Presenting the Winners of the 2023 Airship Altitude Awards

Each year, our customers across the globe submit their best mobile strategies, app experiences and cross-channel campaigns to compete in Airship’s Altitude Awards. Twelve brands made the cut as finalists for their exceptional level of achievement, and we just revealed the final four winners live onstage at Mobile Leaders Forum in London.

Want to know who and how? Read on!

Submissions were judged on performance, impact, innovation and degree of difficulty, in four separate award categories. 

• Acquisition: Recognizing brands that leverage exceptional acquisition strategies to drive app downloads.
• Mobile Activation: For brands that excel in activating new app customers and creating a foundation for long-term relationships.
• Monetization: For brands that excel in revenue generation and creating sustainable value from mobile apps.
• In-App Experience: Celebrating brands that deliver personalized and effective in-app experiences.

Distinguished judges included:

• Sarah Gilchrist, Director – Group Multi-Channel Performance Optimisation, JD Sports Fashion
• Mark Hursh, Managing Director of Product & Digital Experience, Southwest Airlines
• Barbara Spiering, VP of Marketing Technologies, Starbucks

Judges were unanimous in their praise for the creativity and results demonstrated across submissions.

“It was an honor to participate in this year’s Altitude Awards as a judge, and much more difficult than I expected! How can you decide between very compelling concepts that are backed up with hard measurements and meaningful business impact and say one is better than the other? I was inspired by how others in the industry are evolving and constantly pushing the boundaries. It was very inspiring.” 

Barbara Spiering, VP of Marketing Technologies, Starbucks

The following brands were recognized as category winners:

Acquisition: MTN Nigeria

MTN Nigeria was awarded the Acquisition Award for their mobile app myMTN NG, a free app developed to help its mobile subscriber customers simplify their mobile lives. 

MTN Nigeria developed their brand new myMTN NG app with the aim of achieving 6 million users by December 2023. Focusing on performance, proposition and promotion, they leveraged Airship’s Push Notifications and In-App Messaging to boost engagement and app downloads. Using custom event-triggered automations, the team saw a 1,000% increase in monthly active users (MAU) over a 21-month period. They used this increase in active users to drive app store ratings, impressing judges with a 65% improvement in one month. In turn, ratings and reviews inspired new app downloads, further increasing their MAU. The judges were especially impressed with their ability to drive big improvements in such a short timeframe. 

Activation: REGIOCAST

German-based radio company, REGIOCAST took home the Activation Award for excellence in activating new app customers and creating a foundation for long-term relationships among listeners. 

Like many brands, REGIOCAST had a goal of increasing app usage and listening time within the mobile app, as well as incentivizing customers to increase the frequency of app opens. REGIOCAST leveraged Airship to do just that by running a contest campaign using in-app messaging.

In naming REGIOCAST the winner, the judges highlighted an ongoing evolution of engagement methods in response to customer inputs; a focus on generating long-term value; notable engagement results; and sustained engagement beyond campaign periods.

Monetization: Boots 

When it came to demonstrating an ability to generate revenue and create sustainable value from mobile apps, pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer Boots walked away with the Monetization Award. With a focus on modeling and testing to drive top performance, Boots showed how well they understand their customers – and how to create a mutual exchange of value within the mobile ecosystem. 

Within their nominate campaign, Boots improved both their targeting and creative content, while cleverly employing a gamification technique. Their approach translated into increased revenue and strong growth in loyalty.

In-App Experience: Warner Media 

This award celebrates brands that deliver personalized and effective in-app experiences. 

Warner Media is one of America’s leading media and entertainment companies. With its March Madness Live project, it streams more than 1.2 billion minutes of live game action across all platforms. 

The 2023 March Madness Tournament attracted the most engaged audience in the app’s history – largely driven by the NCAA Digital’s innovative app strategy using both automated and manually written alerts across differentiated audience segments. Fans not only took to the app, but a unique tone for alerts sparked significant social media conversations about the app’s quick and relevant notifications. 

The brand’s research and data analysis gave them the information they needed to personalize the targeting of each campaign, with total engagement on notifications topping 4 million for a third straight tournament and app opens per alert up 28% from last year. Excitement alerts accounted for 70% of live minutes streamed with over 600k fans interacting with one. In-app messages were used to re-engage fans, emphasizing special alerts for bracket picks, game starts and must-see moments.

Judges highlighted the innovation behind this project, including its introduction of Live Activities for Apple, systematic processes for continuous experimentation and data-driven customer interactions. 

Cheers to our 2023 Airship Altitude Award Winners & Finalists

A huge congratulations to the extraordinary brands who innovate and inspire in their use of Airship’s App Experience Platform. These brand experiences impact millions of customers around the world, and Airship is proud to be part of making their lives (and yours!) better. 

Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry to Airship’s Altitude Awards. We look forward to seeing you again next year. If you missed the livestream of the awards, you can watch it now.

Want to know when the next Altitude Awards submission process begins? Sign up now for Airship’s customer newsletter, Navigator.