Mobile Analytics: Medialets CEO Eric Litman

Now, one thing that I do love is a challenge. So when Rana Sobhany VP Marketing at Medialets sent me an email, she managed to spark my interest. How? Well, she congratulated me on my work on mobile analytics and then said I am “missing a significant chunk of the direction.. including native application measurement”.

So, as per her request I got on the phone to the CEO of Medialets Eric Litman to find out more.

The call tool place slightly late and because I knew that my two children would burst through the door in 20 minutes I tried to go as fast as possible. It is a shame really as Eric and Rana both have very loud voices and I could tell that they were enjoying what they did. To avoid asking what star signs they both were – I kept on track and ran a tight interview.

Bena: Hi. Nice to meet you – I have prepared four questions so lets make this quick and upbeat. Can we start Eric, with a 30 second overview of what Medialets does.

Eric: Medialets is a creative ad network for native applications on mobile devices such as the iPhone or Android and all mobile platforms. We measure the audience and provide results using advertising.

Bena: So you are a mobile advertising company?
Eric: We do offer mobile advertising and we do provide metrics. But the metrics we provide are made for applications. Our aim is to offer a baseline development services providing metrics for data. Mobile developers have never had this kind of data.

Bena: Yes – I took a look at some screenshots it looks like you have copied Google analytics.

Eric: Google analytics was a comfort zone and a starting point. Our services are a lot richer now and I can provide you with some screen shots. We used the Google model to introduce our services on the market but moving forward we can provide richer user interfaces for all data and metrics.

Bena: Sorry If I sound stupid but then  are you an in application ad provider primarily like ***** or ****.

Eric: No. In confidence (the companies you mentioned that is why they are not named above) are the cherry on the top of the cake. Our competitor is Admob.

Bena: So you put the adcode in the advertising and then track or monitor the service.

Eric: But because we are in the native application – iphone, symbian or Android we can provide richer analytics. Not only can we measure the audience we track exactly where user have come in or left or engaged (or not) with the application.

Bena: So, instead of knowing merely about the user clicked on the app – I will know how many users left the application or didn’t make it to the next level (and quit). So by knowing where the difficult bits are in the game or service or if there is a trend – where people are losing interest – I can work from it.

Eric: Exactly.

Bena: OK, so we have triggers of information or encouragement features in the application to help people to continue or to drive greater interest.

Eric: We know significantly more that say an AdMob. We go beyond the user and we go to specific behaviours. We know if they use and application once or never or five times and offer full customer behaviour tracking.

Bena: OK, I got it. It sounds interesting. So what about the ad network?

Eric: Well we provide mobile advertising too for the applications. Our aim is to build not just an ad network but a lasting sustainable relationship with developers forging the partnerships and value for all mobile applications.

Bena: So, you push advertising and deliver analytics?

Eric: We are equally pushing both of those tracks.

Bena: Do you make the creative or consult on applications with developers or brands?

Eric: We work with brands and media agencies and creative agencies.

Bena: OK. I think I got the value add and the solution – anything else you think that I should know?

Eric: One key point is that the mobile application space is very different from the mobile web space it is richer and more robust. Running Tetris on the desktop is not like running Tetris on the mobile browser and because of those differences the approach to brands – we are learning and improving and delivering daily.

This is a young market with huge opportunities and we have spent a long time finding the right products for our services. These services are native application eco-systems and that is what we are focused on.

Bena: Rana, thanks for finding me. Eric, thank-you very much!