In this week’s episode of Masters of Max, Tom Butta welcomes Harry Parkes, VP of Product at OVO, a major energy supplier based in Bristol, England. Harry brings a wealth of experience from the product and design fields, and is at the forefront of boosting consumer engagement and facilitating the transition towards sustainable energy use at OVO. Founded over a decade ago, OVO emerged as a challenger in the UK energy sector and now boasts 4M customers.

The conversation dives deep into the philosophical and practical aspects of product design and management. Harry underscores the importance of understanding the user’s context when designing a product or service, drawing parallels between product management and the design field. Both disciplines, he argues, revolve around problem-solving within the situational context of users. 

A significant part of the interview highlights OVO’s innovative approach to engaging customers through its mobile app offerings. With the energy sector’s shifting landscape, OVO has benefitted from their customers’ newly sparked interest in conserving energy. The company has invested in app features that allow users to check their energy usage, understand how energy flows through their homes, and offer insights to reduce their carbon footprint and save money. The app plays a critical role in getting customers to engage with their energy and start thinking about where it comes from, fostering an ongoing relationship to advance the decarbonization agenda.

For businesses looking to enhance their mobile engagement and app offerings, Harry provides valuable insights. Emphasizing the significance of understanding customer behaviors, perceptions and profiles, as well as using AI, to add real value to customers’ experiences. Harry also highlights OVO’s focused approach to becoming net zero by 2035. 

Subscribe to “Masters of MAX: The Mobile App Experience Podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, Audible or YouTube.

Make Connections:

• Connect with Harry Parkes on LinkedIn
• Check out OVO Energy for iOS and Android
• Connect with Tom Butta on LinkedIn

The post How OVO’s Mobile App is Critical to Reaching Net Zero – Masters of MAX ep. #22 appeared first on Airship.

In this week’s episode of Masters of Max, host Tom Butta welcomes Vernesa Ćutuk, a CRM specialist, to the podcast. Vernesa has a diverse career background, working with various industries such as telcos, pharmaceuticals, startups, and mobile apps. Most recently, Vernesa was the CRM Marketing manager for Sleep Cycle, the sleep tracking app with over 300,000 monthly downloads. Now, Vernesa consults independently, sharing her expertise in understanding the user journey and promoting a user-centric approach within companies.

During their conversation, Tom emphasizes that simply having a CRM platform doesn’t make your brand automatically customer focused and that you need to actively engage users effectively across different channels. Vernesa also highlights the need to understand user behavior and segmentation to personalize interactions and optimize engagement. 

You’ll also hear Vernesa talk about the concept of being a “T-shaped marketer,” the significance of balancing depth in specialization with breadth in decision-making to address varying customer needs, and how brands can foster seamless customer experiences across different touchpoints—physical stores, websites, and mobile apps.

Subscribe to “Masters of MAX: The Mobile App Experience Podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, Audible or YouTube.

Make Connections:

• Connect with Vernesa Ćutuk on LinkedIn
• Check out Sleep Cycle for iOS and Android
• Connect with Tom Butta on LinkedIn

The post Why Your CRM Strategy Should Include Cozy Onboarding – Masters of MAX ep. #21 appeared first on Airship.

In this episode of Masters of MAX, host Tom Butta welcomes Jonathan Azouri, the CEO of CatchCorner by Sports Illustrated, North America’s top destination for booking sports facilities and activities. Jonathan shares his entrepreneurial journey and passion for innovation, highlighting the importance of keeping a human perspective in business. He emphasizes the impact of every interaction on user experience and the value of hands-on leadership in building successful teams.

You’ll hear Jonathan talk about what inspired him to start CatchCorner by SI, and his focus on accessibility and seamless user experience. While booking apps for hotel and restaurant reservations are familiar, Jonathan addresses the technical complexities and unique requirements involved in sports facility rentals including e-signatures and customer safety.

Subscribe to “Masters of MAX: The Mobile App Experience Podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, Audible or YouTube.

Make Connections:

• Connect with Jonathan Azouri on LinkedIn
• Check out CatchCorner by SI for iOS and Android
• Connect with Tom Butta on LinkedIn

The post Essential Advice for Building a Successful App – Masters of MAX ep. #20 appeared first on Airship.

Here, we define zero- and first-party data, explain their value and provide 8 tips for gathering and utilizing more of it. 

Understanding First-Party and Zero-Party Data
First-party data is the information gleaned from customer interactions with your brand, including interactions and transactions across your marketing channels and digital properties. For example, it could be a wishlist of items saved in a retail app or the type of content watched on a streaming service. For marketers, these insights are a gold mine because they come straight from the customer.

Zero-party data is even more direct. It refers to data that a customer intentionally and proactively shares with a brand, including preference center selections, interests, intentions, personal context and even opinions. It’s the information that customers offer voluntarily to ensure they receive more personalized services.

The Value of First-Party and Zero-Party Data
Generic messages — the ones that go out to everybody without personalization — have become less effective as tools for engagement. Conversely, with first- and zero-party data, you can tailor communications and delight customers. 

Our research shows personalized messages have a 37% average lift in direct open rates compared to messages tailored to first name only. Additionally, brands that use zero-party customer preference data in audience targeting have seen a 91% lift in purchases attributed to push notifications. As third-party cookies phase out, the importance of these two data types becomes even more pronounced. Brands that embrace zero- and first-party data can establish a reciprocal value exchange with customers that becomes a competitive advantage.  

How Can Brands Collect More Customer Information?
Collecting this valuable customer data doesn’t have to be an intrusive practice. On the contrary , customers are often willing to share their information when approached correctly. Today, consumers are more likely to provide all 15 types of information Airship asked about year-over-year in order to receive personalized interactions and special incentives from brands they love. After their email address, people are most likely to provide their “interests relevant to a brand,” “their communication preferences,” and “what they’ve browsed on a brand’s app or website.” People want a much more customer-centric approach and are willing to share valuable information in exchange for personalized service and streamlined conveniences that apps uniquely serve, especially spanning digital and physical experiences. Great customer experiences incentivize them to share more data as needs and interests change, which in turn allows brands to serve them better over time.

Based on insights we’ve gained about the mobile consumer, here’s how your brand can collect more data respectfully and effectively:

1. Create Direct Digital Relationships: In a mobile-first era, it’s essential to engage with customers directly. Whether it’s through your app or website, across channels or facilitated in-store, direct digital interactions can yield a wealth of first-party data.
2. Value the Value Exchange: Customers will share their information if they believe they’re getting something beneficial in return. Personalized experiences, rewards, streamlined conveniences and excellent customer service can incentivize users to open up more.
3. Take a Privacy-First Approach: Always respect customer preferences on data sharing. Transparency in how data is collected and used builds trust, and customers who trust your brand are more likely to share their information. Learn more. 
4. Adopt an Experimentation Mindset: Adopting an experimentation mindset allows for continual optimization of data collection strategies, including the context, value and simplicity with which asks are made, to keep it engaging for the customer and progressively grow value and insight over time.
5. Use AI and Predictive Tools: GenAI and predictive AI can help teams scale customer interactions, content creation and experimentation to continually optimize and adjust how efforts impact broader business goals. 
6. Employ Low-Code and No-Code Solutions: These tools can empower non-technical users to create, deploy and adapt high-value experiences to better onboard, activate and understand customers without relying on scarce developer resources. Meanwhile, developers are freed up to focus on high-priority projects that set apps apart from their competitors.  
7. Go Native: Orange France saw a 30X increase in customer survey responses by shifting from in-app surveys delivered as  HTML webviews — a distracting and disjointed user experience — to surveys delivered as native app screens, no coding required. 
8. Be Practical About the Data You Gather: The key here is to be thoughtful about what data you collect and whether you actually need it. Collecting unnecessary data, or not having a handle on where that data is going, can put you and your customers at risk. Consider how you will use the data, how long you will keep it, and how it will flow through your business or any vendors and partners you work with. 

As you integrate these strategies into your plan, remember that at the heart of every data point is a customer entrusting you with their personal story. Respect that story, and you’ll find that the information it provides is the richest data of all. Check out our recent Data Privacy Day recap and what brands with apps should know about recent privacy enforcement trends, as well as these other resources:

• How to Get Practical With Privacy
• Why Data Privacy and Customer Experience are Not at Opposite Ends
• Don’t Get Pushy: Adapt to the Mobile Privacy Evolution

The post 8 Tips for Collecting First- and Zero-Party Data to Elevate Your Marketing Strategy appeared first on Airship.

Apps are key to enabling this ongoing value exchange, as they enable glanceable interactions and streamlined conveniences that customers now expect. Between an always-on connection, lock screen visibility, brand-specific inboxes and the precision to reach people at exact or approximate locations, brands are leaning into mobile apps to better serve customers, strengthen loyalty and grow mutual benefit. The value of doing so is highlighted every quarter in earnings reports, which show that app customers are 3-4X more valuable than non-app customers. 

At the same time, the bar to retain this in-the-palm, pocket or purse access to customers is higher than it’s ever been. Customers keep coming back to apps that simplify their lives and save them time — reasons for ongoing use that far surpass customers seeking deals or loyalty rewards. However, most people (57%) will use an app just once or twice before deciding whether to delete it. 

Download Airship’s “The Mobile Consumer 2023” for more insights into the expectations and behaviors of 11,000 consumers across 10 countries.

Marketers are rightly focused on these challenges. Nearly 75% of marketers and mobile product owners think about app improvements to better onboard, activate and understand customers on a weekly basis; 30% do so daily.

Despite this constant focus, virtually all marketers (96%) rely on developers to improve app user experiences, even though only 13% of marketers say all of their requests for app enhancements get done. Further, brands lack urgency about new app users’ first and second impressions: more than a third of companies surveyed (and almost half of enterprise companies) only improve app onboarding experiences quarterly or less. Transposed against higher app user acquisition costs and flat 30-day activation rates, that’s incredibly costly from both a bottom- and top-line perspective.

Airship surveyed technical (developers) and non-technical (marketing) teams responsible for mobile apps and found performance gaps across seven key operational areas spanning the entire app customer lifecycle. Get the report. 

These insights into consumer behaviors and app team operations offer a roadmap for brands to capture more value and create greater mutual benefit for their business and customers. Focus on these three areas first for a step change in mobile app value creation. 

Connect Experiences 
To create greater value, marketers need to be empowered to go beyond messaging, and better connect experiences inside and outside the app.

Mobile apps are blurring the lines between physical and digital spaces, especially in retail, with more than three-quarters of millennials and Gen X customers engaging with the brand’s app during an in-store visit. Across 11,000 consumers, using the retailer’s app in-store saw the biggest year-over-year gains across 10 different smartphone activities. The app presents an opportunity to identify in-store customers and seamlessly deliver wayfinding for shopping lists, coupons, loyalty point rewards, user reviews and deep product information. Easy-to-use app features offer an experience that encourages positive buying behavior and influences purchase decisions, streamlining the entire process from purchase to pick up and even returns.

However, connecting experience for consumers is more than bridging digital and physical experiences. A marketer might typically send a message that’s deep-linked to a particular page in the app — a product page, for example. But that’s where the bridge ends. It doesn’t have to. Imagine a social media-like Story within your app that marketers can create, deploy and iterate on their own in order to generate rich visual excitement about that big sale they just messaged. Or a holiday notification that drives customers to a preference center to indicate the 3 or 4 big areas on their shopping list: appliances, furniture, electronics, vacations, etc.

Empower Your Entire Team
To avoid developer dependency and be more responsive to customers, brands should empower the entire team to create, deploy and iterate high-value app experiences for continuous and agile optimization. Marketers’ reliance on developers, or waiting for app updates, no longer need to be gating factors.

Utilizing Airship’s no-code native App Experience Editor, marketers and product managers can get work done in minutes instead of months, freeing up developers to focus on the next market-differentiating app features.

Marketers can take charge of onboarding and feature adoption experiences, as well as opt-in flows and surveys for data collection. Marrying cross-channel messaging and app experiences helps ensure optimal outcomes and more memorable and engaging experiences that customers will love to return to again and again. 

Fine-tune Onboarding 
To avoid getting dropped by customers early on, marketers can fine-tune onboarding experiences for different cohorts; and they can easily deepen customer understanding through preference centers and surveys to collect even more first- and zero-party data. 

With just moments to captivate your customers after they download your app, it’s essential to onboard your customers effectively, identify preferences and drive opt-ins to help improve their experience without overwhelming at first click. When you welcome new, identified app customers, make sure to leverage insights from other channels and points of interaction as you tailor experiences. Then turn to testing and experimentation to achieve optimal onboarding flows and individualize experiences for every customer across the app lifecycle. Find out how frequently customers want to hear from you and for what reasons (promotion, education, rewards, inspiration, etc.). Marketers can now take charge of progressively growing customer understanding over time with first- and zero-party data from surveys and observed behaviors, and focus on delivering maximum value — inside and outside the app^TM.

For help defining your mobile app strategy, and optimizing both cross-channel messages and native no-code app experiences, please reach out. The whole Airship crew is ready, able and eager to help.

The post 3 Must-Do’s For Brands With Mobile Apps appeared first on Airship.

This year’s survey, fielded with Sapio Research, included 11,000 respondents from 10 countries, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, South Africa, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Brazil. Insights span the entire mobile app customer lifecycle and perennial areas of focus for marketers — from personalization and email marketing to how consumers meld physical and digital experiences and what data they are willing to share with brands. 

People Are More Willing to Share All Types of Information with Brands

All 15 types of information we tracked year-over-year saw increases in the percent of consumers who said they’d share them with brands for personalized interactions and special incentives. Email addresses are the most freely shared at 86% of respondents, but consumer behaviors suggest they don’t consider it a sensitive piece of information. The second most shared information is “interests relevant to a brand” (78%), which overtook “name” as the second most shared information.

Rounding out the top five most shared information are “their communication preferences” and “what they’ve browsed on a brand’s app or website,” highlighting the importance of a customer-centric approach to brand interactions. In fact, the information seeing the biggest year-over-year gains in consumer willingness to share is “what they value socially (environmental, moral, political or religious).”

People want a more customer-centric approach and are willing to share valuable information in exchange for mobile-enabled conveniences and personalized service — which in turn allows brands to serve them better and makes opt-out much less likely. 

Emails Increasingly Left Unread 

While email addresses are most commonly shared information, it’s worth noting that 79% of consumers ignore or delete marketing emails from brands they love half the time or more (up 1% year-over-year). Younger generations, led by Gen Z, are less likely than Gen X and boomers to pursue traditional methods of avoiding commercial email — by unsubscribing or deleting emails by scanning sender or subject lines. Instead, they are much more likely to say they don’t often check their email, use a secondary email account they rarely check and use both anonymous email addresses (e.g., via Sign In with Apple) or fake ones.

People Want Personalization That’s Useful, Not Creepy

Globally, the top three types of personalization consumers find to be most useful are “recommendations and offers based on past behavior or purchases” (41%), “interests and preferences supplied to the brand” (40%) and “content and offers targeted to their current location” (34%). 

With very few exceptions,“predictive suggestions based on everything the brand knows about you” was ranked the least useful personalization method across all countries, age groups and income levels. The outliers? Gen Z, consumers in Singapore and high-income households, who find this type of personalization to be slightly more useful than another low performer — “basic information (name, city, state/country).” 

Mobile Demands Immediacy and Customer Controls

For all of the message types where we had year over year data, the only frequency option that grew across all of them was “only as I’m using the specific app.” However, the percent of respondents that want messaging “immediately, and as often as it happens” was still nearly twice as large as those that only want it while they’re using the specific app. The upshot? You need both in-app messaging and push notifications.

Consumers have varied preferences for the frequencies of app-based messaging. These findings illustrate why it’s important for brands to give customers control over the types of messages they receive, as well as where and how often they get them.

Download “The Mobile Consumer 2023” report from Airship for regional and generational insights across topics such as:

You can also join Airship and poq on July 26th for a lively discussion of the research and best practices most important to retailers. Register for “The Mobile Consumer: Enhancing Shopper Value in 2023” here.

The post Mobile Consumer Trends for 2023 Every Brand Marketer Should Know appeared first on Airship.

What is your role at Airship?
I’m on the security team. I do application testing of all our tools. I check for vulnerabilities and work with engineers and developers to fix them. I also work on sales-related projects, including working with customers to make sure they’re using the Airship platform securely. 

What was your path to the role that you hold today?
It was a winding path for sure. I got an undergraduate degree in French studies. I had big dreams of being a poetry translator. There were not a lot of translator jobs out there because software was taking over translation. So, I decided to learn to write software. I thought that would at least give me job security. 

I started out working in call centers and then went back to school for a computer science degree — Oregon State University’s post-baccalaureate online program. That’s when I fell into cybersecurity. I have to learn something new every single day and my brain loves that. 

Do you have friends or family or other people who helped you make that career decision?
I was the driver of all that. But I have many friends who are in various forms of software development. I definitely went to them and said, “Hey, I want to do this. What’s the best way?” 

As you were making that transition, what did you find most challenging?
I was surprised by the language crossover. When you’re learning a second language, you also have to learn to think in the culture it originates in, especially idioms. When I was learning programming languages, I realized I had to learn to think like a computer. It’s weird to say, but I had to embrace the culture of a computer, which is more binary.

How do you stay abreast of new technology? 
There are all kinds of sources out there for learning and hearing about the new stuff coming out. I look at a lot of newsletters, such as KrebsOnSecurity. The government is publishing stuff all the time now, including CISA. And, of course, we all use Reddit. 

During the five years you’ve been in engineering, have you gained a broader perspective on why it’s important for more women to enter the field?
On my first job, my entire team of 15-20 were men. It’s an older company and I was the first woman they had hired ever. It was a bit jarring that first day when I walked in and sat down. I was thinking, “Okay, there’s nobody else at the table that’s a little bit like me … this is kind of weird.” It turned out the team was great and there weren’t any issues. But you see this imbalance even more when you go out to conferences. 

I think having diverse perspectives is so important when you’re creating software or securing a network. I’ve done what I can to help other women when I meet them and talk them through their career goals. I’ve been trying to be an advocate for women in the industry. I tell them, “Yes, you can do it. It’s fine.”

It helps me that I’m part of an organization, Women in Cybersecurity. I was pretty discouraged when I first joined that other team and I was the only woman there. But I realized there’s been a lot of movement in cybersecurity to add more women. We were 13% women in the workforce for cybersecurity about five years ago. Now it’s up to 24%, which is significant. That could keep moving forward, and organizations like WICYS can help. 

Can you talk about your experience as a female engineer working at Airship?
I’m coming up to a year at the end of July. So far, working at Airship has been great. I don’t feel I’ve had a different experience here because I’m a woman, which is a rare feeling. I feel like I’ve just been a security engineer, rather than a female security engineer.

For International Women in Engineering Day. What is the most important message you want to send young women as they think about their careers?
People told me there would be a lot of roadblocks. Because I’m a woman, I would have to fight to be respected. It turned out to be not as bad as that. The more women who do it, the easier the road gets for the next generation.

What were the roadblocks or hurdles that you had to overcome? And how did you do that? 
One of the major things I ran into was going to conferences, because you’re running into a lot of different people and personalities. I went to a party once and people kept stopping me and telling me I was in the wrong place. I was with my husband, who’s not in cybersecurity or technology, and they weren’t saying that to him.

I think one of the hurdles I had to get over was walking into a room filled with people who didn’t think I belonged there. That was early in my career, so I didn’t really want to speak up because I was still learning. I’m still learning today, but now I can walk in with confidence and own my role and broader contributions to the team and company.  I think one of the biggest hurdles to get over is imposter syndrome, which everybody has to deal with.

If you have questions for Mariessa Logan, you can reach her on LinkedIn. For more on what Airship is doing to increase diversity and inclusion throughout our company, and especially STEM careers, check out our blog post on Now+Next.

The post International Women in Engineering Day: An Interview with Mariessa Logan, Airship Senior Security Analyst appeared first on Airship.

What we saw this year was less revolutionary than evolutionary, even though it all starts with the one screen iPhone users see most often — the Lock Screen. In iOS 16, everything on the Lock Screen is customizable – from fonts, colors and photos to adding widgets previously only available on the home screen. What’s more, you are no longer limited to just one Lock Screen. You can have several, each with a unique backdrop, style and set of widgets, with the ability to easily switch between them. WidgetKit makes it easy for developers to add glanceable information from their apps. And with an update rolling out later this year, the same code will be used for both iOS widgets and Watch complications. 

To avoid covering up the Lock Screen image and allow all of this rich information to shine, notifications will now roll in from the bottom of the Lock Screen as you receive them. You can swipe up to expand the list, or choose to collapse notifications through the day. 

In addition, new Live Activities will make it easier to keep tabs on things happening in real time. Rather than receiving multiple notifications from the same app for things like the game’s latest score, food delivery orders or ride-share arrivals, this information can now be pinned to the Lock Screen, keeping you up to date without having to unlock your phone. Starting with an update to iOS 16 later this year, developers can use the Live Activities API to create these compact and glanceable experiences — at which time, technical details will be clear. 

The new widget and notification designs on the Lock Screen are perfect for an always-on display, and the underlying iOS 16 code confirms that Apple is laying the groundwork for such a feature.

All of these updates tie together in powerful ways to build on what Apple introduced last year by extending Focus to the always-on Lock Screen. Now your choice of a photo and widgets can be tied to a particular Focus, allowing you to easily swipe between them and have all of your notification, app and contact settings apply automatically.

Focus also carries into apps themselves with Focus filters to filter out distracting content. For example, Safari tabs, emails and conversations in Messages not related to a particular Focus will simply be hidden. In addition, a new Focus filter API will allow developers to help you focus in their apps as well, making third-party apps more responsive to users’ Focus settings.

A few others updates we thought were compelling include:

• Apple Wallet got some exciting updates in its evolution to do more than just replace your physical wallet. From enabling POS-less transactions with merchants and order tracking to the no-cost/fee Apple Pay Later, and allowing for more private in-app ID verification, as well as sharing digital keys. 

• Another shoe that’s finally dropping is that iOS devices will be able to receive web notifications in 2023, which is functionality where Apple’s been a longtime hold-out.

• WeatherKit gives developers the ability to integrate Apple Weather forecast data directly into their apps, while the new App Intents framework enables developers to make their apps’ content and functionality available to Sire and Shortcuts with no user setup. 

• ​​The Messages app now includes the ability to edit and delete sent messages and mark messages as unread. SharePlay sessions can be activated directly from Messages to enable real-time experiences alongside conversations with friends. And a new Shared With You API will allow developers to integrate shared experiences directly into their apps, so the content is right there waiting for you. 

Last year WWDC introduced several building blocks to give consumers greater control over their privacy and digital wellbeing, while giving brands new types of notifications for more nuanced delivery. While only Apple may know how widely Focus has been adopted, iOS 16 ties it to how consumers personalize their phones, giving them a much stronger screen to stand on. 

In fact, Airship recently analyzed notification behaviors of more than 450m users moving from iOS 14 to iOS 15 and saw that notification opt-in rates grew 27%, while opt-out rates decreased 14%, despite average sends per user growing 14%. 

So, either everyone is getting much better about positioning the value of opting in and following through with customer respect and relevance, or WWDC is on a steady annual march toward Apple realizing its user-centric vision for mobile’s future. 

We’d like to think it’s both and would love to help your brand master mobile app experiences. What’s next? We’ll be attending the rest of the WWDC sessions this week and will update you on our plans.

The post WWDC Highlights for App Publishers: Personalization is Front-and-Center appeared first on Airship.

Airship’s report, The Mobile Customer Imperative, reveals the growing role of apps in consumers’ lives and must-know shifts in how they want to engage with brands, including how these preferences differ across countries and demographics. Our report also highlights some of the ways in which brands can leverage these insights to deliver the experiences your customers demand.

Check out these six illuminating findings from the survey. And be sure to download the full report for more valuable insights and recommendations.

60%+ of baby boomers have used most types of apps more or about the same since the beginning of the pandemic

While our data confirmed that younger generations are leading the charge toward mobile apps, we found that more than 60% of boomers are also using apps more or about the same across every app category except for Education and Travel & Hospitality. These findings suggest a potential greenfield opportunity for brands that are successful in driving more boomers toward their app.

Immediate value is the #1 reason people opt in to app notifications

Customers love rewards, deals and discounts. And our data further validates the insights from Chipotle, Starbucks, and Ace Hardware at Airship’s recent Elevate Customer Forum, where these brands’ described how their playbooks place seamless, value-laden app experiences and loyalty at the center of recipes for growth, retention and customer value. The bottom line? When you provide customers with meaningful rewards for sustained loyalty, your brand will benefit too!  

Nearly half (46%) of global respondents are willing to share their “social values” with brands

When we asked about the information people are willing to share with brands for personalized interactions and special incentives, we found that people are least likely to share “information from their social profiles” (35%). However nearly half will share their social values (environmental, moral, political, religious). This is especially relevant as other research has shown that ethics, corporate social responsibility and ESG (environmental, social and governance) factors are increasingly important to customers, and impact their purchasing decisions. 

Consumers are more likely to stay opted in to brand communications if they have control over the reason (43%), frequency (41%) and channels (40%) with which brands engage them

Increasing privacy regulations, the demise of 3rd-party cookies, and growing consumer attention to how their data is used continue to reshape digital experiences, making it more important than ever to allow customers to tailor their communication preferences. That’s especially true in the U.S. and India, where customers have an even greater preference for controls over the messages they receive. This shows how important it is for brands to collect user preferences during the onboarding experience, and continue that effort throughout the customer lifecycle – so you can create the types of tailored experiences and reciprocal value exchanges that keep customers engaged.

Nearly two-thirds of consumers will use retailer’s apps to meld digital and physical experiences

As the lines between physical and digital experiences continue to blur, more than half of respondents in every country surveyed said they are likely to use their smartphone in store to accomplish eight different activities. Examples include opening a retailer’s app, using loyalty cards or coupons, or scanning a QR code. Again, millennials are leading in this area, but considerable percentages of boomers also indicated a likelihood to use their smartphone while perusing the aisles. Today’s brands have a real opportunity to reach out and communicate to older generations, either in store or through an app, about the ways their smartphones can enhance their in-store shopping experiences.

More than half of global respondents (53%) are willing to share their phone number for text messages, but only 41% will share it for phone calls

These findings illustrate that text messaging remains an effective engagement channel. However, customers are sensitive to unwanted phone calls. Just keep in mind that the likelihood of sharing personal data and information varies by country and age. Consumers in certain countries and age groups are more willing to share different data if it will be used to personalize experiences and create deeper connections. In fact, ahead of phone numbers and even postal addresses, consumers are more willing to share “Interests relevant to a brand,” “communication preferences” and “what they’ve browsed on a brand’s app or website.” Check out the full report to learn more about these differences.

These are just a few of the insights and ideas that you’ll find in the report. Download it today to learn more, and get in touch to see how Airship can help you create more effective app experiences that drive unique advantages for everyone involved.

Download the Survey

Discover the latest trends in consumer behaviors for mobile experiences.

The post 6 Stats You Need to Know from Airship’s Consumer Mobile Survey appeared first on Airship.

While COVID-19 shut down the 2020 tournament before it began, the multi-platform basketball destination, managed by Turner Sports in partnership with the NCAA and CBS Sports, knew one of the MVPs for its record-setting results was a notification, and it all began as an experiment in 2017. 

But first, a little background. 

Few people are more passionate than a sports fan. Whether driven by alma mater, bracket picks, or region/mascot preference, March Madness fans want to immediately know the latest about the games and teams they care about. 

Over the years, Turner Sports has worked extensively to better understand how fans engage with different types of messaging and their broader expectations around content, timing and delivery. Airship’s analytics alongside Turner’s in-house analytics team provide a crucial foundation to optimize product and content strategies, as well as messaging and sponsorship programs. 

The Experiment

Years ago, most March Madness Live notifications provided game highlights and results as well as game time alerts tailored to users’ favorite teams — all aimed at driving users to the app to view live streams or highlights. 

In 2017, Turner Sports developed an algorithm to determine if a game is getting nail-biting close, or poised for an upset or Cinderella story. Excitement Alerts, powered by Airship, became its own category after the algorithm performed well within Games and Teams alerts — and today it is their most popular notification category driving a considerable amount of live minutes.

Excitement Grows 

Now Personalized Bracket Alerts customize the user experience like never before, using predictive scoring and the excitement algorithm with individual’s bracket selections. Alerts include scenarios of what games need to be won to move up in rank and when important games based on brackets are close in score. As a result, users are seeing notifications that are personally relevant and of immediate importance, resulting in live stream viewing that’s 26% longer than regular alerts.

It’s Game Time!

The Airship team couldn’t be more excited for the Tournament. Yes, for the games, but also to see how users respond to a notification system that will keep them in the know and engaged throughout all the Madness.

If you’d like to hear more from the team behind the app, watch their session from Airship’s Elevate 2020.

NCAA March Madness Live is available now to download across mobile devices (iOS, Android) and 18 platforms, including Apple devices, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Xbox One and for the first time, Google TV, offering fans direct access to live coverage of NCAA Tournament games.

Read all about the all-new design and enhanced features of NCAA March Madness Live here.

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