Relevance Talks: Christian Eckhardt (Customlytics)
Interview
In today's digital landscape, app marketing is crucial for businesses to engage customers effectively. However, its complexity demands specialized expertise that many traditional agencies lack.
Customlytics, a leading consultancy focused on mobile app marketing, has joined The Relevance Group (TRG), expanding its capabilities with data, technology, and automation expertise.
In this edition of our interview series "Relevance Talks", Christian Eckhardt (CEO, Customlytics) and our Group CEO Andreas Hannemann discuss Customlytics' role within TRG, the impact of AI on app marketing, data privacy challenges, and the future of mobile marketing—while exploring what makes marketing truly relevant today.
Christian, tell us: What does Customlytics do, what have you specialized in, and what is your mission?
Christian: Customlytics is a consultancy and service agency focused entirely on mobile apps and app marketing. While there are various providers for individual disciplines such as app store optimization or performance marketing, there are very few that cover the entire app marketing process from start to finish.
We founded Customlytics with the conviction that companies looking to successfully market their apps need a partner who understands both the strategic and technical aspects of app marketing. Many traditional marketing agencies either focus on creativity or performance, while we see our strength in combining technology, data, and marketing. Our goal is to help our clients not only launch their apps successfully but also to operate them profitably and continuously optimize them over time.
Andreas, TRG brings together companies with specialized expertise in data, insights, technology, automation, and monetization. Where does Customlytics fit into this ecosystem?
Andreas: Customlytics is an essential component for us because it fills one of the biggest gaps in the data-driven value chain—the mobile app space. We see that mobile usage has become the primary digital touchpoint for many companies. However, app marketing is highly specialized and technology-driven, making it difficult for traditional marketing agencies to handle.
Before working with Customlytics, TRG lacked specialized app expertise. It quickly became clear that this wasn’t something we could just "add on"—we needed true experts in the field. By bringing Customlytics into TRG, we have gained this expertise, which now allows us to offer our customers a complete end-to-end solution, covering everything from data analytics and CRM to app marketing and monetization.
What additional opportunities do customers now have by working with Customlytics as part of TRG?
Andreas: The key advantage for customers lies in the synergies within TRG. Customlytics is the app marketing expert, while other TRG companies contribute expertise in data, technology, and automation, enabling a holistic, data-driven approach to customer engagement. Instead of offering isolated services, we now provide an integrated solution, covering everything from data analysis and automation to creative execution.
Christian: Our role as app marketing specialists remains unchanged, but the opportunities for customers have expanded. In the past, we were often brought in as an additional service provider because larger agencies lacked app marketing expertise. Now, we can connect our specialized knowledge with TRG’s data, insights, and technology capabilities. For customers, this means more expertise, stronger synergies, and a more data-driven approach to app marketing.
Christian, how does app marketing fit into the broader concept of data-driven relevance?
Christian: In the past, marketing was often seen as intrusive—not because advertising itself was problematic, but because it often failed to align with users' actual needs.
If businesses want to be successful today, simply pouring money into digital channels is no longer enough. They need to understand customer behavior, recognize interests, and engage users at the right moment with the right messaging. Without a well-structured, data-driven strategy, marketing efforts become ineffective—especially in the app sector, where user expectations are incredibly high.
A good example is personalization: A bank could send a generic push notification to all its customers about a credit card offer. But by using data, it could recognize that a particular customer frequently travels abroad and instead offer them a travel credit card with relevant benefits. That’s the difference data-driven app marketing makes.
AI and automation are fundamentally transforming digital marketing. How does Customlytics use AI to enhance relevance?
Christian: There are two major areas where AI has a strong impact.
First, we use machine learning to optimize data-driven marketing. For example, AI helps us automatically detect which users are at risk of churning and allows us to engage them with personalized messages before they abandon the app. In performance marketing, we leverage AI to manage campaigns more efficiently and achieve better results through automated optimizations.
The second key area is generative AI, which plays a significant role in the creative process. AI enables us to automate the creation of ad creatives, generate multiple variations for A/B testing, and dynamically adapt content for different user segments. AI doesn’t replace creative professionals, but it massively accelerates processes and makes marketing execution more efficient.
What are the biggest challenges your customers are currently facing?
Christian: One of the most pressing challenges is data privacy. With Apple’s ATT framework and stricter European privacy regulations, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for companies to track user behavior and optimize their marketing strategies.
Our answer to this is a First-Party Data Strategy: Instead of relying on external data sources, companies must leverage their own data effectively. This means adjusting tracking infrastructure, prioritizing CRM and retention, and refining data-driven decision-making.
Andreas: Data privacy is important, but we need to approach it in a more pragmatic and user-friendly way. Today's cookie banners are a prime example of how not to do it—most users just click them away without really understanding what they are agreeing to.
The right approach would be: Simple and clear options for the user. More control for the end customer without overwhelming them with unnecessary clicks. And a focus on meaningful data usage rather than purely technical restrictions.
What common goals do you have for the future?
Andreas: At TRG, our goal is to create an ecosystem where data-driven marketing is seamlessly integrated across all areas—and mobile plays a key role in this vision. We want businesses to work with one unified partner rather than having to manage multiple separate agencies.
Christian: For Customlytics, this means deepening our collaboration with other TRG companies to build stronger synergies. More businesses need to understand that app marketing isn’t just about acquiring downloads—it’s about long-term customer engagement.
Andreas: Looking further ahead, we also anticipate changes in how apps are used. Mobile usage will remain dominant, but whether native apps continue to be the main platform is uncertain. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and other new technologies might take over. The key is to stay adaptable and future-focused.
Final question: Christian, what does relevance mean to you?
Christian: Relevance means that marketing is not disruptive, but rather genuinely valuable to the customer. The future of marketing is not about more ads—it’s about better ads. Communication should be timely, personalized, and delivered through the right channel.
We live in a time where irrelevant marketing is not just ineffective—it’s damaging. The challenge is to leverage technology and data so that customer interactions feel helpful, not intrusive. That’s what relevance is all about.
