Apptivate: App Marketing Explained

Yevhen Tarasenko, CMO and co-founder of Apptonomy, joins Apptivate to discuss how app store optimization is evolving in the age of AI. After more than a decade in ASO, Yevhen shares how the discipline has changed from a keyword-focused practice into a broader challenge of app discoverability across app stores, search engines, Reddit, and large language models. The conversation explores the limitations of traditional ASO workflows, ...

Natasha Saviuk, Growth Director at Wealthsimple, joins Apptivate to discuss how incentives evolved from simple promotions into one of the company's most effective growth channels. The conversation explores the lessons Natasha brought from her background in neuroscience, how Wealthsimple scaled from $15 billion to more than $125 billion in assets under management, and why physical rewards often outperform cash incentives. Natasha an...

Adeel Shaikh Muhammad, founder of Adeel Solutions, is an advisor on cybersecurity, AI governance, and digital risk. He joins Apptivate to discuss the growing tension between AI-powered growth and user trust. The conversation explores why AI governance is becoming essential for modern marketing teams, how over-personalization can create a sense of creepiness for users, and where companies are introducing AI without clearly defined u...

Ekaterina Gamsriegler, former Head of Growth and Marketing at MyGroove and longtime advisor across music, education, and health apps, joins Apptivate to discuss why sustainable growth depends on systems rather than isolated wins. The conversation explores the nature of modern growth funnels, how creative strategy impacts retention and churn downstream, and why many teams optimize acquisition while misunderstanding activation and lo...

Remerge CEO and founder, Pan Katsukis, joins Patrick Eichmann for the first video edition of Apptivate. They discuss the evolution of mobile advertising, the origin story behind Remerge, and where the industry is heading next. The conversation explores the rise of app retargeting, how ATT and privacy changes reshaped mobile growth, why probabilistic targeting is driving renewed momentum on iOS, and how AI is changing campaign optim...

Michal Bubernik, Head of Marketing at Pixel Federation, joins Patrick Eichmann of Apptivate to discuss how AI is transforming creative production inside mobile gaming. The conversation covers how Pixel Federation scaled from producing around 10 polished creative assets per month to roughly 700 variations through AI-assisted workflows, why post-IDFA growth requires higher creative volume, and how teams can use testing systems to ide...

Description

Apptivate hosts and Remerge team members, Patrick Eichmann and Taylor Lobdell, sit down to discuss the outlook for mobile marketing in 2026 and the shifts shaping the industry. The conversation covers the move toward probabilistic attribution, the growing role of AI in campaign execution, and how advertisers are adapting to signal loss. They explore why retargeting strategies are becoming simpler and more holis...

Dieter Rappold, co-founder and CEO of Context SDK, joins Apptivate to explore how motion sensor data and on-device AI are reshaping mobile marketing strategies. He explains how contextual signals from accelerometers, gyroscopes, and other device inputs can help marketers identify the right moment to engage users, optimize conversion timing, and improve monetization without relying on personal data or tracking permissions. The conve...

Bani Malhotra, former head of personalization and site experience for Walmart’s e-commerce platform, joins Apptivate to unpack the real drivers of revenue growth in modern digital products. She explores how recommendation systems, search behavior, ratings and reviews can influence conversion rates across the funnel.  She also discusses why many teams misdiagnose the cause of revenue leaks, and how behavioral signals incr...

Artsiom Kazimirchyk, co-founder and CEO of Campaignswell, joins Apptivate to break down predictive LTV modeling, the critical flaws in how teams measure unit economics, and why today's mobile marketers need unified tools that connect profitability analysis across channels. The conversation covers what's broken in traditional LTV reporting, the technical pain points of fragmented data definitions across platforms, and how accurate c...

Louis Tanguay, founder of App Growth Summit, returns to dissect why user retention is defining success for mobile in 2026. The conversation ranges from in-person event strategy to hands-on UX tactics, with practical lessons for product teams facing an era of AI, off-app payments, and high user expectations. Louis shares what top apps get wrong about onboarding, how to use gamification without gimmicks, and where the next phase of c...

Jyoti Pannu, Product Manager at Booking.com, shares how AI is transforming the way travelers discover, plan, and book their next adventure. From AI trip planners that surface new possibilities to the integration of GenAI and ChatGPT into the core product, Jyoti explains why travel discovery is moving beyond simple search, how user intent is now mapped through nuanced signals, and what the rise of LLMs means for attribution, retenti...

Lenny Rabin, founder of direct advertising group Brown Boots and their reward app platform GoKart, joins Taylor Lobdell to dissect the evolution of rewarded user acquisition, focusing on how direct publisher-advertiser relationships can solve long-standing industry inefficiencies. Rabin, with over a decade in rewarded traffic and ad tech, explains why most publishers dislike third-party monetization platforms, how custom tech stack...

This special ‘Best of 2025’ episode compiles standout insights from top mobile marketing leaders who joined Apptivate this year. Across five segments, the show digs into the realities of AI in ad production, growth lessons from global brands, the rise of community-driven retention, loyalty tactics for the holiday season, and the intersection of brand authenticity with performance marketing. Guests include Andre Kempe (A...

Lisanne Vera, VP of Growth at KashKick, joins Taylor Lobdell to talk about the incentives economy, a marketplace where leisure becomes an asset. From her early affiliate-marketing roots to leading growth at one of the fastest-growing rewards apps, Lisanne unpacks how KashKick designs offers that respect user time, prevent bait-and-switch dynamics, and build long-term trust. She discusses how micro-earnings sustain engagement, why t...

It’s often said that for e-commerce brands, the holiday season is the 5th quarter of the year. Sue Azari, e-commerce industry lead at AppsFlyer, joins Taylor Lobdell for a tactical breakdown of how the smartest e-commerce apps move from Q4 user acquisition to Q5 retention and remarketing. From UK and EMEA trends to global shifts in spend, Sue details why remarketing spend surges fivefold at the end of the year, how loyalty an...

James Dickins, Team Lead of Technical Support at Gamelight, joins Taylor Lobdell to discuss how rewarded UA and behavioral targeting shape user acquisition in 2025’s privacy-first landscape. From the company’s laser-eyed cat mascot to the mechanics of lookalike models, James explains how his team balances precision with ethics and how algorithms are trained on aggregated behavior data. He also discusses creative testing...

Shilpa Reddy, CMO of Down Under School of Yoga and former Marketing VP at Acorns, maps her journey from fintech to wellness and explains why the same principles drive both: make time-tested tools accessible, and build a community that keeps people engaged. She breaks down her three-stage marketing flywheel, and shows why marketers must dismantle the false divide between direct response and brand storytelling. The conversation moves...

Alejandro Hernandez, Senior CRM Notifications and Lifecycle Specialist at Babbel, explains how AI and human creativity intersect to drive retention in language learning. He shares how Babbel uses ecosystem segmentation, predictive models, and deep links to re-engage millions of learners worldwide. From predicting churn with behavior signals to ensuring that every push notification feels like a supportive nudge rather than spam, Ale...