Airship Acquires Apptimize to Sharpen Mobile Marketing Experiences

Airship, the customer engagement company formerly known as Urban Airship that helps brands connect with customers on mobile, has acquired Apptimize, which specializes in testing digital and especially mobile user experiences.

Airship rebranded to emphasize its shift from push notifications to a broader suite of messaging tools. Apptimize will help its clients iterate across channels and solutions as they attempt to find the best way to reach customers flooded with marketing and other kinds of media.

“Customer expectations are rising and attention spans shortening. As more apps hit the market and jockey for screen time, only the fittest apps survive,” Airship SVP of Marketing Mike Stone wrote to Street Fight. “Our data clearly shows that consumers use apps when they have a clear purpose and benefit to them. It seems every brand and business has its own app today, but they often don’t serve a unique purpose for the customer, nor do they truly take advantage of the mobile context in which they are used.”

With Apptimize in its corner, Airship hopes to be better positioned to help brands take advantage of that context and build out a distinctive purpose for the user experiences they offer.

“Adopting a mentality of continuous testing has already proven to benefit brands,” Stone wrote. “Apptimize has data that shows that their customers grow 4.2X faster by embracing a testing mentality, compared to apps that don’t experiment.”