Marcelo Ballestiero is the CEO at Libring Technologies. At Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on September 11-12 he'll be part of a panel discussing gold standards for acquisition and retention.

Click here to get more info on the show and to buy your tickets.

Ballestiero has more than 20 years of experience in Data Analytics and has founded several successful technology companies all over the world.

After receiving his Masters in Innovation and Leadership at MIT, he decided to create Libring, a platform to help marketers and game analysts understand their overall monetisation performance and boost their results.

Among its clientele are Zynga, SEGA, Next Games, Futureplay, Ubisoft, EA, among other great game companies around the globe.

PocketGamer.biz: What do you think have been the most exciting developments in gaming since the last Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki?

Marcelo Ballestiero: From an ad monetisation perspective, more and more game companies are adopting rewarded video ads to grow their revenue while keeping their players engaged.

With mobile devices playing a key role in users’ lives, it is no accident that mobile advertising is driving most ad spending growth worldwide.

We’ve seen some of our customers transitioning from an interstitial ad format to rewarded ads while increasing the number of ads and CPMs without losing retention.

In fact, with the data that we provide, our users can easily figure out the number of ads a player is willing to watch and place them in a slot that ensures optimum monetisation and engagement.

In terms of new developments, I would highlight the increase in the number of PC and console games getting ported to mobile devices successfully.

What are your thoughts on the way the industry has grown in the last 12 months?

The mobile game industry has been contributing to the high growth rate of mobile device use and is attracting more ad dollars from top brands that seek to connect with a global gaming audience.

We’ve seen game developers less reluctant to place ads in their games and adopting hybrid monetisation strategies (in-app purchases and ads).

Those who focus on giving their players a better game experience with in-game ads and have a data-driven approach are reporting growth.

What do you think the next 12 months in mobile gaming are going to look like?

I believe more game publishers will be concerned about gathering better data to improve the value of their ad inventory.

Topics such as transparency, ad fraud, AI and predictive analytics will be recurrent in 2019.

Transparency goes without saying: the more complex the industry, the more the need for transparency becomes obvious.

AI and predictive analytics can help in creating better and more effective ads and get rid of irrelevant ads that push consumers to use ad blockers.

Looking ahead, I believe we’ll see more competitive mobile gaming (like esports) out there, and mobile online gaming growing as well.

When people see games played at a professional level, many viewers tend to want to pick up and play the game shown on screen.

For example, Clash Royale has been one of the highest played games on the mobile market, but only very recently has it broken into the esports scene.

With trends like this on the rise, mobile games will have newer players, more downloads, and a bigger potential for growth in their mobile downloads as a whole.

As a result, more brands will be advertising on games.

Which part of Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki are you most looking forward to and why?

Well, it’s my first time attending PGC Helsinki and I’m very excited! Helsinki has an amazing game community that I can’t wait to connect with.

Besides, we have great customers in Finland, such as Next Games and Futureplay.

As a data guy, I’m looking forward to hearing how game companies are using data to optimise their results (hopefully the majority has a data-driven strategy implemented by now) and new trends in game monetisation.

About Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki

In a few short weeks the whole mobile gaming industry is set to descend on Helsinki for Pocket Gamer Connects. The event, which runs from September 11th to 12th, is packed full of talks, tracks, networking opportunities, and more. You can read about the full conference schedule here.

There are still tickets available for the show, and if you click this link right here you'll get all the information you need on how to buy them, and what's going to be happening in Helsinki over the two days.