André Bain

Co-Founder of Flowsense and VP, Publishers at DigitalReef, Flowsense

Supernova Award Category: 

Marketing Transformation

The Organization: 

Flowsense is a Brazil-based engagement solution for apps.Owned by global mobile ad & marketing company DigitalReef, our mission is to help companies achieve high levels of user engagement and personalization through different channels in a simple and effective way.We help app owners and marketers realize the full potential of their apps as channels for engagement and to increase user activation, retention and recurrence through several automation tools.Our main offerings are: An SDK that seamlessly integrates into the app, Intuitive online dashboard, AI-powered optimization, audience development, audience analysis and automated messaging,Connectivity to existing CRM and marketing automation platforms, Passionate dedication to client success through our consulting and support services

The Problem: 

Mobile apps are the channel that enables the most possibilities for personalization and smart engagement. These opportunities, however, are generally wasted. The most common scenario is to see large companies spending millions on sophisticated advertising solutions for their apps at the customer acquisition stage. However, once the customer accesses the app, engagement and retention strategies are often poor, which leads to high churn rates and low purchase conversion rates. 

One of our clients is Carrefour Soluções Financeiras (CSF), a Brazilian based financial company part of global retailer Carrefour Group and one of the largest credit card issuers in Brazil. CSF tasked us to improve the company’s app experience and effectiveness with the goal of boosting offline traffic and revenue in physical stores. Up to this point, the app had been an underutilized channel with limited financial results and ineffective engagement. Our goal was to harness CSF’s full app capabilities to reduce cost and offer a better digital experience by making the app the main customer contact channel. 

The Solution: 

To succeed in app marketing, it's necessary to bring real relevance to mobile communications, understand the customer’s profile and to identify the best channel for impact thus optimizing the entire mobile marketing cycle.

For CSF, we proposed starting with a geolocation solution using our SDK technology. We made it possible for mobile customers to receive a personalized push whenever they entered a geographical area established to be Carrefour Group’s stores. With our technology, we recognized the user, store and time of the journey, and the system processed a personalized offer for that visit, prepared the push notification, which then fired. In addition to the success of the geolocation solution, we also worked with CSF’s billing team to transform the app into the main communication channel with Carrefour Card holders by replacing SMS with personalized push notifications to better communicate and help reduce default and overall costs.  

The Results: 

With over 5M apps available, it’s a big challenge for large companies and retailers to be relevant in the app space. However, it is understood that the future is mobile and consumers demand a more personalized relationship in their apps. We see this market and this kind of demand - efficiency and personalization - as ever growing consumer trends, which need to be considered as an essential piece of the puzzle for any winning mobile app strategy. 

In CSF’s case, prior to working with Flowsense, their app was a missed opportunity dedicated more for traditional self-promotion that no longer fit the medium. Their customers' experience was neither personalized nor efficient, and as a result customers were not engaging and money was being wasted. With our strategy and technology, we transformed  the app into a successful engagement channel that translated to offline revenue increases. We also proved that apps are a key resource for large companies, like Carrefour, to communicate with their customers directly, learn their behaviors to provide more personalized offerings, leading to a more loyal customer. Even determining the best time and day to send a push notification, to optimize engagement.  

Metrics: 

In order to achieve results, our app developers implement our mobile SDK to analyze the user’s journey, in the app and using location data. We utilize marketing automation to target push notifications and in-app messages based on audience segment and contextual understanding of the user. We also provide a specialist service team to help clients meet their specific mobile engagement goals.

After implementing our strategies the CSF app saw: 1) An increased CTR rate of 25.4% (average CTR is typically 3%-5%) in just 6 months; 2) Increased Carrefour Card activation by 70,000 incremental units; 3) Reduced app costs of 77% by replacing SMS with push notifications.

The Technology: 

It all starts on an SDK for the client’s app. We offer an intuitive interface that consists of an online dashboard and engagement tools integrated with artificial intelligence solutions that optimize the entire process. Integration with corporate CRMs is also possible, to ensure relevance in the sent message. We also offer a customer success team (consulting and service) specialized in engagement for apps and focused on ensuring that our clients reach their business objectives.

Disruptive Factor: 

Current engagement solutions for apps are limited, often expensive and lack personalization. Push notifications, for example, are generally poorly targeted massive “blasts” that demand a lot of internal IT work, increasing cost and losing agility. While big CRM platforms lack mobile features and can have subpar service and experience at a high cost. 

For CSF, we helped them realize the full potential of their app as a channel for engagement and increased user activation, retention and recurrence that was more cost and time efficient. We were able to make a significant impact in their CRM and user engagement that was meaningful and even influenced our CSF counterparts to work in a more agile mindset going forward. 

Shining Moment: 

Our relationship with CSF has continued to flourish as we implemented a different mindset than what they were used to working with. When we were first brought on, each sector of the company maintained a traditional way of working, while Flowsense thrived on agility and lean digital thinking. Through the course of working together, we were able to bring a part of that agility to our CSF teammates.

About Flowsense

Flowsense is a mobile engagement platform that helps companies understand the journey of app users and communicate effectively.