Recap: Amsterdam App Strategy Workshop

The Amsterdam App Strategy Workshop took place on the 10th of December at the Rockstart Accelerator in Amsterdam. With over 100 attendees in the beautiful Dutch baroque ballroom, speakers included industry experts from Uber, Swipe & Shop, Branch Metrics,  Picnic, Bux, Newzoo, Touch Instinct and more.

Fireside chat with Uber: Mastering Mobile Design

Kicking off the event was a Fireside Chat with Jelle Prins, Design Manager at Uber, and moderator Dmitriy Kostin, CEO at Touch Instinct, in which the audience found out about the early days of Uber, designing concepts across different cultures, for example “You wouldn’t use a black envelope for China, as it is a symbol of bad luck!”. Jelle also talked about their exciting growing portfolio with services like UberPOOL, where you share your Uber with other riders and UberEATS.

Panel One: Market Your App the Organic Way

Speaking on the topic of Marketing Your App the Organic Way were Ruben Vermijs, Digital Marketing Leader at Picnic, Pamela Neelis, Founder & Product Owner of Swipe & Shop, Robbert Bos, CPO & Co-Founder at BUX and Nicholas Duddy, Founder of Miratrix. Oliver Kern, ‘Chief Mobilizer’ at Mobilizer, moderated the panel.  

Is there space for innovation in a deep dark red ocean?

Oliver Kern, opened the discussion by highlighting that the app market today has matured:  “The app market is no longer a blue ocean anymore, it is deep dark red.” referring to the book “Blue Ocean Strategy” that focuses on uncontested market space, as the app market was considered in its first decade.

A personal approach

Ruben Vermijs, Digital Marketing Leader at Picnic, agreed that even social advertising is now an old and crowded space. He added that when everyone is screaming for attention, you have to find a way to be in the center, and sometimes the simplest solution is the one to choose. For example, Ruben personally sent a message through Facebook Messenger to the first 150 people, and that strategy had a much higher conversion rate for his app than any other form of social media advertising.

Pamela Neelis, Founder & Product Owner of Swipe & Shop which is published by Sanoma Media, added that she directly addressed the first consumers of her app by sending them a personalized email and asking them to come to the office and help with feedback and testing . The response was overwhelming: “I literally got 5000 emails back!” She added that often the people that you lose as customers are the most interesting to talk to.

New Channels for App Advertising

Nicholas Duddy, Founder of Miratrix, believed that social is also moving to new spaces. Apps like Vine and Snapchat offer new space for advertising and the opportunity to reach a new customer segment.

For others, more traditional methods of advertising also work: Robbert Bos, CPO & Co-Founder at BUX, believed that TV advertising is becoming more and more relevant for apps, especially for the ones in the game industry.

Presentation: Fueling Growth for Your App

Michael Winters, Operations for Europe at Branch Metrics, gave an engaging and informative presentation, offering a number of new ways to attract users including “deepviews”, with which you can experience the app before even downloading, ‪and personalized onboarding, where you can see your friends using the same app you are considering downloading.

Panel Two: Winning Strategies for Monetising your App

George Osborn from Mobile Mavericks was the moderator of a panel including the following speakers: Peter Warman, Co-founder & CEO at Newzoo, Christian Batist, Consultant on Game Monetization, Richard Hazenberg, CEO at Lunagames and Stefano Peruzzi, CEO at Entelligo BV,

On a Quest for Innovation

George Osborn started by highlighting a new trend: Media services are taking over the top 10 apps in the stores. Speaking about ranking, he immediately received a question from the audience: “How do you find original content on the app stores?” George answered that there is a huge amount of innovation in the App Store, but to find it you should also go beyond the top 10. Using the right key words and following indie developers is one way to discover innovative content, especially in games.

Free marketeers

Following the topic of winning strategies for app monetization, Peter Warman, Co-founder & CEO at Newzoo, reminded us that companies could utilize the potential of their most dedicated app users. “You have 5% free marketeers: they don’t pay but play a lot and may promote your app, so don’t forget them and use them. They can be your brand ambassadors.”

In-app video advertising

Richard Hazenberg, CEO at Lunagames, also focused on finding the right games and monetizing them. He believes that subscriptions have potential in premium games. He added that he would like to see more mainstream brands, including products, entering the adverting space in the app world.

Christian Batist also saw potential in gaining revenue from in-app videos that you have to watch to earn free in-game credits. However he said that there is a need for better video portfolios especially in the content for kids.

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