Interview with Aziz Rahim, CEO, SABIO Mobile

On Marketing Technology

MTS: Tell us about your role and how you got here.
Having worked at NBC Universal, AT&T, Opera, I was exposed to content, mobile, and browsers. I saw the limitations each had in reaching the right mobile audiences, and wanted to do something about it. In addition to that, the importance of the app ecosystem vs mobile web was something that I wanted to make advertising clients aware of. Now as CEO of Sabio Mobile, I am working to do all of this.

MTS: How do you see the audience segmentation and the behavioral analytics market evolving by 2020?
Behavior analytics will have plenty to do with the eventual sale vs. the many proxies that are being used today like viewability and CTR (clickthrough rates). Brands will continue to purchase technology companies at an ever-increasing pace to make that ultimate closed loop versus relying on third-party companies.

MTS: How should CMOs leverage predictive technology to drive their mobile marketing campaigns with greater authority?
They should make better use of the mobile app data they have access to in order to better anticipate and project patterns.  A consumer’s app profile matters. As we say at Sabio “You are what you app”!

MTS: What are the emerging ad formats and bidding technologies that would impact a CMO’s budget by 2020?
The biggest one is voice recognition. A June 2017 eMarketer study stated that 49% of all mobile consumers surveyed used voice commands at least once a week. They should also recognize that the backbone of voice interactivity is in app, not mobile web. Also, header bidding will democratize inventory and put pressure on SSPs like Google’s Doubleclick Bid Manager (DBM).

MTS: How should CMOs plan to include Geo-Story and App Science delivering the best mobile ad units for KPIs and campaigns?
A person’s app ecosystem says a lot about that individual and the life stage or major purchase events they are going through. That, combined with location and visitation, gives a clearer picture of the consumer. For example, if I am looking for a person who has a banking app from a specific financial institution, it not enough to just see if a person has visited banks or ATMs of that institution. It is important to see if the consumer would have a high propensity to load the app from an institution they bank with. That is what AppScience is about.

In other words CMOs should look to determine how receptive a consumer is to the  message the brand would like to deliver based on that person’s app profile.

MTS: What startups in the technology innovation ecosystem are you watching/keen on right now?
The companies that are experimenting with voice technology!

MTS: Could you tell us about a standout digital campaign?
We had an excellent music brand campaign that despite not being the top metric driver in terms of CTR, or view through rate, we were ranked as a top performer in brand awareness according to a Millward Brown study.

MTS: How do you prepare for an Artificial Intelligence-centric world as a marketing leader?
We embrace it and use it to better analyze data and create quicker real-time adjustments to campaigns.

This is How I Work

MTS: One word that best describes how you work.
Strategically

MTS: What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
Lyft, OpenTable, Delta, Hyatt, WSJ

MTS: What’s your smartest work related shortcut or productivity hack? 
Trust the senior people you hire!

MTS: What are you currently reading?
I am an avid reader of economic/business related publications like WSJ, Economist and Harvard Business Review along with political pubs like Washington Post and Politico nightly on my phone.

MTS: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Don’t let the idea of failure limit what you can achieve.

MTS: Tag the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read:
Maria Mandel of AT&T.

MTS: Thank you Aziz! That was fun and hope to see you back on MarTech Series soon.