Saturday, November 8, 2014

The Must-Have Mobile App Metrics Your Business Cannot Do Without

This article is a summary of the AppInTop mobile app marketing podcast in which AppInTop talked with CTO and co-founder of the mobile analytics company Adjust.com, Paul Müller, and senior account strategist at Google, Stanislav Vidyaev. This summary covers some key facts about mobile analytics.


The way people interact with an app is different from the way they use websites. Mobile app analytics is about converting ad budgets to installs, and installs to repeated app usage and in-app purchases. Ultimately, the objective of a mobile app developer is to evaluate user lifetime value, retention, and the frequency of usage.


First, A Recap on the Importance of Mobile


how mobile is changing business


Getting Your Foothold in an App Store


Running a mobile app as a business is essentially about balancing the cost of user acquisition with the user lifetime value, which is how much money the user will spend on the app throughout the time he or she uses it.


As user acquisition costs grow rapidly, optimizing that cost is as important as improving the user lifetime value. Getting the app up into the top ranks of the app stores becomes the name of the game for most of the major app publishers, because that is where the free, organic users find the app.


What gets an app into the top ranks varies slightly between the App Store and Google Play, but the most important factors are:


  • The number of installs in the first 72 hours of the app’s launch (and thereafter)

  • The number and quality of reviews and ratings

  • User retention (Google Play)

The beginning of an app’s life in the app stores will determine where it will rank in the long run. So, use services such as App Annie to track your key app store statistics.


Tracking Installs


Daily installs and their sources are the basic metrics a developer needs to track. No installs means no users, and no users means no revenue.


Understanding the sources of these installs is equally important. This is how marketers evaluate the effectiveness of their advertising channels.


Working with an independent tracker is essential in order to eliminate a conflict of interest that comes, for example, with using a tracking solution from an ad network. A tracker offered by an ad network, whose sole interest is to sell you as many installs as possible, may leave you wondering if your reported installs reflect the actual picture.


Which tracker to use?


Tracking services from companies independent from ad networks would not have a conflict of interest. Look at AppsFlyer, MAT by HasOffers, Adjust.com, or Google Mobile App Analytics.


Retention and Usage


The retention metric is based on the frequency of app sessions. Many mobile analytics platforms routinely record the number of sessions, without giving too much thought to what a session actually is. They define a “session” the same way iOS rules do, which is the act of a user opening the app.


This is not a good definition, as a user may be distracted from the app by push notifications, messages, and phone calls. Google Analytics counts only sessions that have 30 minutes between them, which is a more acceptable definition.


The “retention” metric is calculated by dividing the number of users who return to the app daily by the total number of users from the group monitored.


The “churn rate” is the opposite of retention. It is the percentage of users who do not return to the app.


The retention metric is important to evaluate the user lifetime, which in turn, is used to calculate the lifetime value of the user.


The “user lifetime” (LT) is the average number of days a user from the original group spent in total interacting with the app. This metric helps evaluate how many users the app should acquire daily in order to maintain or grow revenue.


The other usage metrics serve to help app developers identify the popularity of different sections within the app and improve the user experience. This set of metrics is essential to understand what is actually happening in the app.


Break-even Metrics


The app, the main purpose of which is to generate revenue, will need to be measured based on the user lifetime value.


The “user lifetime value” (LTV) is calculated based on the revenue the user generates over their lifetime. This is purely a marketing metric to calculate return on investment in marketing and advertising.


The “average revenue per user” (ARPU) is calculated by dividing the total revenue per user by the user lifetime.


The “virality” metric or K-factor is essential because it helps lower the cost of user acquisition. If your user tells another user about your app, then your cost is no longer $2 per user, but $1 per user or even less. It is a complex metric that can be calculated in a number of ways and takes into account the number of users who came from viral channels as well as the number of daily active users (DAU), user lifetime (LT), and new users.


If an app asks users to share links on social media, those links and the new users who come from those links can be tracked to calculate the virality metric.


“Cost of user acquisition” is required to build a business case for an app. This is the cost of all marketing efforts divided by the total number of installations over a fixed period of time. If the cost of user acquisition is less than the LTV, the app will be profitable.


Cohort Analysis


The purpose of cohort analysis is to tell you which channel works best: Facebook, InMobi native ads, Aarki interactive ads, Unity video ads, or any other ad sources you are using. For example, in launching Wooga’s game Jelly Splash, the company used 23 ad networks to get it in the top charts of the key markets, according to Wooga’s head of marketing, Eric Seufert.


Cohort analysis is all about grouping users into segments and analyzing the metrics of those groups. Cohorts are based on traffic source, country, and device.


Identifying more profitable cohorts helps better target users with ads to increase user lifetime value and app revenue. The key metric is the total revenue generated by the cohort divided by the number of users in that cohort.


Measuring the Effectiveness of TV Ads


Measuring the impact of TV ads on mobile app installs has not yet been openly offered by mobile analytics companies, although Adjust.com is running a closed beta TV ad tracking service. The results of the early tests have shown that there is indeed a correlation between a number of organic installs and the TV ad.


This metric is calculated by comparing the number of organic installs received 5 minutes before the TV ad is shown with the number of installs during and a short time after the TV ad is shown. The number of installs that came from the TV ad is the difference between those two measurements.


Custom Metrics


App developers may have very specific requirements about which metrics to track for increasing retention rate, optimizing user experience, or improving monetization.


Analytics services may not be able to offer ready-to-use metrics in their dashboard, but there is always an option to set up custom variables for creating custom reports. Using those custom reports (for example, Google Mobile App Analytics) enables app developers to tag the paying user in an app, segment the paying users, and then analyze them separately.


The challenge of collecting and analyzing the app metrics is the technical implementation that requires a developer to work alongside the marketer. One solution is to implement the SDK of an existing analytics company that has an extensive list of predefined metrics. A detailed analysis of various analytics services will be the topic of a future article.


The Future of Mobile App Analytics


For businesses where both mobile and web presence are equally important (for example, ecommerce), division between mobile and web may not be as strong as in, say, mobile-first businesses that track a completely different set of metrics. Google’s introduction of Universal Analytics aims to help such businesses analyze their users, regardless of whether they interact with the company’s brand online or on a mobile device.


There is a trend to move from a fragmented analytics service landscape to a single source of app data. The industry is likely to adopt a platform model, where a single source for data will be used by various specialized providers, but that single platform will provide a bigger picture to app developers about what is happening with the app and in the app.


About the Author: Natasha Starkell produced the AppInTop mobile app marketing podcast. AppInTop is an automated mobile app marketing platform.



The Must-Have Mobile App Metrics Your Business Cannot Do Without

AT&T announces deal to acquire Mexico provider Iusacell

att_iusacell_logo






In an announcement made on Friday, AT&T indicated they have entered into an agreement to purchase wireless provider Iusacell for $2.5 billion from Grupo Salinas. Iusacell is a wireless provider in Mexico servicing 8.6 million customers and covering about 70% of Mexico’s population. According to AT&T CEO,


“Our acquisition of Iusacell is a direct result of the reforms put in place by President Peña Nieto to encourage more competition and more investment in Mexico. Those reforms together with the country’s strong economic outlook, growing population and growing middle class make Mexico an attractive place to invest.”




Before AT&T will be able to close the deal, Grupo Salinas must first purchase the 50 percent of Iusacell that it does not currently own. Once that is complete, AT&T expects to complete the acquisition which will include all of Iusacell’s wireless spectrum, network assets, all licenses, retail stores, and the customer base.


AT&T’s Stephenson indicated the company will invest in additional infrastructure to continue growing Iusacell’s footprint in Mexico. In addition, AT&T says “It won’t matter which country you’re in or which country you’re calling – it will all be one network, one customer experience.”


Representatives from Iusacell and AT&T believe the ability to create a single North American Mobile Service area will provide the companies with good economies of scale and efficiencies while also being attractive to customers. Although Mexico has trailed the U.S. in terms of smartphone penetration, AT&T thinks the growing young population, a growing middle class, and more urbanization, provide a good opportunity given some investment in higher speed networks.


In other news as part of their announcement, AT&T says their Project VIP network expansion plans are ahead of schedule. The 4G LTE network is essentially completed, the build-out of its wired high-speed Internet service is complete, and about 600,000 of 1,000,000 planned fiber connections to business locations have been completed. For 2015, AT&T expects capital expenditures to be in the $18 billion range.


source: AT&T



Come comment on this article: AT&T announces deal to acquire Mexico provider Iusacell






Best of 2013: Responsive design, content marketing, conversion paths & more

attachment-52b87d90e4b0e28da6ea1ab7

2013. Google called it "a year of transformation." Mashable declared it "the year of responsive web design." And then there was Google Enhanced Campaigns, which was mandated across all AdWords campaigns back in July. If you weren't ready for mobile, well, it didn't matter, because it happened.

With smartphone sales expected to reach 1.81 billion...and double by 2015...compelling, intelligent, and integrated digital campaigns, and thus experiences, will be mandatory.

Not optional.

We've been preaching brilliant post-click marketing since 2007. But this year, highly relevant, smart, user-centered creative really took a front seat that will carry through 2014 and beyond.

So, to wrap up the year with a nice bow, we wanted to share our "Best of 2013" — a collection of blog posts designed to inspire better digital experiences and help you provide more value (and conversions) in the new year.

Cheers!

Jessica 

9 Best Practices for Designing Responsive Landing Pages

Nine of our favorite best practices for designing stellar responsive landing pages. You can use these with or without a platform to ensure you are building landing pages that not only respond, but convert! Learn how to put the right content in the right place on the page for every user.

How to use conversion paths for a better digital experience

Humans click your ads and land on your pages. Seems obvious, but in our haste to put up an experience with the perfect layout, content & offer, we often forget to think about the human behind the click. Learn how to use user segmentation (aka conversion paths) for a better digital experience.

9 Ways to Drive More Leads From Your Content Marketing

Sure, you've used landing pages to 'gate' high value content such as white papers or ebooks, but there more creative ways to up-sell and cross-sell content to convert your audience's attention into business results. Discover nine ideas for innovative ways to drive more leads from your content marketing.

Three awesome [infographics]

Content marketing, landing pages and testing...these are three of our favorite things! Download these infographics.

Happy Holidays from ion!

Read our 2013 holiday blog post series — ionians cover best practices for testing, responsive design, user segmentation, marketing apps & more! Read the series.




Best of 2013: Responsive design, content marketing, conversion paths & more

What We Learned This Week

This week we learned that our weirdest sexual fantasies aren't all that weird, the best way to board an airplane and why starting that alpaca farm was a truly terrible idea.
What We Learned This Week

Amy Poehler Outtakes Are Marketing Gold for Old Navy


TV might be in a death spiral, but film is not dead. That was the statement from Old Navy's global CMO Ivan Wicksteed during his presentation on expanding the retailer's marketing through digital content at Ad Age's Digital Conference San Francisco. Mr. Wicksteed talked at length about how content works for Old Navy, and how he thinks content and programmatic will intersect in the future.

For the retailer's recent campaigns, including one featuring comedian Amy Poehler, content has played a central role in its marketing and is being sought out by consumers far more than traditional advertising. Some of the content working best for Old Navy are outtakes from Ms. Poehler's TV-commercial shoots. After his presentation, Mr. Wicksteed expanded on why Old Navy's content with Ms. Poehler is resonating better than the TV spots she appears in.

UPDATE: Creativity has outtakes of Amy Poehler channeling Judy Judy for her latest Old Navy spot.


Continue reading at AdAge.com


Amy Poehler Outtakes Are Marketing Gold for Old Navy

Here Come the Men of Pinterest


Pinterest's first explosive growth was fueled by women, as suggested by early reports from women's magazines that their sites were suddenly getting more traffic from Pinterest than from Facebook.

But don't discount the growing group of men on the social pinboard, said Don Faul, head of operations at Pinterest, during an appearance at Ad Age's Digital Conference in San Francisco.

See more video from the conference right here, with Old Navy Global CMO Ivan Wicksteed talking about the value of outtakes from its TV campaign with Amy Poehler.


Continue reading at AdAge.com


Here Come the Men of Pinterest

Weekend Favs October Nineteen

Weekend Favs October Nineteen written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing


My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.


I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that I took out there on the road.


Michael Port


My friend Michael Port worked with the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network in Kansas City this week.


Good stuff I found this week:


Lukewarm – tool that helps you create warm emails based on Twitter profiles


Bond – A simple app that reminds you to keep in touch with people.


Rain - Use Rain to showcase your business to customers near you.


 


 


 






Weekend Favs October Nineteen

Weekend Favs November Eight

Weekend Favs November Eight written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing


My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.


I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that I took out there on the road.


WDS 2014


Finished up World Domination Summit by tossing guitar picks to the 3000 in attendance


Good stuff I found this week:


Headline Analyzer – Tool that analyses the emotional value of your proposed headlines


ReferralSnip – Free tool create easy refer a friend pop ups


SumoMe – Suite of tools to help you grow your website traffic


 






Weekend Favs November Eight

Everything You Need To Know About Instagram Ads

It’s been a year since Instagram launched Sponsored posts that allow brands to advertise on the network. Instagram ads first appeared in the feeds of users in the United States on November 1, 2013, and crossed the Atlantic to United Kingdom the following September. Earlier this month, the announcement of Sponsored posts appeared on the Home feeds of Instagram users in Canada.


While some users worry that the ads will disrupt their experience of their friends’ brunch photos (#nomnom!), marketers everywhere are salivating over access to the most popular network among young people. So what does the arrival of Instagram ads mean for your strategy? We’ll explain everything you need to know.


instagram ad example







TL;DR


What: Sponsored posts on Instagram
Who: Selected brands with an established Instagram presence
How much: Up to $500,000
Why: Fastest-growing mobile network




 


What are Instagram ads?


Instagram ads take form of a typical Instagram photo (or video, for US brands only at the moment). Instagram their intention to leave the Home browsing experience undisturbed very clear when talking about advertisement. What distinguishes an Instagram ad from other photos is the “Sponsored” mark above the top right corner of the photo, the spot where the posting time is normally displayed.


Instagram Ads sponsored


Users can like the photo or follow the brand’s account, just as they would with any other Instagram user; but they also have a chance to provide feedback about the ad by selecting the appropriate option in the ellipses button at the bottom left.


Why advertise on Instagram?


In light of Instagram ads rolling out in the United Kingdom at the end of September, GlobalWebIndex released an analysis of Instagram users. The report deems Instagram highly attractive to advertisers, thanks to the social network’s young and relatively affluent user base. And that user base keeps growing—earlier this year, Instagram revealed that their monthly active user base has reached 200 million, and another report showed evidence of Instagram currently being the fastest-growing social site around the world.


Two months after the first US launch, Instagram released the results from the pioneer brand campaigns on their business blog. The network measured the campaign’s success based on metrics such as reach, ad recall, and awareness, instead of the likes, comments, and follower counts over the span of the campaign. The test round of Instagram ads also showed to have a high impact with a low ad impression rate. For a more detailed breakdown of the test run, you can read the Levi’s and Ben & Jerry’s Instagram ad case studies.


With these numbers, it’s no wonder advertising on the popular network is rumoured to cost up to half a million dollars per month.


Who can advertise on Instagram?


Not just any brand can pay to appear in the users’ Home feeds just yet—only brands with existing successful Instagram following are chosen to advertise their posts. “Our aim is to make any advertisements you see feel as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos many of you already enjoy from your favorite brands,” Ads on Instagram’s Q&A page states.


For more information and inspiration for all things Instagram straight from the source, follow the official Instagram for Business blog.


How brands can gear up for Instagram ads


For now, brands with access to Instagram’s Sponsored posts remain an exclusive club, as the network focuses on meeting their honourable goal of incorporating ad content into the users’ Home Feeds as seamlessly and non-intrusively as possible. So what is your brand supposed to do in the meantime? Instagram gives an example of brands whose Instagram strategy (and high profile, undoubtedly) has earned them the right to be visible on the Home Feed—with brands such as Levi’s, Macy’s, Ben & Jerry’s and Burberry among the chosen few. Gear up for Instagram ads by taking a page or two out of these brands’ Instagram strategy.


A behind-the-scenes look


Customers interact with your product or service in person, so many of the selected brands use Instagram to reveal something otherwise inaccessible to people outside the company. For example, Burberry’s Instagram account is full of backstage photos from fashion shows, photoshoots, and even garment-making process of their signature fabric prints.








A preview of the #Burberry Spring/Summer 2015 Womenswear collection – prints and pleats #LFW A photo posted by Burberry (@burberry) on





These photos are the customers’ backstage pass to your brand culture, so you can also use them to tell the story or emphasize an aspect of your work that you are particularly proud of. Levi’s, a brand worn and loved by several generations, reminds their Instagram followers of their history.








Inspiration source


Instagram was made for the primary purpose of sharing visually appealing information, and the goal of each Instagram user is to make their carefully composed and edited photo stand out in their followers’ Home feeds. The same principle applies for brands: before the introduction of Sponsored posts, after all, they were just another Instagram user (perhaps with a slightly higher-than-average follower count). Many brands make use of branded hashtags, or hashtags associated with the lifestyle that appeals to the brand’s target audience. Adidas, for example, shares these stunning views in preparation for the next winter sports season.








Macy’s works with multiple brands, which can be seen as both an advantage and a challenge: the department store company creates an opportunity to appeal to fashionista followers by sharing outfit inspirations, using the official brand hashtags for items or the popular hashtags #ootd (“outfit of the day”) and #tgif for greater exposure.





Trading my my booties & nude gloss for a look that’s more #fridaynight #tgif #tonyatakeover


A photo posted by Macy’s (@macys) on








Warming up to the idea of Fall #ootd A photo posted by Macy’s (@macys) on





Customer shares


Perhaps it’s the intimacy of having access to the photos in the palm of your hand, but mobile users are more likely to interact with a brand on social media than those browsing social networks on their laptop or desktop computer. Since Instagram doesn’t look like it’s giving up its deserved spot in the top 10 apps, smart brands encourage consumers to share their Instagram photos with their followers and the business. Ben & Jerry’s customers, for example, share a first-person view of their ice cream flavour combinations by including the brand’s Instagram handle in the description. Warning: the following pictures may cause an extreme craving for ice cream.





Ice cream o’clock. photo by @laurenpagz


A photo posted by Ben & Jerry’s (@benandjerrys) on








Yummy. photo by @500daysofyummer A photo posted by Ben & Jerry’s (@benandjerrys) on





Reposting photos taken by customers is a win-win for everyone involved: the customer gets the visibility within the brand’s high-volume following, and the brand gets both a default product testimony and visibility among that user’s following.


Think outside the box


All is good for brands with physical products, such as fashionable clothing or appetizing ice cream, to show off on their Instagram accounts. But what about brands who offer a service that requires more thought on creative direction than just the choice of filter? PayPal, an online money transfer company, took this as a chance to show their ability to experiment: PayPal’s Instagram account features established photographers’ works to interpret “people-isms” given to them by the e-commerce brand. For a brand whose motto is “re-imagining money,” the power of imagination is evident in their Instagram strategy.








For more resources on improving your brand’s Instagram strategy, check out these blog posts:


Top 3 Instagram Trends for Marketers


5 Brands Using Video on Instagram


8 Brands Using Hyperlapse for Instagram


Perfect Your Instagram Strategy With Vidpiq and Hootsuite


Stay tuned for a more in-depth look at the advantages and challenges of advertising on social media platforms, including Instagram, coming up on the Hootsuite blog in the next month.


In the meantime, if you’d like to take a peek inside the Hootsuite offices and don’t mind pictures of dogs in costumes, follow Hootsuite on Instagram!



The post Everything You Need To Know About Instagram Ads appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.



Domino's Pizza Australia Is Letting Customers Design Pizzas And Make Money

Pizza Mogul lets you design, market, and profit-share with Domino's AU. Some people are already making serious dough.
Domino's Pizza Australia Is Letting Customers Design Pizzas And Make Money

Russia's Punk Underground On Trial

With his tattooed arms and buzzed head, “Socrates” (born Aleksei Sutuga) hardly resembles a greek philosopher. But like his namesake, Socrates’ politics have run him afoul of authorities. For the past few years, Socrates has risen as a vocal leader in the anti-fascist punk (antifa) community in Russia, a response to growing ranks of ultra-nationalist and neo-nazi groups.
Russia's Punk Underground On Trial

Why Do Some High Schools Have 'Mean Girls' And Others Don't? A New Study Explains

The hierarchical high school of John Hughes’ movies and "Mean Girls" is ubiquitous in pop culture, but it is not universal in real life. A new study finds that some schools — based on their size, organizational structure, and academic climate — are more likely to foster cliques than others.
Why Do Some High Schools Have 'Mean Girls' And Others Don't? A New Study Explains

The Ultimate Guide To Being A Woman*

27. Always tell someone where you’re going, when you leave, who you’re with, and what your general plans are; it’s your job to protect yourself from the possible violence other people can perpetrate against you.
The Ultimate Guide To Being A Woman*

Corvette refurbished after being damaged in freak museum sinkhole

Corvette
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A Corvette restored after being damaged by a freak sinkhole at a Corvette museum early this year went on display Monday, much to the delight of car enthusiasts.


The 2009 ZR1 Blue Devil, which was one of eight cars damaged after being swallowed by a sinkhole, was on display this week at the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association show in Las Vegas. The car will eventually be returned to the museum.



Among the cars that disappeared into the hole were a 1962 black Corvette, a 1984 PPG Pace Car and a 1993 ZR-1 Spyder. Two of the eight cars were on loan from General Motors, the parent company of Corvette, at the time of the sinkhole Read more...

More about Us World, Us, Corvette, and Sinkhole
Corvette refurbished after being damaged in freak museum sinkhole

Rescue dogs that got a second chance at life

Bebe
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It takes a little patience and a huge heart to rescue a dog in need, but giving an animal a new start is incredibly rewarding.


According to the American Kennel Club Rescue Network, the country’s largest network of dog rescue groups, the top three reasons owners surrender a dog are change of lifestyle, a breed that's not the right fit and lack of time to spend with the pet.



Re-homing a dog can be very difficult, depending on a variety of reasons, including age, behavioral issues and health conditions. AKC's Canine Good Citizen program, a certified standard in the U.S. for training, has helped many dogs transition out of traumatic experiences to become outstanding pets, with some even giving back to the community as therapy dogs. Read more...

More about Lists, Pets, Animals, Dogs, and Watercooler
Rescue dogs that got a second chance at life

The 10 Most Popular People on Twitter [STATS]

The 10 Most Popular People on Twitter [STATS]


Katy Perry maintains her position as Twitter’s most-popular individual, and will soon become the first profile to reach 60 million followers on the platform.


(more…)


New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.


The 10 Most Popular People on Twitter [STATS]

The Unbelievable Skepticism Of The Amazing Randi

An expert magician, avid debunker and scourge of spiritualists and con men prepares for the final curtain.
The Unbelievable Skepticism Of The Amazing Randi

How To Hardboil An Egg

Boiling an egg is tricky: How do you prevent the shell from cracking during the boil, and how do you avoid that gray-green ring around the yolk? (That color is a result of overcooking.) And once you’re done, what’s the best way to make sure the shell comes off easily?
How To Hardboil An Egg

How the Web Summit used data scientists and physicists to scale from 400 to 22,000 people

How the Web Summit used data scientists and physicists to scale from 400 to 22,000 people

Above: 22,000 attended the Web Summit in Dublin this year.

Image Credit: Chris O'Brien

For all the big names and conversations at the Web Summit in Dublin this week, the most interesting thing about the event was the Web Summit itself.


Virtually every attendee could recite the following statistics: The Summit has grown from 400 attendees in its first year to 22,000 in its fourth year. Much of the conversation at the Summit revolved around how big it had grown in such a short time — and whether or not that was a good thing.


Much of the credit is typically given to Summit cofounder Paddy Cosgrave, 31, who grew up on a farm in Ireland and somehow managed to convince some of the most notable entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley that being in Dublin once a year is a can’t-miss event. But from the start, attendees have also praised the quality of the networking and connections they made on the Summit’s pub crawls and evening events.


As it turns out, those connections were more than just serendipity. They were engineered by Cosgrave and a friend using a basic algorithm to sort people into pub crawl groups in the first year of the Summit. With the size of the conference increasing massively, Cosgrave has made a big investment in hiring data scientists, physicists, and statisticians as part of the 100-person team that works full-time on producing the conference.


Cosgrave said the goal is to continue to increase the value of the networking at the conference. But on a broader level, he’s hoping to disrupt the conference business itself.


“The software you use when you go to a conference is the software you’ve been using for years, your eyes and your mouths,” Cosgrave said in an interview. “The idea that there isn’t effective software you can just fire up on your phone saying you should connect with this person and this person at a conference is shocking. This should exist at this point.”


The Web Summit was held at the Royal Dublin Society.

Above: The Web Summit was held at the Royal Dublin Society.

Image Credit: Chris O'Brien

As the conference has become gigantic, rethinking the way people connect has become even more critical for Cosgrave and his team.


The Summit this year included 10 stages, running talks simultaneously for three days. There were 614 speakers and 2,160 exhibitors. Stages were spread across two sections of the Royal Dublin Society’s fairgrounds that require a 15 minute walk between the various stages. And on top of that, there were dozens of social events being held across the city every night, often until the early morning hours.


“Every morning I would roll out of bed and scroll through Twitter and see all the kebab selfies people were taking at 6 in the morning,” Cosgrave said. “And I’d think, oh my goodness, these people have to be back at the Summit in just a couple of hours.”


Still, the chances of randomly meeting just the right people is much reduced as the size expands. So Cosgrave has tried to take the randomness out of the equation.


His hires this year included Cian Kennedy, the Summit’s vice president of quantitative strategy. As described in his hiring announcement: “Cian’s one of those rare super quants to jump from the world of high finance in London to tech in Dublin. He spent eight years with JP Morgan, managing a worldwide team focused on high volume algorithmic trading.”


In June, the Summit hired Michael Sexton and Louis Burke. Sexton is a physicist who specializes in computer simulations. Burke’s focus is machine learning and cognitive science.


Sexton and Burke are overseeing a project at the Summit that involves installing hundreds of GoPro cameras throughout the venue to record every aspect of the event. The pair will then run a deep analysis of the footage to measure things like crowd flow, choke points, volume and length of interactions, and visits to exhibitor booths. The idea is to discover what inspires or prevents interactions.


Cosgrave said lots of big corporate retailers already conduct such projects. He’s just applying it to the conference business.


“So that the customer, in our case the attendees and exhibitors, gets a better experience,” he said.


Summit developers also built a mobile networking app for the conference this year. The app scans attendee and exhibitor profiles and suggests potential connections. There is a chat feature for people to contact each other directly. Cosgrave once described it as Tinder for conferences.


Web Summit developers built a networking app for the conference.

Above: Web Summit developers built a networking app for the conference.

Image Credit: Chris O'Brien

Cosgrave said they released an updated version of the app after the conference started that increased the number of daily recommendations from 50 to 300 based on feedback they were getting from attendees.


“It’s a reflection of how important networking is to people who have come here,” Cosgrave said.


The team was also using algorithms before the conference to connect startups and investors. The Summit used programs it developed to sort pitches and slidedecks from startups and funnel them to relevant venture capitalists.


And now that the event is over, Cosgrave said the networking will continue. He said that the apps and algorithms are learning more about people’s interests as they use them more. The Summit is going to use that knowledge to send followup emails and notifications to exhibitors and attendees to suggest other people they might want to try connecting with after the event.


Despite all these efforts, not everyone was pleased with the increased size of the conference. There were plenty of complaints about it being too chaotic — too many people, too many talks. Compounding the problem was the conference’s Wi-Fi system, which only seemed to work sporadically, creating a technical hurdle to some of the networking efforts.


The Wi-Fi is controlled by the venue and not the conference. Cosgrave has said that organizers will have to consider whether the infrastructure can be improved or whether the event will have to leave Dublin. Given that the Irish government estimates the economic impact of the conference to be $130 million, that seems unimaginable.


At the same time, Cosgrave was also aware that the conference’s size had taxed the entire city of Dublin. What started with one pub the first year has now taken over 30 in the city center at night. And taxis, buses, and hotels seemed to be scarce.


“I think there is an upper limit to Dublin as a destination,” Cosgrave said.


To that end, the Summit is expanding to the U.S. next year. It will host an event in May 2015 in Las Vegas called “Collision.” Cosgrave said it will start small, but he hopes to grow it quickly. And the Summit will be deploying many of the same technological tools and lessons it has picked up in Dublin.



2014-11-06 09.31.01


Overall, it’s just the next step in his bigger ambition to disrupt the conference business.


“I don’t think for one moment we’re coming close to delivering significant value at this scale,” Cosgrave said. “But we’re giving it a shot. We’ve made things maybe one percent better. And if we can build on that, we think we can have a big impact on the experience people have at conferences.”




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How the Web Summit used data scientists and physicists to scale from 400 to 22,000 people

Funding Daily: Today’s tech funding news, in one place

Funding Daily: Today’s tech funding news, in one place
Image Credit: Miran Rijavec


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Here’s a list of today’s tech funding stories, updated as the day unfolds. Tip us here if you have a deal to share.


‘The Amazon of bargain products,’ Fyndiq, raises $20 million


Today Stockholm-based Fyndiq announced it has secured $20 million in financing from Swedish funds Northzone and Industrifonden. Fyndiq calls itself an online “bargain superstore.”


Read more: Artic Startup


Highspot nabs $9.6M to enter more customers’ minds with the right content


“Getting inside the mind of the customer.” That’s the goal cloud-based sales engagement platform Highspot has set for itself, by helping salespeople find, share, and repurpose content — brochures, slide presentations, product sheets, and the like — for customers. Today, the Seattle-based company announced it has raised $9.6 million so its platform can help enter more customers’ minds.


Read more


Dutch platform for experimental treatments MyTomorrows raises $5.5M (€4.5M)


Amsterdam-based MyTomorrows announced a $5.58 million (€4.5M) raise today for a service which enables paitients and doctors find and gain access to new and experimental treatments. The round was led by London-based Balderton Capital and Paris-based Sofinnova Partners.


Read more: Press release


Elevate Digital raises $4M


Elevate Digital, a Chicago-based company that provides interactive advertising displays, announced it has raised $4 million in new funding. The three-year-old company will be opening an office in Las Vegas as its third. Advantage Capital Partners led this round.


Read more: Press release


This list will be updated with breaking funding news all day. Check back for more.


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