Lessons from the back of a cab

Mike Masuku,
Global Head of Performance Marketing at Hailo

What exactly does a head of performance marketing at Hailo do?

I use digital media channels [i.e. search, social, Hailo website, display advertising etc…] to acquire regular customers, or re-engage existing customers to continue using Hailo. The ‘performance’ bit basically means being able to directly attribute revenue generated to spend.

You hail (oops!) from a traditional brand marketing background. What was the route from there to the world of apps? Mapped out? Or did you get happily lost to find yourself where you are now.

I see what you did there ;-). I’d like to say it was planned and come across very measured, but it was a complete fluke. I’ve mostly worked in traditional marketing teams, but have always been drawn by the product.

At Ubisoft the attractions was games [Brand Manager for Core Games]. ITV — it was to work on Football [Brand Manager for Sports] and SEGA was mere because I used to love their consoles [Global Marketing Manager].

It was at SEGA that I got attracted to Mobile, because I was finding myself playing more and more mobile games. So I got the opportunity to takeover my mentors role when he moved to San Francisco — so that’s how ended up leading SEGA’s European Mobile Marketing.

I was attracted to Hailo by what it stands for within the App-to-Service sector. A local business going global, making incredible waves in tech; providing incredible value to multiple cities around the world. And I wanted to learn more about the travel vertical and about how performance marketing works in different app store genres.

What are the key marketing lessons you have learned from sitting in the back of a taxi?

I’ve been on the steepest learning curve in my year in the back of a taxi.

a. Every market [city] is different and you can’t apply a one size fits all marketing plan. You have to learn, adapt and localise — always!

b. Getting people to download your app is very different type of marketing from getting people to use your service. The latter is far more primary and harder to get right than the former. Marketing that gets people to use the service/product is what defines success.

c. Mobile marketing is still very young. The tools and technologies that support this industry are still immature and I predict many changes in the mid-term around attribution and targeting. There are few experts out there — but we all have lessons we can teach each other — I’m always looking to learn about what other people are doing.

The consumer uptake of app based services continues to grow at a stunning rate — what trends do you think are going to impact performance marketing in the next few years?

I love this question… the truth is this is an educated guess. But my observations tell me that performance marketing will learn to embrace multi-channel attribution. Currently the focus is on last click attribution, but we will start to see a world where we can attribute the fact that for Laundrapp — I have seen a TV ad on Sky Sports, an outdoor poster at Richmond Station and then clicked on the download link when I searched for it in Google, which then took me to the iTune App Store.

So attribution of multiple channels will improve and multichannel marketing will become more crucial in both acquisition and engagement of users — because we all forget about apps on our phones. So all these ads help us remember those apps too.

What’s your geekiest tech indulgence OR your favourite Hailo destination.

My favourite Hailo destination is home. The benefits of working for Hailo are best realised when you need to get home at 11pm on a Thursday night. We’re very lucky to get a monthly allowance for taxis that we definitely all use regularly.

As a bonus, my geekiest tech indulgence is the Apple Watch I’m about to buy but haven’t told my wife about. I really want one, but something will have to give — maybe our monthly food shop for the next two months ;-)!