Introduction to the Branding Guide
Most mobile marketers we talk to have the same quiet observation in 2026: the channels they’ve always used for brand-building have stopped feeling premium. Feeds are crowded. Brand-safety is uncertain. Trust is uneven. And meanwhile, the screen people actually pay attention to (the one in their hand) has gone almost untouched as a branding surface.
That’s the gap our new guide is built around.
Today we’re releasing the Mobile OEM Branding Guide, a free, practical framework for marketers who want to build brand presence on-device. You can grab it here.
Key Takeaways
- On-device branding now sits closer to users than feed-based formats, in environments people genuinely trust.
- Each OEM placement has a job: lockscreen for reach, splash for storytelling, newsfeed for discovery, push for action.
- Branding measured like performance loses every time. The guide lays out a three-layer framework instead.
- Real proof: 26M impressions and a 34% recall lift from one campaign across South Asia and SEA.
- Free to read. Practical from page one.
Why We Wrote It
We’ve spent years helping mobile teams run OEM campaigns. For most of that time, the question was about user acquisition: lower CPI, better retention, scale into new markets. Over the last 12 to 18 months, the question has shifted. More teams are asking us how to use OEM placements for branding (awareness, recall, preference, and trust), particularly in categories where credibility matters as much as visibility.
We saw the same patterns repeating across briefs: confusion about which placements do which jobs, a tendency to measure branding using performance KPIs (and then conclude branding “didn’t work”), and a gap between teams who saw OEM as a UA lever and teams who saw it as a brand one.
The guide is our attempt to close that gap.
What’s Inside
- Why on-device branding works in 2026, and what makes it different from in-app or browser-based brand placements.
- What OEM advertising actually delivers: native visibility, first-party audiences, premium brand-safe environments, and reach in mobile-first growth markets.
- How brands show up on-device (lockscreen, splash, newsfeed/native, and push) and the role each plays in the funnel.
- Who OEM branding works best for and the moments it works best in (launches, market entries, seasonal pushes, regulated categories).
- A practical framework for setting up campaigns: defining the job, choosing markets and partners, adapting creatives, refreshing before fatigue, and avoiding common mistakes.
- A measurement framework built around three layers (awareness, engagement, and business impact) including brand lift, search uplift, and CPA trend improvement.
- Two anchor case studies. BingoPlus delivered 106M+ impressions and a 1.02% CTR on Xiaomi, with Huawei hitting 2.63%. A leading FMCG brand delivered 26M impressions, ~5x the category benchmark on CTR, and a 34% brand recall lift.
Who It’s For
If you sit anywhere on a mobile growth team (UA, brand, comms, performance, or product marketing) the guide should be useful. It’s especially relevant if you’re working on a launch, entering a new market, building trust in a regulated category, or trying to make the rest of your funnel work harder.
It’s deliberately practical. We’ve cut anything that didn’t pass the “would I actually use this?” test. The whole guide is short on purpose.
How to Read It
Start with Section 4 if you want a fast orientation on the placements themselves. Start with Section 6 if you’re already running OEM and want to sharpen execution. Start with Section 7 if measurement is the conversation you keep losing inside your business.
Get the Guide
Read the Mobile OEM Branding Guide.
Tell us what lands and what doesn’t. The next edition will be sharper because of it.
About the Author
