Yahoo’s first Mobile Developer Conference took place in San Francisco last week. Over 1,000 attendees—including Appency—gathered  to learn about Yahoo’s new and improved mobile offerings, and the results lived up to the hype. Yahoo launched of a new suite of products to help developers analyze, advertise, and monetize their apps. These products combine Yahoo’s years of advertising technology with the mobile expertise of Flurry and BrightRoll, which joined Yahoo in 2014.

Flurry’s been around since the launch of the iTunes App Store. They provide developers the data they need to understand their audience, benchmarked with data from over 630 billion apps. Partnering with Yahoo gives them access to an enormous audience across multiple device platforms and technologies. Appency has used Flurry analytics for years, and we find these new updates very exciting, providing plenty of opportunity for our clients.

BrightRoll provides solutions for the entire video ecosystem. Their partnership will help create a complete suite of solutions.

Flurry Analytics Explorer
Flurry has updated their analytics and now allows users to ask even more complex questions about their data than before, and the platform shows insights immediately. Developers can create custom events relevant to their specific app and reference them against any other piece of data Flurry gathers, and see immediate results. For instance, Instagram could track engagement by monitoring when users upload a photo, then cross reference that even against time of day to see when users are most engaged. As we have come to expect from Flurry, these new features have an easy-to-use interface and provide in-depth graphs. Importantly, these new analytics tools are free and require no new codes or new SDKs.

Flurry Pulse
Flurry Pulse makes it easy for developers to share app signals with partners using their existing Flurry SDKs. Pulse shrinks the app’s size and saves developers time: With fewer SDK implementations, developers can get an app out the door faster and still work with a broad range of partners. A partnership with comScore helps make this possible.

Yahoo App Publishing
Yahoo announced that developers now have the ability to monetize their apps with video ads, display ads, and native ads using Yahoo Gemini, BrightRoll, and Flurry. These are the same tools that Yahoo used to revamp their apps and they have seen a huge increase in their click-through rate and engagement, so it will be interesting to see how these tools translate from web to mobile.

Yahoo Search in Apps
This feature allows developers to integrate Yahoo Search into their apps. It improves experience by allowing users to search in the app instead of leaving the app to search. During the past few months Yahoo’s has seen an increase in retention and engagement with Search in apps, so we may see Yahoo coming back as a mobile search competitor, especially after users shared concerns about privacy and Google Chrome.

Yahoo App Marketing
Developers can now buy targeted native and video advertising across Yahoo’s network of 75 million monthly users with Yahoo Gemini’s native and mobile search marketplace, which could be a good opportunity to easily reach a broad audience.

To learn more check out www.developer.yahoo.com, or contact us here at Appency to get help with your own mobile advertising campaign.

Back in February, we blogged about how excited we were for Mobile App Europe, a new, app-exclusive weekend conference taking place in the heart of beautiful Potsdam. Now Mobile App Europe is less than one week away! The event will take place at the Dorint Hotel Sanssouci Potsdam from September 29 to October 1, 2014.

Appency is looking forward to attending and hearing what other experts in our field have to share, but we’re also proud to announce that our president, Aaron Watkins, will be speaking on the difference found marketing apps in Europe vs. the United States. With over ten years in the mobile industry and having worked with many European clients, Aaron brings his expertise to Potsdam to educate attendants about how to best take advantage of Europe’s attractive app market.

“The EU is a great place to launch an app—smaller countries mean smaller budgets are needed to achieve app rank, and they provide a good testing ground for apps before they attempt global reach,” Aaron says. His talk will cover some of these testing methods.

Beyond Aaron’s talk, some of Mobile App Europe’s keynote speakers include people from Google, AQuA, and Amazon Apps and Games. The conference offers six additional keynotes, 30 talks, and eight workshops. With conversations for app developers, managers, designers, and marketers, and testers, here are topics for discussion attendees can expect:

• Android vs. iOS Design: the Double Effort?!
• Phone Gap: How to Develop an App for All-Platforms
• Mobile Retargeting for App: Increase Revenue and win back Dormant App Users
• Apps without Borders: Making a Global App Network work for you
• Tackling Fragmentation in the App Industry

The final day of Mobile App Europe will be an all-day, hands-on tutorial session with Jonathan Kohl of Kohl Concepts, Inc. Jonathan will teach attendees how to create an overall great user experience, and vigorous discussion is more than welcome. This seasoned expert will show teams how to thoroughly integrate a mobile experience to replace the once-dominant web and PC user experience.

We hope you are as excited as we are. If you’d like to meet up during the conference, get in touch by leaving a comment, or email us at contactus@appency.com. If you’ve already started looking at registration, we’ve got you covered! Use the code “MobileApp” during registration for a discount rate.

Auf Wiedersehen! Wir sehen uns bei Mobile-App Europa!

(Goodbye! See you at Mobile App Europe!)

Get more apptastic details at the conference website, http://mobileappeurope.com/

Herzlich Willkommen in Berlin: A phrase mobile app managers, marketers, designers, developers, and enthusiasts will hear as they flock to Europe Mobile App Conference in Germany September 29th through October 1st.

Translation? Welcome to Berlin!

The event will be an all app-talk weekend extravaganza. Germany-based finance and IT consulting company, Díaz & Hilterscheid, will be hosting the conference for the first time. The workshops, keynotes, and networking will take place Dorint Hotel Sanssouci Potsdam in the heart of Germany’s capitol. Specifics on which mobile app community leaders and leading companies are still in the planning, so stay tuned.

Since there is still much to plan, Mobile App Europe invites app leaders with passion and wisdom to pass on to submit a speaking proposal. They also welcome ideas for keynotes and lectures. Proposals can be submitted on the conference website. The deadline for submissions is Friday, February 28th. Here’s what’s in store:

“During a series of lectures and keynotes with leading mobile app experts, you will learn about the different principles, models, strategies, methodologies, and best practices. Mobile App Europe will help you to make the world a better place with your perfect apps, ensuring happy customers.” – Díaz & Hilterscheid

Why are we excited for this at Appency?

Besides our crazy obsession with apps, the conference reflects the booming status of the app industry. As we’ve seen in the App Store, the market has become quite competitive, which is great! It gives app users more options and allows those gold-star ideas shine through the saturation. The Europe Mobile App Conference promises to give attendees the tools, networks, and inspiration for a competitive edge. If you’re still on the fence, here are some additional reasons to grab your passport and book your ticket:
• Learn what path the industry is moving towards
• Answer this question: What trends are currently trending?
• Capture the innovation and inspiration in the air
• Finally, a PR Agency’s favorite word – networking!

Sign up for the latest news on lectures, keynotes, and fun details on the conference website, Facebook, and Twitter. App leaders interested in presenting or pledging to sponsor may inquire within the same website. For now, notify your fellow app lovers and the start practicing your most commonly used German phrases in preparation for Europe Mobile App Conference 2014.

http://www.mobileappeurope.com/