Interview with Founder and CEO, Kochava – Charles Manning

 

“As technology continues to transform and evolve at a rapid pace, so do the roles and responsibilities of marketing decision-makers “

1. Tell us about your role in Kochava?
I am the Founder and CEO of Kochava. In 2011, I started the company after having seen an overriding need and demand in the adtech space to better understand the feedback loop of user acquisition, engagement, and LTV for mobile applications. Through the process of creating apps for customers from a wide range of industries, we were repeatedly asked if we could shed some light on which media advertising efforts were converting and the effectiveness of their mobile ad spend by partner. Realizing a solution to these questions wasn’t readily available, we started designing and building a mobile measurement platform that would become Kochava. Since that time, we’ve evolved beyond being simply an ‘attribution company.’ Instead we are a real-time data systems company that innovates on behalf of enterprise brands. Attribution is a symptom of who we are, not a definition. With this approach, in our short seven-year history, we’ve done amazing things and disrupted A LOT.

2. Can you tell us about your journey into this market?
Early in my career, I was at Oracle where I had a great opportunity to drive a variety of emerging technology projects at a young age. For nearly 20 years now I have been creating technologies that use data for system optimization, ranging from business service management (BSM) to information technology (IT) to attribution analytics, and most recently blockchain. I’ve also held C-level positions at M-Code and Managed Objects. I moved on to starting a new company called PLAYXPERT, which started as a gaming technology platform. After licensing the PLAYXPERT technology to Razer, I built a team that focused its time on building engagement platforms for entrepreneurs and agencies. Upon realizing that there were no standard platforms providing effective attribution or post-install analytics in mobile, we built one, and Kochava was born. The Kochava technology is now integrated with more than 3,500 networks and publishers and is trusted by hundreds of brands including the biggest names in mobile gaming, news and media, and consumer goods.

3. How do you think technology is upgrading marketing Sector?

As technology continues to transform and evolve at a rapid pace, so do the roles and responsibilities of marketing decision-makers.

Driven by data insights on how to improve and better understand engagement with the consumer, technology is enabling brands to deepen relationships with their customers.

4. How has the introduction of smartphones enhanced the functions of marketing?
Connected devices have revolutionized the consumers’ path to purchase and how marketers reach and incentivize their customers. The proliferation of these connected platforms on the customer journey delivers on the promise of “anytime, anywhere” allowing marketers to be contextual, relevant, and consistent across every touch point.

5. How do you define your consent management solution?
Kochava has taken privacy regulation very seriously, and provides our Intelligent Consent Management solution to our customers so that they can comply with privacy rules in interacting with their customers. It’s been a little over a year since GDPR went into effect, and now we are very close to seeing the release of CCPA. We monitor and evaluate these developing regulations because it’s not uncommon for them to add overlapping complications, particularly for companies with global reach. We will continue to provide the most up-to-date turn-key solutions to help our customers respect and protect data privacy.

6. How has your partnership with Intent IQ benefitted your customers?
Intent IQ as a data partner to the Kochava Collective, the largest independent mobile data marketplace, by volume, has been an invaluable addition of audience insights across devices to our customers. With more than 7 billion unique mobile devices and a rich device graph, the Kochava Collective provides a wealth of user data to help marketers better understand and engage their audience. It also boasts more than 200 million web-to-device pairs. Through our partnership with Intent IQ we can now provide our customer with added audience insights not readily available to them on major advertising platforms. With this enhanced user identity, marketers can better understand and engage with their intended audience.

7. What are your predictions about the future of mobile marketing?
As consumers accelerate their use of mobile technology on their path to purchase, companies must embrace ways to create new customer experiences and new business opportunities across these connected devices. This will enable businesses to deepen the customer relationship by linking marketing campaigns and offers to past customer behavior, leading to exciting new mobile-driven opportunities.

8. What advice would you like to give to the technology Start Ups?
Never stop innovating.

9. What is the Digital innovation in sales technology according to you that will mark 2019?
The continued innovation around tools for sales development reps – to drive leads and meetings for sellers. The combination of email drip tools, combined with contact insight tools, and pipeline lifecycle tools – are all changing the way sellers get deals engaged in the enterprise and it’s pretty exciting.

10. How do you prepare for an AI-Centric world?
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are responsible for a constant stream of innovation and disruption in the way organizations operate. Companies need to prepare for this future now in order to not be left behind. AI requires an openness to the technological changes and requires a team effort, which necessitates organizations build a culture of trust and collaboration, to foster positive attitudes toward AI adoption.

11. What are the major developments you are planning, in recent time?
It’s been quite an exciting year at Kochava. Recently we opened a new office in Tokyo to further fuel our growth in the APAC region. We continue to drive market leadership in our fraud mitigation solutions as fraud remains the largest issue in the adtech industry at a staggering $50 billion a year now. We’ve incorporated the application of blockchain protocols for digital advertising via XCHNG, as well as a vast array of exciting new partnerships including TV / Mobile measurement via our partnership with Simulmedia, OOH Measurement at scale via our partnership with Cuebiq, and, as previously mentioned, our partnership with Intent IQ.

There are many more developments on the horizon as we head into 2020, and we look forward to sharing this news with you.

12. Can you tell us about your team and how it supports you?
I couldn’t be more proud of our team and the vibrant, passionate culture we’ve fostered at Kochava over the past seven years. Our dedicated team of pioneering professionals are relentless in their pursuit of excellence and, as importantly, have fun while they work. When I chose northern Idaho as our corporate headquarters it was met with much resistance from the typical tech world of Silicon Valley as I’m sure you can imagine. In the end though our mission was to create a company and team who wanted a better quality of life than what is afforded for most in major tech markets. We support each other; our team is one of our greatest assets.

13. What movie inspires you the most?
One of my favorite movies is Braveheart. A few key themes that resonate for me include 1.) the conviction of a leader, 2.) the comradery of a team that shares a common belief and who fight-to-win together, and the notion that if you believe in something, even failure is a success.

14. Can you give us a glance of the applications you use on your phone
I have a lot – but I regularly only use the following
– Expected
– LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Maps
– Home Automation
– Savant, Lutron, Hydrawise, MyQ
– Streaming/Content
– HBO, Showtime, Hulu, WSJ