Marketing Success Through Individualization
My work producing and hosting weekly podcasts, frequent webinars and masterclasses feels a little like speed dating. Every interview and interaction – from martech pioneers to marketing wizards – starts with a short briefing call where I listen to their story and help them shape a narrative that will make the content we create together shine. Sometimes, I discover a diamond in the rough and then feel committed to making that individual stand out. (I am over the moon when I can unlock that potential.) Other times, I hear a cool idea that sparks a fire in my brain. On the best days, I get both — and reinforcement of the hard truth that marketers have to grasp.
Demographics are dead – to borrow a phrase from my esteemed friend and colleague David Allison. He literally wrote the book on it.
But if we accept this premise, where does the path lead us?
A casual chat with Joe Schaeppi, CEO & Co-Founder at Solsten, replaces confusion about that direction with confidence in a solution. Assessment as a Service (AaaS) is a living and learning way to understand who your audience is and what they will genuinely appreciate.
But let’s start with Solsten. The website states the mission is to “find the magic in science, the art in artificial intelligence, and the power to act that can only come from listening.”
In practice, it’s a data-driven, AI-passionate company powered by 5 years of data, multiple patents and a human insights engine built from the ground up to connect the dots in the factors that, together, form a comprehensive psychological snapshot of who your audience is.
I’ll get into the tech, the outcome (games for good) and the impact after my PG.Biz podcast interview with Joe 😉 So watch for that in the next weeks.
In the meantime, here’s 2 takeaways from our chat:
- Beware bold assumptions about IP and audience appeal: Joe shared how one games studio with powerful IP failed big time because it thought plugging in some super-popular superheroes would give it a lucrative boost. On paper, 1 +1 would make 3 – and millions more. The reality: Faithful fans of the core mechanic were just not into the new IP. Not understanding what the existing players really value in the game led to a mismatch with disastrous consequences. Great game, wrong audience. But blockbusters (for example, Monopoly Solitaire) can result when studios assess their players, harness compatible IP and create gameplay that fits the audience persona.
- Wellbeing is a marketing metric: This is the time to show you are serving, not selling. From medical treatments to quick-serve restaurants, companies are lining up at Solsten, looking for reliable ways to measure and validate the true impact of what they offer. Our wellbeing isn’t just a KPI, Joe tells me. It has predictive power. “What we see is the healthier an experience is for a person, the more LTV they’re going to contribute.”
Understanding your audience and the interplay between what they do (experience) and what they feel (wellbeing) is where we’re sure to see a powerful mix of action and innovation.
Audiomack’s Chris Dalla Riva: Localization Is A Brand Boost
Where we are also defines who we are.
Thanks to a riveting discussion with Chris Dalla Riva, Sr. Product Manager of Data and Personalization at Audiomack, and co-host Ben Holmes, VP of Performance and Brand Revenue at Digital Turbine, I have a deeper appreciation of how paying attention to cultural nuances and niches can elevate a brand from good to great.
It also fuels Brand Power, the blended metric Audiomack has mastered to outperform other streaming giants (Spotify & Co), according to the latest BRAG Index (Brand Relative App Growth Index). It’s a mix of community marketing, product-led growth, advertising execution and device integration. While Audiomack excels at search ad optimization (advertising execution) that gets it in front of app users, it’s the effort to connect with local tastes and preferences (community marketing) that turns listeners into loyal fans.
The extra effort — which includes putting teams and trend-watchers on the ground in Jamaica and other countries to tap into local music scenes — has allowed Audiomack, a free, artist-first music platform with more than three billion monthly streams, to become and remain a winner.
This episode of Mobile Explorers is full of practical advice and great (sustainable) growth ideas, so I have mined the gold for you below.
Here’s 3 takeaways from our chat:
Enabling creators to drive conversion: Audiomack has a limited catalog but makes up for that by empowering new artists and genres to thrive. Chris connects Audiomack’s “artist-first” approach to growth and its strategy to provide artists with free tools. (The latest allows artists to message their followers via email or push directly.) Free of friction and the barriers to communication and monetization of their music, these artists become Audiomack’s best marketers and strongest connection to valuable power users.
Curated content is the draw: Audiomack gets high marks for surfacing content that users will find relevant to them from the get-go and solving the cold start problem. “We like to say we take a human-centered algorithmic approach … to combine algorithmic recommendations with human recommendations.” Combining human-curated playlists and an algorithm that exposes the most relevant playlist to the user also drives impressive retention. “I think part of the reason that we’ve been able to grow in so many places at the same time is that we can make the app feel local no matter where you are on Earth.”
Paid channels are part of personalization: Targeting is challenging — that’s why Audiomack combines some basic demographic information about users with a deep appreciation of where they are in the world. “We’re always looking at paid channels that are most going to overlap with those users.” Unsurprisingly, Chris reveals, Snap Inc. and TikTok are the channels that he’s had “good success” with globally.
And one more thing…
If you want to meet up with me in October 🍂
✈️ I will be in London, Oct 12th, for the UA Society Summit. https://uasocietysummit2023.splashthat.com/ 🫖 Drop me a PM if you want to grab a cuppa, I will be in London for a few days.
🛬 Next stop Hamburg, Oct 19th, where I am delighted to be a judge for the MMA Germany #smartiesaward. Good luck to all who have entered, I am sure trying to pick the winners and runners-up will not be an easy task 🥳
