Brief:
- Mobile marketing startup Airship acquired Apptimize, a user experience (UX) testing company, to give clients a single platform for managing digital ad campaigns, per an announcement. More than 100 companies use Apptimize for testing, including The Wall Street Journal, Glassdoor, Rakuten and Hotels.com, per the company's website.
- With the acquisition of Apptimize, Airship aims to help marketers make comparisons of campaigns using A/B testing methods to see what is most effective at boosting customer engagement, loyalty and revenue among channels including mobile apps, websites and over-the-top (OTT) services.
- About two-thirds of Apptimize employees are joining Airship, adding 20 people to increase the company's headcount to 330 employees. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
Insight:
Airship, which this year rebranded itself from its prior name of Urban Airship, seeks to build out its marketing platform with acquisition of Apptimize. Before the re-brand, the company bought European rival Accengage in January to expand its global footprint. Prior acquisitions include SimpleGeo in 2011 and Tello in 2012. Founded in 2009, Airship helps brands such as Adidas, Alaska Airlines, Regal Cinemas and Zillow with their push notifications by mobile, email, mobile wallets and voice-enabled services.
For its part, Apptimize automatically integrates with most analytics platforms, and its Visual Editor lets marketers and product owners make changes to iOS and Android apps without coding or updates. The companies share expertise verticals such as retail, media, travel, hospitality and financial services, per Airship's announcement.
As Airship notes, customer experience (CX) has a significant effect on user engagement, retention and lifetime value — making it an essential part of brand marketing. The company cites a Forrester Research report that says superior customer experiences is key to revenue growth.
Earlier this year, Forrester said that digital CX among many brands was too uniform, making it hard for consumers to distinguish one company from the next. The firm recommended that brands shift $19 billion earmarked for some technologies — such as mobile, social media and ad tech — to more creative efforts in order to see $10 billion more in ROI over the next six years.
