?
What are you looking forward to in 2024?

Timestamp:

4:07 Nico’s industry background
5:55 What is ATM?
10:40 Developing ATM’s features
13:58 Daily questions
16:43 Making product decisions
20:00 A perspective outside data
21:24 An engineer’s role
27:00 What’s ahead

Mentioned in this Episode:

#7. Returning Value to Your Users with Cashbacks from E-commerce Brands - Miguel Acosta (GELT & Beruby)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Miguel Acosta is the CEO of GELT & Beruby, the leading app in Southern Europe for people who want to earn cashback on purchases from over 3,000 merchant links from the biggest brands. On today’s show, Miguel and Tommy discuss how generating revenue with a longtail cashback model works, and slowing down.

Questions Miguel Answered in this Episode:

You’re from Spain. Tell us what brought you to San Francisco.
When did you start Beruby?
What did the cashback landscape look like when you started Beruby?
How has your business model changed since its beginnings?
What allowed you to execute that shift?
How do you go about building a cashback model in the e-commerce vertical?
How does consumer feedback play in determining what brands you’re affiliated with?
What are you excited about in 2024?

Timestamp:

4:46 Miguel’s backstory & Beruby’s origin
13:00 The cashback app landscape at Beruby’s start
14:10 How our business model changed
17:00 What it took to make the shift
18:48 “Longtail” cashback model for e-commerce
24:32 How customer experience factors with cashback
30:30 What’s to come in 2024

Mentioned in this Episode:

#6. How Apps Can Change the Habits of People - Yves Benchimol (WeWard)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Yves Benchimol is the CEO and co-founder of WeWard, an app on a mission to make walking a more rewarding part of people’s lives. In this episode, Yves and Tommy discuss the three pillars of motivation that WeWard uses to inspire people to get outside and take a walk: gaming, social, and rewards. You’ll hear the strategies behind their success in helping 20 million users increase their number of steps on average by 25 percent.

WeWard is a free mobile app that converts steps into digital currency, which can be redeemed for offers, coupons, products, or cash. Yves has a master's in engineering and entrepreneurship and lives in New York with his family.

Questions Yves Answered in this Episode:

How did you become the CEO and co-founder of WeWard?
What’s one business you find inspiring?
Why did you start WeWard?
How does your app motivate people to walk more?
Of the three pillars, which impacts your consumers the most?
Do you have any examples of features that didn’t work that you thought would?
How did you decide when it was time to expand into other countries? And how did you decide what countries to expand to first?
Does the U.S. present unique challenges or rewards to WeWard’s expansion?
What approach did you take to amplify your rewards system, and why was that important for WeWard?
What’s your favorite walk of the day?

Timestamp:

3:06 Yves’s background
7:14 WeWard’s origin story & the beauty of walking
11:11 The 3 motivational pillars
13:38 What motivates people the most?
18:58 Deciding when to kill a feature
22:35 How we decided to expand to other countries
31:05 Amplifying our reward strategy with games
36:04 The BEST walk

Mentioned in this Episode:

#5. How We Grew Our Brand to Reach a Third of German Households - Sergio Palau (PAYBACK)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 12:20:04 +0000

Discover how PAYBACK revolutionizes app monetization by engaging users through rewarding actions. Sergio Palau, PAYBACK’s App Performance Marketing Specialist, shares insights into their approach, educating users, tradeoffs, and rewards. Join PAYBACK, the German-based loyalty rewards program, and earn discounts from your favorite brands.

Timestamp:

1:03 Sergio’s background
5:25 What is PAYBACK?
9:54 Gamifying PAYBACK to drive engagement
15:50 The trust and value exchange of consumer data
17:12 Educating users on our app’s offer wall
25:25 Providing a rewarding gaming experience

Mentioned in this Episode:

#4. Improving the Performance of Free to Play Games - Matt Emery (Turbine Games Consulting)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 10:05:41 +0000

It’s hard to be profitable as a Free to Play mobile game. With a 97% failure rate, it’s not uncommon for games to see that the Lifetime Value (LTV) of their users is below their Cost Per Install (CPI). In this episode, Matt Emery, the founder and lead product manager at Turbine Games Consulting, talks to Tommy about how he helps F2P games improve their monetization, retention, KPI performance, and CPI with as little effort on the client’s part as possible.

Matt has worked with over 80 gaming companies on more than 100 games as a product manager over the last 15 years. He founded Turbine Games Consulting in 2016, and for the last five years, Turbine Games Consulting has been perfecting the art of split testing to refine their product recommendations over time.

Questions Matt Answered in this Episode:

Is the rate at which game developers launch new games part of the reason such a small percentage of mobile games make it?
When did you found Turbine Games?
What was the problem you were trying to solve for your clients, or the service you were trying to provide?
What’s the most common need you see?
How do you design your split tests? How do you prove the efficacy of an effort within a game in a split test environment?
Is reskinning a store worth it?
Tell us about one of your success stories.
What are you excited about in 2024 for Free to Mobile Games?

Timestamp:

3:00 Matt’s background
7:14 Mobile game survival rate and the development process
11:20 The birth of Turbine Games Consulting
15:49 Split testing to help games improve performance
21:48 When clients don’t have enough user volume for split tests
25:45 Even top-grossing companies miss low hanging fruit
29:54 What initiatives create the greatest lift?
31:33 A 9x ROAS success story
36:00 Helping Free to Play games with pre-code product validation

Mentioned in this Episode:

#3. Optionality: The Future of Loyalty - Sami Khan (ATLAS Reality)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 3 Jan 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Tommy speaks to a connoisseur of scaling early stage startups and growing apps of emerging categories into multi-billion dollar products. Sami Khan is the CEO and Co-Founder of ATLAS Reality, a mobile gaming company with the leading real estate app on the metaverse. In this episode, Sami discusses how ATLAS Reality is bridging the virtual and physical worlds with their approach to monetization.

Sami got his start in marketing emerging app categories when he led the launch of Acorns, which quickly became the leading fintech app in the U.S. He also advised Honey, the savings extension, on growth.

Questions Sami Answered in this Episode:

How much of your experience working with early stage startups gave you the confidence to make the jump that you did founding and starting ATLAS Reality?
Can you tell our listeners about what ATLAS Reality is? And how do you educate your customers to not just drive installs but keep them engaged?
How do you get people to understand what you’re doing? And how do you keep them engaged and retain users?

Timestamp:

3:04 Sami’s background
11:37 The fear of being a founder
15:57 Installs don’t mean sh*t
19:37 What is ATLAS Reality?
20:26 A vision for the Metaverse
25:00 Approaches to monetization for retention
19:32 The future of loyalty

#2. Gamifying Crypto Investing to Drive Loyalty and Acquisition - Guillaume Torche (Ember Fund)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 05:00:00 +0000

How did Ember Fund get over a million users to invest in cryptocurrencies on their app? Find out as Tommy chats to Guillaume Torche, the Co-Founder and CTO of the Web3 superapp that allows users to earn, play, and invest in digital assets. You’ll learn how they made investing in crypto easy and fun for the average joe, and the outcome of their strategy.

Questions Guillaume Answered in this Episode:

What was the inspiration behind starting Ember Fund?
Can you explain how you’ve taken the middleman out of investing in crypto for your app’s users?
How much can users earn for referring a friend? How did you test that experience to find out the optimal payout to the user that made the referral?
How else do you think about earning and how to increase consumer opportunities there?
What are you excited about for what’s to come next?

Timestamp:

1:45 Guillaume’s background
3:12 The birth of Ember Fund
7:12 Cutting out the middleman
9:00 Educating our users
10:46 Our key to acquisition and scale
11:35 How Ember Fund’s referral program works
14:08 Tournaments for crypto portfolios
21:55 Our next frontier

Mentioned in this Episode:

#1: How to Build Smart Engagement Programs to Monetize Your App - Alex Guerra (Baz Superapp)

thomas@adjoe.io (adjoe) — Tue, 5 Dec 2023 18:52:24 +0000

Monetizing an app relies on how you keep users engaged, and not just at the beginning but over a user’s lifetime. To kick off the first episode of adjoe's Mass Appeal Podcast, host Tommy Yannopoulos speaks with Alex Guerra, the Director and Head of Monetization at Baz. They discuss how economic incentive programs can drive app engagement in a profitable way. You’ll learn about the three principal monetization strategies; how to use incentives, like referral programs and gamification, to drive engagement and retention; and how to work with your data science team to build predictive marketing models with AI and machine learning to turn a profit.

After receiving his Masters from UCL in London, Alex worked at Uber for over 4 years, eventually becoming the Latin America Lead for Global Strategy. Now he directs pricing, market intelligence, and revenue growth strategies for Baz, Mexico’s first superapp. Baz is one app for payment and financial services, entertainment, e-commerce, and more.

Questions Alex Answered in this Episode:

How is Baz structured? What does it do for customers?
How do you decide where to focus on engagement across all the verticals in your superapp?
How do you structure your incentives program across all these different datasets?
How do you identify users early on that you want to put the effort behind in terms of driving more mid- to long-term incentives programs?
What are the inputs required of you in this process of working with your data science team to build a predictive marketing model?
Could you share with us an offer that you brought as a result of these efforts that worked really well for your customers?
What’s got you excited about this year at Baz?

Timestamp:

1:52 Intro to Alex Guerra
4:52 What is monetization in the mobile app industry
7:45 Baz and superapps explained
11:45 Identifying engagement strategies at a superapp
14:02 Economic incentives to increase engagement and retention
19:38 Building machine learning models for predictive analytics and marketing
22:40 Working with your data science team to build AI models
26:47 Giving your AI modeling experiments time
27:53 Incentives for customers who have churned
31:35 What Alex is excited about for Baz

Quotes:

(14:48-14:54) “What speeds up engagement and also user acquisition or retention is giving a customer something to reward their action.”

(19:57-20:11) “You have to build AI and machine learning models that create propensity and ranking models that make sure you’re reducing the cost of engagement and the cost of acquisition but you maximize or optimize for the lifetime value.”

(26:49-27:02) “You need to be patient. I’ve seen a lot of companies drop their [AI data modeling] efforts after a few weeks. Some of these experiments need two, three, or four months–it depends on the purchase frequency that your business has.”