The Prosperous Society is a podcast series by Mobile Dev Memo that articulates an AI Bull Thesis for the digital economy. It argues that the pervasive application of AI to the digital economy will be broadly economically expansionary, leading to increased individual prosperity, expanded consumer choice, and greater human agency.

In Episode 2, I argue that the Western political economy treats commerce as a primary mechanism of individual expression, and that artificial intelligence has the capacity to make commerce more expressive as an outward representation of the individual. In this way, the personalization promise of AI should be embraced and amplified, and applications of AI that subsume commerce, or treat it as a chore, are misaligned with the core benefits of AI. By contrast, advertising aligns incentives, incorporates private value through bids, and scales across heterogeneous products and margins, making it the more durable and effective model for product discovery in an AI-driven economy.

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Felix The, SVP of Product and Engineering - Advertising at Unity, to discuss the inner workings of Unity's Vector product and the strategic integration of engine-level data into the advertising ecosystem. We explore how Unity is rebuilding its machine learning infrastructure to provide more granular predictions and better performance for mobile gaming advertisers. Among other things, we discuss:

• How the integration of real-time game engine signals can improve user acquisition performance for mobile game advertisers
• Why the shift toward massive unified models represents a fundamental departure from the traditional fragmented approach to machine learning
• Whether the use of runtime data provides a decisive competitive advantage over traditional software development kit signals for predictive modeling
• What the transition from manual creative production to generative exploration means for the long-term sustainability of performance marketing budgets
• If the ability to test core gameplay loops through playables before full development can significantly reduce traditional soft launch risk
• How personalized creative units tailored to micro-cohorts will solve the persistent challenge of declining engagement in broad audience targeting

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back
• Voyantis. Voyantis uses predictive AI to transform customer value into high-impact signals that boost ROAS across Google, Meta, and more.

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Christina Augustine, the COO of Bloomreach, to discuss the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-enabled personalization in digital marketing and e-commerce. We explore how the shift from predictive models to generative agents is fundamentally changing how brands interact with consumers across multiple touchpoints. Among other things, we discuss:

• How agentic commerce tools will redefine the traditional customer journey beyond simple search and browse functions
• Whether real-time behavioral signals can replace static cohort-based segmentation for truly individualized marketing
• What role Answer Engine Optimization will play in the future of organic discovery as search habits shift
• Why data quality remains the primary bottleneck for brands attempting to deploy sophisticated AI personalization at scale
• If conversational shopping interfaces can significantly reduce product return rates by improving consumer purchase confidence
• How marketers should balance the high cost of personalized SMS with the broader reach of email campaigns
• When the industry will transition from defensive data siloing to a more integrated cross-channel signal environment

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Michael Komasinski, the CEO of Criteo, to explore the rapidly evolving landscape of agentic commerce and the critical role of recommendation systems in the AI era. We delve into how Criteo is positioning itself as a commerce intelligence layer for AI assistants and the technical distinctions between large language models and purpose-built recommendation engines. Among other things, we discuss:

• Criteo's recently announced advertising partnership with OpenAI
• Whether agentic commerce will transition from assisted shopping to fully autonomous purchase decisions without human oversight
• How recommendation systems based on purchase data outperform large language models in providing accurate product discovery
• If retailers will eventually trust AI agents to manage complex fulfillment and brand trust in conversational environments
• Why the integration of semantic language models and high-volume reward algorithms defines the future of digital commerce
• Criteo GO, Criteo's automated advertising platform
• How the partnership between specialized advertising technology and generative AI platforms will reshape the global discovery layer

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Joost van Dreunen, the CEO of Aldora, an adjunct professor at NYU, and the author of the SuperJoost Playlist blog as well as the book One Up.

We dive into the profound impact of generative artificial intelligence on the video game industry, exploring the immediate market reactions to new tools and the long-term implications for creative production. Among other things, we discuss:

• How generative AI models like Google's Genie will actually transform the fundamental mechanics of interactive game engines
• Why public markets reacted so aggressively to experimental AI tools by devaluing established gaming and advertising stocks
• Whether the reduction of production costs through AI will lead to a surplus of mediocre content for consumers
• If game companies are making a mistake by prioritizing technical metrics over the cultural and creative aspects of development
• What happens to the cost of gaming hardware when AI companies compete for the same high-end chipsets and resources
• How a move toward smaller, local language models could eventually disrupt the institutional power of large technology corporations
• When the focus will shift from simple cost efficiency to utilizing AI for creating genuinely new consumer demand

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Prosperous Society is a podcast series by Mobile Dev Memo that articulates an AI Bull Thesis for the digital economy. It argues that the pervasive application of AI to the digital economy will be broadly economically expansionary, leading to increased individual prosperity, expanded consumer choice, and greater human agency.

In Episode 1, I argue that AI production tools will catalyze dramatic growth in output, rendering content distribution as the primary binding constraint for commercial traction. This will accelerate growth in total digital advertising spend in support of product discovery and result in a proliferation of free software, more relevant ads, and higher levels of value offered to consumers through digital experiences.

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify

In the latest installment of the MDM Mailbag series, I speak with Matej Lancaric, a well-known mobile gaming user acquisition consultant, a co-host of the two & a half gamers podcast, and the author of the Brutally Honest blog.

As a reminder: MDM Mailbag episodes center on a guest Q&A, with questions sourced directly from the MDM community.

Matej and I discuss a wide variety of topics over the course of our conversation, including:

• Creative strategy, including Matej's recent primer on integrating AI tools into the creative production process
• Web onboarding and web-based user acquisition for mobile games
• The analytics and reporting tools Matej sees used most commonly
• Approaches to competitor analysis
• The current mobile gaming conference landscape and which conferences Matej considers to be "can't miss."

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify

In this episode of the podcast, I discuss the long-term effects of brand advertising with Carl Mela and Ross Link.

Carl Mela is the T. Austin Finch Foundation Professor of Business Administration at Duke University and one of the leading academics in the field of quantitative marketing and consumer choice. Ross Link is the CEO of Marketing Attribution, having previously served as the President of Global Marketing ROI Solutions at Nielsen. Carl and Ross provide a balanced perspective on brand marketing and measurement from both academic and industry lenses.

Among other things, our discussion covers:

• What firms get wrong about brand measurement, both from an analytical and a conceptual standpoint
• The most common internal political issues that Ross sees arise around marketing measurement within organizations
• The non-obvious stakeholders for marketing measurement within an organization
• How marketing teams can implement the two brand-performance measures that Carl introduced in his seminal Harvard Business Review piece, If Brands Are Built Over Years, Why Are They Managed Over Quarters?
• The differences in approaches to marketing measurement taken across verticals for successful companies
• The benefits and drawbacks of the various established methods of measuring long-term marketing effects 
• The tools available to a CMO to make the case for the long-term effects of brand advertising for a nascent brand

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify

My guest on this week's episode of the podcast is Rishabh Jain, the CEO and co-founder of FERMÀT Commerce, an eCommerce advertising optimization platform. I invited Rishabh back to the podcast to discuss OpenAI's recent announcement that it will bring advertising to ChatGPT.

Among other things, we cover:

• The commercial potential for ads in ChatGPT.
• OpenAI's decision to launch ChatGPT ads essentially as a "brand unit," with CPM pricing and little targeting or measurement functionality.
• How quickly ChatGPT advertising is likely to evolve past its launch form.
• What success looks like for ChatGPT advertising in one year's time.

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify

My guest on this episode of the podcast is Karl Stillner, the CEO and co-founder of BrightCanary, an app that allows parents to glean insights from their children's digital activities. Note that I am an investor in BrightCanary through Heracles Capital.

In this podcast, we discuss the challenge of protecting children from digital harm. Among other topics, we cover:

1. The concerns that parents face in the current digital landscape
2. The specific issues that arise with teens' use of social media
3. The tools that parents have to manage the risks faced by their children from digital products
4. Whether being too restrictive as a parent with digital products is a genuine risk
5. How active US regulators have been in creating digital protections for children
6. Whether any consensus exists around the "right age" for a child to be given a smartphone

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

My guest on this week's episode of the podcast is Alfred Succer, the founder of Nova Nuggets, which provides private, end-to-end secure operating environments for AI applications.

The topic of our conversation is sovereign AI, or the importance of controlling the environment on which AI-based applications, but especially chatbots, operate. Among other things, we discuss:

• The definition of a sovereign AI system
• The privacy vulnerabilities inherent in web-scale LLMs
• The purpose of hosting an LLM on-premises or within a company's own data environment
• The use cases that most necessitate private model training or hosting
• The cost profile of private model hosting and training
• The liabilities that companies face in sending sensitive data to publicly-accessible LLMs in their workflows

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

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