🎤 MAU Vegas 2026 Recap: Why is MAU a must attend conference?

Yeah. So, all these conversations, you know, like you can have with them at MAU. Are you coming next year, Felix? 100%. Absolutely.
you should definitely come next year because it's moving from MGM Grand to Bellagio. So, it's from 4th to 6th of May, 2027. So, write this down, make yourself available because you have to be there. And I'm saying it again, you have to be there. It's a must-attend conference. It's literally insane.
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episode It's too many people because you guys are just rubbing salt in the wound that I missed MAU, so I asked you guys to do this little catch-up session for me cuz I was home taking care of my baby. Yeah, and also I mean, we did We haven't done this before for for any of the conferences.
out. No, it's not not that we're trying it out. It's like MAU at least it's very

close like that conference is very close to my heart as you might have noticed. I'm speaking about that conference for a long time and a lot. It's actually the best conference out there. And I think I was trying to find which year was it when I was there for first time. I think it was 2016. And it was actually before MGM. It was in the Hard Rock, which was a long time ago. Yes, that's No, I mean literally like it's going to be insane. It's going to be insane. Like it's about like halfway through. So, do you think that they're going to make it until next year? So, I said next year. Wow. I mean, there was a lot of lot of changes. Even I mean, even MGM Philly's, do you remember the fountain? Next to Yeah, it's not there anymore. There's no fountain. Yeah, there's no fountain. I mean, so I mean, also which like why this conference is very close to our hearts as well because we had the two and a half two and a half gamers gaming summit which was part of the kickoff sessions on Tuesday.

Because there is apparently a lot of people before MAU in town and there was pretty much nothing they could do. And two and a half gamers gaming summit did really well. We had almost 100 people which pretty much was 10x more than everybody else had. Now like jokes aside, I think there was 10 10 to 15 people on the other summits. Oh man, like this is This is how it actually look. Like just saying.
Wow. And this is how it how it looks now. Like this is like this is even higher now. Ooh. Wow. Yep. Yeah, we can see yeah yeah yeah. Okay, it's there. That's there.
Pretty cool. That is very cool. So, you know like how the whole like MAU was set up because I was talking about it all the time. But what is something that I heard even now after the MAU is like the MAU is the new GDC. I was talking to to Jeff about this from PVX partners and I think like it's it's it's very true. It's very very true. It's also like the definitely better vibe. There's no San

Francisco Yeah, no feces on the floor. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I mean always like it's all about the like mobile marketing I would say but look at Yacoub. He was thriving there. No no there was like still a lot of product. Like I think it's not that that like off that you say like you can talk to product people. You don't see product based talks. Okay, fair enough. That that's the thing. But product people are definitely there. So it's No, you had like look also you had Play Ventures there and a lot of investors which didn't happen before. Now there are like founders from like Upfront
Playmakers guys were also there. Yeah, Playmakers Fund. Upfront founders which I already said seven times.
[laughter]
Like the gaming
guys there Misha? Yeah, I think they were like a little bit like few of them. It was also interesting to compare the previous years because previously was way more about gaming and now it's way more about like

app founders not just apps and like in general marketing AI AI is definitely like always I mean everywhere everywhere we can't skip that but I think that our track or like the kick of summit was pretty much like majority of the gaming sessions you can I think it was actually very well received. What did you guys learn then? Well what learned what people learned from us that's the right question that's the right question. No because I mean I was I was talking [snorts] about the creatives and then I think the great session was like Nibo was talking about how to scale yeah it was really good session. How to talk how to scale like 10 years old plus games and he was talking about like the the measurement side of things which is actually very relevant to a lot of people because of seconding styles and re re install and re download all
that you can only get when you have like 10 year old game. Yeah exactly. Like how how do you approach it like these different cohorts and like how to kind of categorize them evaluate retention based kind of funnels based on you know

this is reengagement with your 10 year old game this is normal installs this is whatever secondary installs this is this this is that. So
Also he was following up on my creative talk which but from a very he thought it was like academic angle because you have the core audience which you are you usually using all the kind of game play oriented creatives and then he was like okay but then we we need to go broad because you already kind of used your core audience and bye-bye golden cohort and even golden cohort like plus few years and then you need to open up to mini games and then you open up but the mini games need to be very much implemented in the product so there's like very different kind of strategy there and then you open up to celebrities because they bring their audiences as well. So then you just like amazing. And then then my favorite session was actually Yacoob with Christina. And why? Because they showed like 17,000 examples. It's literally [laughter] Just creatives. Literally every slide was just creatives. And then like how to

implement this and that and how to choose mini games and fake ads and like if when it works and when it doesn't work. So that was really really cool.
Yeah, and then Christina actually shared the CPI and ROAS numbers. It's literally Christina, just name her for the listeners. Where does she work?
Yeah, Christina Larionova, the head of creative at BurningGames.
BurningGames, yeah. I liked Katya's talk, but it was so much AdMob deep that I was like Yeah.
Very deep. People were taking pictures every slide. [laughter] Yeah, of course. Katya, I have no idea what you're talking about. It's amazing. It was good. Yeah, but also Marion had a really good talk about the influencer marketing and also she said like so so many people came to came to her about the influencer marketing in general and she's going to be again having a solo talk on 2.5 gamers because that topic is very much underserved.
Yeah, there's no content on it. It's so like
such a great such a such such a great job. And whatnot. So yeah, overall I think

very big success. But then you go out of that kickoff summit and then it's like AI is pretty much everywhere. It's like every Yeah, yeah. I don't even remember how many AI creative companies I I met. Yeah, it's too many. So many. Which is I mean it's fine. You know like it's it's It's logical. It's logical. When I said also look guys, 70% of AI creative well, 70% of creatives are AI assisted by 37 entertainment, people like oh my god, like that's insane. That's where we are heading pretty much. So it's It's not the production like it's it's actually happening finally. So, again
So, basically prediction is coming. The AI creatives was the offer wall companies of last year. That's what I want to say like you had crypto, you have rewarded UA, now it's AI. Oh, but there's something cool. There's somewhere crypto and then it is and all this but now it's AI and now it's

agentic setup for UA. So, you're running everybody's running
agents. I mean, makes sense. They also made you UA senior mate skill in in cloud and it's scary good. It's scary good.
working on mine as well. Like, yeah, it's very handy. Yeah, I also have mine economy one. Yeah.
with my sheets. And also Misplay was sharing like some of the some of the recaps for for retention. I mean, retention retention is the new UA. Which we heard like 10 million times already. Whatever. But, I think what they were more like pitching was the kind of the loyalty programs they have. And we recorded we recorded a podcast with Massimo and Mark on the ground. It's going to be live on our own channel soon about how they bought my chips and how they're going to integrate and pretty much like all the all the fun stuff around it. And also like Mark was just

chatting chatty chatty bear talking all the time. I love it. I love it. What man? Also, the the parties were like quite big. Like, I think the what was the one that's called like MAU or nowhere party? MAU nowhere, yes. Biggest party I ever was in my life. In Corp Beach Club, man. It was like 5,000 people or how many? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And you know what who was the headliner? Two and a half gamers. Two and a half gamers. Cuz we had the VIP deck right in front of of the DJ, which was I saw that I saw that I saw that feature had a happier petting zoo. Inside of the MAU conference.
Yeah, there was Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw I saw I saw that, but there was also
Yeah, but during the whole few slow times, it was not like always there. Okay. So, when I saw that, I'm like, I think we're heading towards a crash.
[laughter]
I'm like

Let the good times roll. This is too much of a good We're definitely heading for a crash. Happier petting. I love it, though. I love it, though. Yeah, of course. I mean, also did and then the the the puppy petting as well. That was there also last year. Yeah, also also great thing that everything everything was so close compared to GDC, in my opinion. Like, it's just like Fairly close. Fairly close. Like, still It's in the one place, right? Like, expo expo and the conference halls are basically in one building. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then hotel and like everything is just like super close, so yeah. Compared to Moscow, it's like no nowhere near. Yeah, that's true. I mean from like the actual like content perspective, because we had we had brunch with Moloco, we had also happy hour with with FastSpring as well. And then like we're talking like what what's happening and then I think on on like during the brunch, people were like everyone everybody wants playables, but they have like people are just scared to

start producing them because it takes a lot of time and we don't know where to start. So, it's all always interesting, but it's on the budget, right? So, it's just They didn't know where to start. I mean, guys, like, you just go and just check my playable Bible. It's very easy. It's very very easy. It's like I have solutions for everything. I have solutions for everything. Who had the biggest booth this year, then? The AppsFlyer, Again. Yeah.
Yeah. They also announced like the the web measurement, which was interesting. So it's pretty much
Interesting. Yeah, it's web app, web to web, app to web, and all these like it's pretty much one flow, unified stuff, which is Yeah, I mean, that's tough. I'm hopeful. I'm I hope I can see under the hood what's what's there cooking because I want to use it. Cuz I have like like war stories from Pixel Federation when we were trying to do Um what was it? Po- Pixel portal train station kind of UA on

web with landing page, then to portal, and then it's like, "Okay, well, I need to track the person who came from landing page, multi-domain tracking." And it wasn't really working that well with Google Analytics. So, I hope this this can solve it. And looks like it can. Then I had a good good uh chat with Jeff from PVX Partners about like UA financing going mainstream. He was like, "Yeah, man, like you know, like I I had to explain like a year Yeah, a year ago like what the UA financing is." And everyone was like, "Now I know what you do." I was like, "Okay, well, where did you hear about us?" "Oh, well, I saw you on the Two and a Half Gamers podcast." I was like, "We were joking." And then next like next day he was like, "Man, like do you remember we were talking about this? Look, this happened after our chat." And they're like, "Hey, Jeff, I saw you on the Two and a Half Gamers podcast. Let's talk." This is amazing. This is great. But we discussed also like you UA financing going like deep

into the apps business as well because there's ton of apps and people want to scale. And this is not an ambush ad, this is just like fact. Such fact. You still need still need money to to go and then drive UA. And also, you know, what was interesting when we discussed with Addictiv, like they CTV business. Like that's growing like crazy. That must be probably also one of the fastest growing lucrative things that everyone who has a DSP is getting into it cuz like everyone who has a DSP is just so easy for them to just hop into it. So, is there any moat or defensibility there? Man, I don't know. They're just growing like crazy. There's TV Scientific which was bought by Pinterest and then there's Vibe and then there's Roku, I think, and like multiple others and then there is like the addictive. But you know, like you have remarketing as one pillar of your kind of business and then you have CTV suddenly which is growing like crazy. I mean, which is great.

And what about you, Yakov? How was the the product person there in the field of marketers? Yeah, I rolled nothing on the Roku stand and the guy in front of me in line literally won a TV. Really? If you [laughter] want to get get Fresh fresh take. But like a big TV? Yeah, literally like big screen TV. But yeah, it it was nice. Like lots of usual like the expo expo floor was nice. Everything as you said, petting zoo and stuff. So, I was running back-to-back with some meetings there or some meetings in the Starbucks in the lobby or or whatnot. So, that that was nice.
What So many people told me this is their first MAU. I was I was really surprised. I was really surprised.
from the pictures. Like a lot bigger than normal. Mhm. But what do you estimate there? Like 10K people? I that's what I would assume. I need to check with the strategic advisory board after we got group like regroup together after the MAU. Like what was like the actual attendance? But it felt really

big. Really and way big and it was 30% bigger than last year. That's what Angela said. Mhm. Okay.
And I mean, honestly like big kudos to the organizers. Angela did very good job and pretty much the ladies, Bianca as well, like organizing and orchestrating the whole a conference because it's not only this, but there were like founders house and like so many like small like activities, like not only the content itself, but these brain dates and kickoff summits obviously. I'm a little bit biased there, but still. I got to say Americans do know how to put on a good show.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was It was really well put together. It's a giant spectacle, like honestly. So,
Yeah, that's true. I mean, they don't know how to make any good like large gaming studios anymore, but god damn, they do put on a good conference.
did really well. No, but yeah, like kudos to the to the whole like Clarion Events team, like Angela and and Bianca especially because they they did a lot of stuff. Like for me, when I was talking to people, most of the stuff it was either

like this kind of a thing that we were talking with Chris on the stage, like this UA product-based funnel, like how to kind of, you know, execute it and fake ads and stuff, and fake ads from fake ads to AI ads because AI ads are like, Chris said, like triple-A fake ads, basically. So, to make sure. So, that that's there. That's everybody's interest. And the other one was of course this kind of a looming thing of like China taking over. That's like That's what again, because we spent so much time in Asia, it always comes to that at some point. So, we were talking and and people are still surprised when we talk about this with them that like people in China have like 200, 100 men creative and UA teams and like, "What?" Like, "Yes." That's what's been there for like years.
I had no idea, like yeah. I think it'll go mainstream like this year or next year, but like starting next year.
What do you mean? Mainstream knowledge will be in Yeah, in their knowledge, right? Like, sometimes now when you speak about it, like some people are like, I think it's still like a hard for people to admit because it's it's just like kind of, you know,

produces this depressing feeling that how can you compete then? Which again is the reality, honestly. But you can't, yeah, you can't really. So, yeah, we'll see. Like, this this is the thing that I always says to people like go full AI because AI is the only way to equalize manpower at least to a degree that you can kind of compete here. Like we see it with like many studios that we review on creative trends with AI AI trends there. It's like you have what 80% 90% of your creative portfolio done with AI. You can do that. Like you can do that even if you don't have 100 people. If you set up the the pipeline.
The pipeline, yeah. You need to have a workflow.
only chance to jump on this train. Otherwise Chinese going to get amplified by AI anyway. Exactly. That's what I was talking about. Like you set up a good like proper creative like AI workflow and then suddenly you can scale to hundreds of of creatives per per day or per week. Well, let's let's not go crazy per day but let's like per week. And that's a great starting point. That's very good.
You can at least you know you can at

least try to compete because for now you can't even compete. Yeah. So all these conversations, you know, like you can have them at MAU. So are you coming next year, Felix? 100%. Absolutely.
you should definitely come next year because it's moving from MGM Grand to Bellagio. So it's from 4th 4th to 6th of May 2027. So write this down, make yourself available because you have to be there and I'm saying it again, you have to be there. It's a must-attend conference. It's literally insane. I'm not talking about things like shooting from a tank or just helicopter rides and all like 7,000 parties by two and a half gamers at the same time. Why not? Why not? So like it's This is like a nice addition, but like the people are amazing, like willing to share. We are there always also willing to share.

Willing to share and yeah, that's pretty much like
we have this amazing feeling that you constantly walk through a casino all the time. Even at the airport gate, there's a casino right there. Oh yeah, welcome to Vegas, baby. Yeah. I think last year last year when I landed, I was flying from Santa Barbara to to Vegas, and we landed and like half of the half of the plane like, "Yeah, Vegas, baby. Let's [laughter] go. What's happening?" Anyway.
Great marketing. Great marketing, yes. Great marketing. But again, MAU, see you all there, guys. See you all there, absolutely worth it. Are you coming then, Felix, again? Last question. Yeah.
Yeah, I I just had a newborn, that otherwise I would totally would have come.
You should bring him to Vegas. Yeah. Few slots, never never heard of any baby, yeah. We need to teach them young.
[laughter]
Yeah, right. Ching. All right, dear listeners, this is this is was the recap. Again, see you see you there next year. If you need anything, let us know. And see you next time. Thank you very

much. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Ciao.