As Spring arrived in Las Vegas last month, nearly 2,000 mobile and app industry leaders from over 20 countries around the world converged at the MGM Grand for Grow.co’s annual Mobile Apps Unlocked (MAU). What began in 2014 as an intrepid meeting of 240 app professionals has truly become a global gathering of some of the most innovative minds in the business.
Once again MAU Vegas demonstrated that there is no other industry so fueled by the innovation and power in numbers, as the app economy continues to grow worldwide.
AppsFlyer welcomed a powerful number of the world’s leading app professionals to MAU in Las Vegas.
With a focus on the people, places, and trends shaping the world of mobile apps, MAU provided three days of insightful content sessions, as well as countless opportunities to share knowledge and meet like-minded individuals and organizations in a lively environment for collaboration, learning and fostering new relationships.
Terrific discussion on modern #mobile marketing stack with @eric_seufert of @MobileDevMemo , @wilsonkriegel of @PicsArtStudio , @WomenInWireless & @KongregateDevs #MAU2018 #PowerInNumbers pic.twitter.com/e3SylJt3UJ
— AppsFlyer (@AppsFlyer) April 25, 2018
.@lejeunesimon of the red-hot @hopper on stage at #MAU2018 : "We use social media channels that allow us to focus on acquiring top-of-the-funnel users, and we use AppsFlyer to help optimize those campaigns and shift our budgets in real-time — they're the best in the business." pic.twitter.com/oSKbmQeFR2
— AppsFlyer (@AppsFlyer) April 25, 2018
Whether in the main conference hall, the more intimate breakout sessions, the exhibition center, at poolside cabanas, or the parties in the penthouse suites or clubs, MAU was a celebration where thought leaders and experts from across all sectors and industries came together to discuss the myriad topics presented by the always-evolving mobile landscape — and how modern mobile marketing technology and strategies are helping businesses win in today’s app economy.
Work hard, pool hard at #MAUVegas pic.twitter.com/lg84dBqzuL
— AppsFlyer (@AppsFlyer) April 25, 2018
Woot! Congrats Jennifer Gionfriddo of @StanleyBlkDeckr & Isaac Linson of @impactmartech / @forensiq, the latest winners of our #PowerInNumbers powerball drawing at @GrowCo's #MAU2018! Enjoy the #Avengers tix & #Adidas kicks! pic.twitter.com/ldsCGR2ixR
— AppsFlyer (@AppsFlyer) April 26, 2018
View from above #MAU2018 , with @mParticles & @Amplitude_HQ #PowerInNumbers #MAUVegas pic.twitter.com/PLB5ve7WqM
— AppsFlyer (@AppsFlyer) April 26, 2018
Data-driven thinking, content and contextual messaging, AI and chatbots, automation, cryptocurrency, ad fraud, privacy and personalization, performance branding, customer journeys and the marriage between product and marketing were only some of the items on the agenda.
Great stuff from @kgambarelli of @Snapchat on how to maximize impact of context for driving #lifetimevalue, return on ad spend and user #acquisition. #MAU2018 #PowerInNumbers pic.twitter.com/Ofo62cjJqX
— AppsFlyer (@AppsFlyer) April 25, 2018
.@jewang2 of @mixpanel & @mpkrueger of @brightwheel on how marriage of marketing & product improves user #LifetimeValue: "With #DataDriven collaboration, you're not just throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks. Shared north-star metrics drives mutual results." #MAU18 pic.twitter.com/QC7yfosw65
— AppsFlyer (@AppsFlyer) April 26, 2018
*****
On Day One, AppsFlyer’s Sunil Bhagwan took the main stage with Fortune #1 company (and AppsFlyer client) Walmart as well as Sam’s Club for a panel discussion on how legacy powerhouse businesses are creating their enterprise-grade mobile growth stacks. For marketers, product and technical professionals, the session covered best practices and examples for building a platinum tech stack, and how to implement a scalable data infrastructure that grows an app business.
Austin Hay, representing Walmart, said that having a great tech stack is fundamental to moving fast and being successful, even for enterprises.
“At the enterprise level, you’re optimizing for flexibility, speed and agility — the capacity for a marketer and a product manager to execute quickly without needing additional engineering resources or having multiple conversations. It mainly comes down to instrumentation across your platforms for customer data, attribution, engagement and retention, as well as product analytics. A lot of people disqualify or don’t think about the need to unify your tools around these core data elements…but having unified tools allows you to quickly act and prevents you from getting stuck.”
“One recurring theme [when looking at building your mobile tech stack] is that you really want to surround yourself with the vendors and tools that are going to work for you — not only the ability to execute on the technology, but physically surrounding yourself with people who are going to treat you and your team as an extension of themselves. At Walmart we’ve built a growth squad around the toolsets we have, and we include representatives from those platforms not only when we have a question or demand, but as part of our strategy, our omnichannel goals, our overall growth,” said Hay.
“A lot of times you should think about enterprise strategy for your tech stack as a framework..even as a startup. Understand what tools you need to execute quickly.” #MAU18 #PowerInNumbers
— AppsFlyer (@AppsFlyer) April 25, 2018
“There are a lot of tools in the market…our team of 50-60 employees all need something different — so how do you coalesce around an idea or a tool that can help achieve multiple goals,” added Drew Frost of Sam’s Club.
Hay continued: “Part of the ideal framework for enterprise tech stack involves tying data sources together and thinking about cross-brand opportunities. You can imagine a world where we’re using our geo-services and our AppsFlyer attribution data in order to measure installs that are occurring in stores — and then we can house all that data in a customer data platform, send it over to Drew so he can run a marketing campaign for Sam’s Club. This type of full-funnel cycle, combined with the ability to send it over to different brands is the type of flexibility and power you need in a massive company. Anything is possible with data — the question for us is, is it possible to do something quickly and without a team of 50 people?”
Stoked to take the stage at #MAU2018 to chat about best ways to build a modern #mobile growth stack, with Austin Hay and Drew Frost of @WalmartLabs & @SamsClub #PowerInNumbers pic.twitter.com/iHEqIcBaEw
— AppsFlyer (@AppsFlyer) April 25, 2018
“There is more power in the people you have. So despite us being Walmart and Sam’s Club, having those [external technology experts] from the tools we’re using to teach, train, coach and guide that strategy along is a very different mindset. We don’t think of our vendors as people we call only when there are problems, we actively engage those folks as part of our process — which helps us do better on our strategy. We look to work with those that want to take part in a bigger story than themselves as a vendor.”
*****
As usual, Adam Lovallo and the folks at Grow.co put on an awesome event.
“It’s amazing to see the continued growth, interest and investment in the mobile ecosystem worldwide — and I’m honored to see that manifest in the sheer number of leading players from across the industry who gathered at MAU in Vegas this year,” said Lovallo. “It’s always exciting to join forces with the innovators who are shaping the future of the app economy, and I look forward to what’s next for mobile marketers.”
*****
We can’t wait for next year. Hope we’ll see you there!
The post The Latest from Vegas: Looking Back at MAU 2018 appeared first on AppsFlyer.