Last week at the Silverado Resort in Napa, CA, AppsFlyer hosted their Mobile Attribution & Marketing Analytics (MAMA) Summit, which Drivemode attended. An exclusive event for marketing leaders in the mobile space, speakers from Adobe, Johnson & Johnson, Facebook, The Weather Channel and more shared insights on mobile-first development, building brands on mobile, and mobile ad fraud.
The keynote speaker of the event was Billy Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland A's, whom you may remember as the focus of Moneyball. As anyone who has seen or read Moneyball would expect, Beane's talk was filled with valuable insights into how analytics can lead the way to success. Here were three key points we took away from the talk.
Measure What Matters For You
Don't rely solely on globally-accepted or traditional "key performance indicators" when determining what success looks like for your company or your product. When Beane bucked traditional, long-standing baseball KPIs and looked deeper into performance analytics, he found value in new places that gave him an edge. Carefully choose metrics specifically relevant for your product to develop around and optimize on those.
Leverage Your Limitations
Beane's salary budget for 2002 was 35% of the Yankees budget, but he was still able to get his team to the playoffs in 2002 and 2003. With substantially limited resources, it was imperative that Beane find the most undervalued players and create a replicable system that would lead to continued success. His limitation necessitated a disruptive solution that would ultimately define him. In saturated, attention-fatigued markets, find the value in the undervalued, work on it, perfect it, and bring it to an audience looking for the win only you can provide.
Be Ready To Set A Trend
Beane directly addressed how all sports are now moving toward advanced analytics. In many ways, the popularity of the book Moneyball and the sabermetric methods shared in it have reduced the edge Beane had created for the A's. Beane set a trend which ultimately resulted in diminishing returns as more competitors found success using his very methods. On the upside, more market for measurement ensures tools are better honed, more accessible, and always improving. But once you become a market leader, your methods will be studied and replicated, so rest on your laurels at your peril.