Noelia Amoedo, CEO of Mediasmart
Many advertisers are now looking to internalise their media buying processes, and numerous companies are being set up to offer advertisers a media buying service in the programmatic space. There are two possible routes here, as in any decision that involves using technology: buy or build your DSP. But firstly, let’s define what a DSP actually is. Continue reading
Danielle Blumenstyk Peterman, Content Marketing Manager at AppsFlyer
Remember the good old days? When you wanted to boost your organic traffic, so you embarked upon a UA campaign, knowing that you could rely on the organic multiplier to then increase your reach 1.5x or even 2x on a good day? Yeah, those golden days of bliss. Sadly, those days are gone.
Wait, what happened?
First off, organic app discovery is largely broken. The sheer amount of apps in the two major stores (over 2 million in both the App Store and Google Play) makes it nearly impossible for users to find your app in the hay stack, even if they happen to be looking for a similar one. With so many possibilities for every search term and keyword, the chances of a user landing on and installing your app are slim to none. Continue reading
Neil Ballinger, Head of UX at Nimbletank
Now that Smartphones are bedded into our culture, banking as we know it is on its way out
Banking as we know it, is on its way out. Traditional products, services and the branch are becoming redundant. It’s not time to call in the demolition teams yet, but there can be no denying that smartphones and their surrounding technology have completely changed the way younger people think about banking.
Mobile devices have changed us from a nation of owners to lifestyle livers.
A trend most evident in town high streets, where shops have closed down and turned into trendy restaurants and cafes because we no longer spend our time going from store-to-store with shopping bags. Instead, we sit on our sofas buying clothes and homeware on our smartphones.
Smartphones are saving us from the mundane tasks of life. Such as a weekend appointment to visit to your bank manager to open a new account, order a credit card or discuss a mortgage.
Mobile has disrupted the way we need to look at banking. No longer are users looking to create a relationship with a bank manager. Saturday appointments will be a thing of the past, when you can simply download an app and order a card to your door. An unpleasant process has been turned into a simple one.
Millennials are holding the Scythe
Banking and financial services are being driven forward the emergence of the Millennial generation, empowered by their devices. Millennials find no importance in building relationships with bank managers. They think of money, credit, pensions as utility services that they can carry around like their music. As house prices become less affordable and having a healthy pension to retire on is becoming less realistic, Millennials are saving to spend in the here-and-now, making life-long relationships with banks obsolete.
Smartphones and related technology are giving young people the technology they need to view financial products as utilities rather than relationships to be built. With the emphasis within the Financial sector and Fintech centred around making their products simpler, more accessible and user-centric, it’s easy to imagine the landscape of the physical bank being done away with very soon.
Challenger banks in the West such as Atom Bank and Monzo are already rethinking the relationships people have with their banks. Smartphones are at the centre of both of them. The implications of Fintech companies such as these go way beyond customer service and the physical context of a bank branch. Challenger banks are tapping into the lifestyles of their consumers and creating new services to improve and simplify their lives.
Exciting advances in Fintech are happening all over the world. Among a multitude of truly innovative companies, China’s WeChat allow users to split their bills with friends, Spixii, a UK company have created a Chatbot using powerful AI technology that will buy and manage all of your insurance policies through you, all through an app. Thirdly, StashInvest in the US allows customers to make and control investments from their smartphone app.
Similarly, to Challenger banks, all these services are turning a boring, complicated or tedious process into a simple utility task.
Technology is dictating
Mobile is not the only technology that has emerged and helped to change the face of banking. AR, artificial intelligence, voice UI, smart assistants have all changed our expectations of how we interact with faulting services. Technologies such as Chatbots, which are dramatically redefining the customer services industry and products such as the Amazon Echo illustrate where traditional banking models are failing.
They’re not evolving. They’re sticking to the same models and are not changing their approach with the changing values of their customers. If a bank sells you a credit card, it differentiates its product by offering you sub-products such as air miles, cash back and rewards. Whereas, modern technologies are becoming invisible and are only focussing on improving the lives of customers.
Customer centricity is key
Physical banks are a thing of the past. They’re a need from an age where we lacked technology to manage our money how we wish. Their death won’t be immediate, but as the values of the general population aligns to those common within millennials, they will disappear.
Why are Millennials so important in this? Often thought of as the neglected demographic, they focus more on utility and experience than ownership. Whereas they don’t own as larger proportion of the world’s wealth – as older generations die and incumbents are born with the same expectations of Millennials, they will have a stronger and more shaping influence on the world of finance.
There has never been a better time for big banks and financial players to think about customer experience and value innovation.
Emma Longmate, Programmatic & Data Partnerships Manager at Weve
Picture the scene, it was a painfully hot Thursday, the post lunch lull. Everyone in the office was gazing out the window, complaining about the fact we were stuck inside working when we really should be outside enjoying the glorious British Summer. It seemed almost inhumane that we were not allowed to go and sit in a park and work from our phones. Surely it is possible to get what you need to get done, with just your mobile phone and no other resources at your disposal?? Continue reading
Shumel Lais, Founder & CEO at Appsumer
Effective performance marketing is data-driven by design, demanding marketers monitor and measure mountains of disparate data points and performance “signals.” But marketers can no longer compete on their knowledge of “surface” data such as the cost per acquisition grouped by ad networks and partners. To gain and maintain competitive edge performance marketers must strive to distil granular data, including creatives and sub-publisher information, into deeper insights. Continue reading
Paul Barnes, Territory Director Northern Europe and Middle East at App Annie
Mobile apps are at the centre of digital transformation and increasingly contribute to the success of businesses across nearly every industry. On average, we spend more than 2 hours day in apps — that equates to more than one month out of every year of our lives. There is no other medium that is as direct, as personal or as omni-present to meet your customer whenever and wherever they need you. Continue reading
Oliver van Bilsen, Global Head of Digital – Retail, Fuels & Lubricants at Shell
Oliver Van Bilsen, Global Head of Digital – Retail & Lubricants at Shell, recently presented his thoughts on how the digital revolution is changing the face of retail at the MMA Forum. Here he expands on his thoughts and outlines how Shell is pushing innovation forward.
Digital consumers are different. Their shifting expectations are redefining retail and demanding new strategies to deliver experiences that attract new customers, boost loyalty and improve satisfaction. Continue reading
Timothea Horwell, Marketing & Research Manager At WEVE
Weve’s Marketing & Research Manager, Timothea Horwell, explores the paradox of the modern day automotive purchase: a wealth of mobile data to understand how to reach prospective customers at moments that most influence their decisions, but a decreasing time-frame in which to do so. Weve’s research provides context to understand different drivers at each stage of the automotive journey.
Buying a car used to mean spending hours perusing the local dealership. In 2017, however, consumers are increasingly looking online for much of the purchase process, and mostly via a mobile device: Weve’s Automotive Research 2017 found 84% of consumers use their mobile at some stage when buying a car. Continue reading
Noelia Amoedo, CEO of Mediasmart
A sentiment I’ve been hearing all too often from ad agencies recently, is that when considering a Mobile Advertising investment the sole purpose of engaging with a mobile specialist DSP is promoting apps.
This is an extremely limited perspective for two very important reasons. Firstly, ‘eyeballs’ nowadays are predominantly focused on mobile apps and campaign effectiveness in apps often requires mobile specific technology. Then there’s also the fact that the mobile environment provides so much more information about user behaviour than other channels. Frankly, if you’re not working with a mobile specialist, you’re missing out. Continue reading
Harry Clarke, Creativity & Innovations Manager at Weve
There is always something to compare in advertising. Content vs context, data vs creativity, technology vs humanity. All the conversations start off with one question: who will win? Yet in every seminar and workshop I’ve attended and every article I’ve read, we all reach the same conclusion: there are no winners.
The truth is, they are all cornerstones of the advertising world we work (and live) in, working together to enhance and evolve our output. Continue reading
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