The Groove

What if leading growth wasn’t about doing more—but about doing what actually works? At Fetch, Abby Patton leads UA as part of a lean, two-person team. But she’s not scaling by stretching thin. She’s scaling by building trust—on her team and with her users. Abby doesn’t push harder. She listens deeper. She meets people where they are and brings them into the conversation. Whether it’s optimizing pe...

Angela Humphrey started as a junior account manager. Now she leads Growth, Sales and Client Success at YouAppi. She climbed without code-switching. Pivoted without apology. And brought her Elle Woods energy to every room—owning her value while making space for others to rise. In our Women in Leader(sip) x MobileGroove series (powered by Xsolla), we talk about what it means to lead without fitting...

Jess Jackson isn’t just VP of People Ops at CRAFTSMAN+ — she’s the culture architect, coach and “sidekick” who makes sure the team has the space (and support) to do their best work. She leads with empathy, honesty and accountability—but she’s crystal clear: kindness isn’t avoiding the hard conversations. It’s having them. In our Women in Leader(sip) x MobileGroove series (powered by Xsolla), Jess...

That’s Sarah Chafer, who’s lived mobile’s M&A wave from the inside. Tapjoy. IronSource. Unity. Now Xsolla. Three acquisitions, four companies, and one powerful truth: you can’t control the chaos, but you can lead through it. In our latest conversation (part of the Women in Leader(sip) x MobileGroove series powered by Xsolla), we go beyond buzzwords to talk about what it really means to lead th...

Fragmented marketing in a privacy-first world demands a full funnel approach. In this episode, Peggy Anne Salz reconnects with Avi Das, CRO at Aarki, for an “encore” conversation recorded live at MAU. One year after unveiling Aarki 2.0, the spotlight is where it should be. Marketers are rethinking how UA and retargeting work together, and this episode offers a blueprint for building a new kind of...

Move beyond buzzwords and get real about how agentic AI and infrastructure-first thinking are changing the rules of modern marketing. In this episode, Peggy Anne Salz reconnects with Aman Sareen, CEO of Aarki, to unpack how owning your tech stack (not renting it)reshapes everything from performance to privacy compliance. Aman shares why building your own data centers pays off, how marketers should...

AI isn’t replacing marketers; it’s becoming their greatest creative ally. In this episode, Peggy Anne Salz sits down with Wangxin Li, VP of Decision Science and Global Operations at Aarki, to explore how she’s not just building AI, but reimagining the way marketers collaborate with it. At the heart of this transformation is Encore, Aarki’s full-funnel platform powered by real-time decisioning, dee...

What does Mad Max: Furiosa have to do with mobile ad performance? Everything. Michael Akkerman, Chief Business Officer at Digital Turbine, shares how brands are turning blockbuster energy into in-game engagement—driving 35% lift in brand preference and 4x higher interaction rates with ad formats consumers actually want to experience. In this special on-location episode from POSSIBLE in Miami, Akke...

Brand building is making a comeback, but on new terms. After years of hyper-targeted, lower-funnel performance marketing, brands are returning to their roots: storytelling, connecting to culture, and long-term brand equity. Our guest this week, Nina Brit Brando, CEO of Carat Deutschland GmbH, calls this a "renaissance in brand commitment." In a time when brands are all "fishing in t...

Effective marketing turns ads into experiences. But smart marketers go further—using AI to personalize those experiences and even predict the creative that will resonate most with valuable consumers at the moment of inspiration. In this special MobileGroove episode, powered by Appier, Peggy Anne Salz sits down with Robert Chen, CTO at Appier, to learn how the agent-powered adtech company combines...

Great speakers don't start their presentations by trying to be funny, persuasive, or polished—they start by being themselves. Whether you're on stage, in a boardroom, or featured on a podcast like MobileGroove, authenticity builds trust and allows you to connect with your audience in a way that feels real, not rehearsed. Speaking coach Reuben Milne compares public speaking to a muscle you...

In a market saturated with FOMO and shame-driven lesson reminders, Zigzag shows that ethical UX and empathy-led CRM drive better retention and brand loyalty—especially for subscription apps.  In this episode, Peggy Anne Salz is joined by Lorna Winter (Co-Founder & Head of Programme) and Ed Williams (Growth Marketing Manager - Lifecycle & CRM) from Zigzag, the mission-led puppy training app...

It used to be that a marketer's tools defined their differentiation. But as AI democratizes the ability to craft compelling mobile creatives—and to do so at an unprecedented volume—Kenjy Vanitou, Lead Creative Manager at Voodoo, says it's brand, optimization, and a curiosity to learn that will determine what separates the good games marketing and the great. He joins Peggy Anne Salz at Game...

The games industry is in the “midst of a revolution,” and Shalom Michaeli , Managing Director of Alternative App Stores at Digital Turbine , emphasizes that how brands act now will directly impact their revenue and performance in the years ahead. This is a make-or-break moment for studios across genres, as developers increasingly turn to alternative stores as a growth strategy in 2025. In this exc...

When you think of Swaarm , think of James Bond meets Nikola Tesla.  A brand shaking up the app industry with bold, sleek, and seamless integrations to bring electrifying and actionable real-time data to marketers across verticals in search of a simpler way to track their campaigns. Swaarm Co-Founder and CEO Yogeeta Chainani speaks in this episode of Mobile Groove about how Swaarm combines automati...

If you ask anyone in the games industry which studios have undeniably shaped the adventure genre—and the industry as a whole—you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t mention Revolution Software . The British video game developer has been creating iconic point-and-click adventure games since 1990, most notably, Broken Sword . In this episode of MobileGroove , Charles Cecil —co-founder and...

Bootstrapping a brand that markets itself requires a three-pronged strategy. First, a clear vision of your target audience. Second, a foundation built on deep empathy for their needs. And third, a fierce dedication to delivering an outstanding product shaped by real user insights. YouCanBookMe (YCBM) stands out as a brand that hits the mark on all three. Over its 13 years, the online scheduling to...

Monetization, marketing, and the ad space that can boost your revenue without sacrificing retention. InMobi Advertising's Chief Business Officer, Kunal Nagpal, breaks down the biggest ad trends of 2025 and how publishers can escape the endless churn-and-burn of user acquisition with smart platform partnerships and performance-powered branding. Kunal Nagpal - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nagpalkunal...

To turn a title into a breakout success, studios must think beyond traditional UA—blending marketing, product, and player experience to drive growth. In this episode of MobileGroove, powered by Verve, Peggy Anne Salz speaks with Luis de la Cámara, VP of Marketing at Rovio, about how Rovio masters this formula and the steps indie studios can take today to stand out. An industry veteran, Luis shares...

Smart. Scalable. Viral. Three words to sum up what3words’ smart marketing strategy that excels on three fronts: an in-house programmatic team that moves fast and optimizes faster, a word-of-mouth flywheel that gets customers to spread the message for them, and big-league brand partnerships that rocket revenue and reach. In this episode of MobileGroove, our host, Peggy Anne Salz, chats with Jane St...

Marked by a crazy dynamic of fewer downloads and stronger player spending, mobile gaming is gearing up for its climactic finale against the industry's biggest boss in what Gonçalo Martins , VP of Marketing at BoomBit , calls the "mobile gaming trilogy." In this episode of MobileGroove, powered by Verve , Gonçalo releases his director's cut, complete with strategies BoomBit is usi...

Monetization in mobile gaming is a lot like composing a hit song—it’s all about finding the perfect balance between melody (user experience) and rhythm (ad revenue). In this episode of Mobile Groove, powered by Verve, we jam with Andrew Seow , Director of Monetization at Tripledot Studios and music aficionado, to uncover how his studio fine-tunes its monetization strategy to hit all the right note...

Winning in performance marketing in 2025 will require a big step back from the “numbers for numbers’ sake” mindset and force companies to finally embrace smarter, more meaningful strategies that drive sustainable growth. This is the view of Megan Price , Programmatic Supervisor, and Michael Hew , Associate Director of Data & Reporting Ops at M&C Saatchi Performance , who joined Peggy Anne...

Great app growth is like a perfect bike ride: it takes a ride that works (your app), a sustainable pace (steady growth), and quick thinking to pivot when obstacles arise. In this episode of In The Groove with Peggy Anne Salz , Lorenzo Rossi , Co-founder and Head of Growth at REPLUG , takes us on a journey through the parallels between cycling and scaling mobile apps. Just like a high-performance r...

With rising costs and a 30% revenue cut taken by major app stores on every in-app purchase, studios can’t afford to keep placing bets on traditional models or small pockets of growth. Instead, diversification is the new mantra. Done right, it doesn’t just generate revenues; it powers value-driven experiences and optimizes every touchpoint for maximum retention. Glance , (formerly Nostra), an uncon...