Mobile marketing is a relatively new space, and it’s unlike the more traditional channels of television and orthodox advertising in significant ways. Currently, 85 percent of American adults use their phones to access the news, which means that users are using their devices for news, which means that marketers and the brands behind them need to be equally as nimble when navigating the intent and habits of the consumers they wish to connect with. Phones are an integral part of daily life, so it only makes sense that marketing needs to take an integrated approach to outreach. Simply slapping an ad within an app isn’t enough. Phones aren’t billboards. They key is now adjusting to the new reality of entitled mobile customers who expect marketers to come as close as possible to reading their minds, prompting them with the right ads at the right time.
In this sense, data is no longer merely points on a graph, but rather a fluid, dynamic stream of information that not only sheds light on current needs and buying habits, but also can help brands make predictions and calibrate campaigns across entire marketing segments. DMN spoke to Ogury over the phone to learn how Ogury has seemed to come up to speed in a short period of time.
Ogury’s purpose is almost overly specific — a market within a market. Within the mobile marketing space, Ogury is carving out a niche within the mobile marketing journey by its ability to understand the entire user journey, and then activate that corresponding data across the entire journey. Users opt-in to allow Ogury to collect their personal data (ensuring it’s ethically collected) that is GDPR compliant, and it has been compliant since the company’s founding in 2014. (They are GDPR compliant across the globe, which on its own is a unique accomplishment.) By translating raw signals into insights — what apps are owned, how often they are being used, how long they’ve had them, and web activities — users are able to get a personalized journey.
The crux, it was explained to me, was that Ogury seeks first to understand users, then provide them with customized experiences.
How do buyers feel about handing over this data? I asked. It seemed like such a personal thing. The way it was explained to me was that it is an exchange: the price for relevant ads, which begin the customer journey, is the phone’s data. With so many chances to opt-out, Ogury is certain that the data is being handed over consensually. As it stands, the current opt-out rate is 42% globally, a small enough percentage to grow user base at a good pace. The result of this is not just data, but of the highest quality and from the most reliable sources — straight from the horse’s mouth.
“There’s so much bad data that exists out in the marketplace,” said Evan Rutchik, Chief Revenue Officer of Ogury. “Trillions of dollars are spent or wasted on businesses serving not just ads but making decisions based on this bad data. So if you understand the true, observed nature of a consumer’s activities, that’s [good] stuff.” Mobile phone data is personal, intimate, and revealing, but also seems to hold the key to navigating a sea of bad and incomplete data.
There’s a lot to unpack here: getting access to authentic purchasing and behavior through a phone with consent to build an individual map of preferences to then deliver to brands. But the mobile journey is an important one to master if brands want to have a shot at connecting with consumers who are tuning out the world — overstuffed with ads — to gaze at their phones. But it seems that that is what mobile users want. They want to be catered to in real time, and shown products that “get” their needs and wants, not just shown things that may be of use to them. One thing is for sure: the throwing spaghetti against the wall tactic is an artifact of the distant past.
