Applications
Ad it your way as creative variety beats Star Power in new Appsflyer report
MUMBAI: Turns out, your next great ad might need less movie magic and more messy tutorials. The 2025 edition of Appsflyer’s State of Creative Optimization report is here, and it’s throwing a curveball at every coin-flipping, celeb-splurging marketer in mobile advertising. Based on a whopping 1.1 million video creatives across 1,300 apps, the report reveals a shifting tide in what actually drives engagement, retention, and ROI and it’s not always the obvious crowd-pullers.
While top-performing creatives still rake in serious budgets (53 per cent of gaming ad spend comes from just 2 per cent of creatives), the tide is turning. In Non-Gaming, that figure drops to 43 per cent, signalling a broader pivot toward creative diversity and fatigue-fighting variety. Non-Gaming apps, especially, are turning up the volume clocking an 18 per cent year-on-year surge in creative output and even outpacing Gaming’s growth by 80 per cent.
“We’re seeing a clear shift in creative strategy, with marketers not just scaling top performers, but scaling variety,” said Appsflyer director of product gaming Adam Smart. “In Gaming, high spenders still dominate production, with apps spending 7M plus dollars per quarter to generate nearly 3x more creatives than those in the $4-$7M range. But in Non-Gaming, growth is more evenly distributed across tiers, suggesting creative scale is no longer just for the biggest players but that it’s becoming a strategic imperative for everyone.”
But perhaps the biggest shocker? Celebrity ads aren’t always the crown jewel. While movie stars bag over 80 per cent of celebrity ad spend, it’s TV stars and music artists who lead on performance metrics. In Gaming, TV personalities delivered 2x the IPM (Installs per 1,000 Impressions) of movie stars, while music-led ads generated 50 per cent higher Day 7 user retention, all on a fraction of the budget.
The data also drops some sharp truths about formats. In both Finance and Social Media apps, UGC tutorials and review-style content outperformed testimonials on every key metric. Finance-focused tutorial ads saw 37 per cent higher retention, while Social tutorials brought in 45 per cent more installs and 17 per cent better retention yet both formats continue to receive less spend.
Emotion-driven narratives are also punching above their budget. “Failure-to-Success” arcs in Hypercasual games produced a whopping 78 per cent higher IPM, while receiving 40 per cent less spend than standard “Success” stories. The same applies to Challenge and Competition narratives in casual and mid-core games high retention, low attention from marketers.
For Dating apps, sincerity wins. “Serious relationship” creatives outperform “casual” ones by 15 per cent, despite fewer appearances. Meanwhile, GenAI apps found success in flashy transformations (think before-and-after edits), but those fizzled fast, delivering strong IPM but the lowest Day 7 retention. UGC testimonials in this space delivered 36 per cent better retention, proving that substance still trumps sizzle.
And then there’s storytelling in Social, a hidden hero. Despite making up just 6 per cent of total ad spend, ads with narrative arcs and emotional hooks achieved the highest Day 7 retention at 8.4 per cent. Social proof-based ads followed closely, especially when aligned with trending content.
AppsFlyer’s global dataset, covering 2.4 billion dollars in ad spend between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025, makes one thing clear: Creative impact isn’t just about who shouts loudest, it’s about who resonates longest.
So as marketers look to optimise for attention, it may be time to ditch the glitz and embrace the grit because in the age of creative overload, real, relatable, and resonant might just be the most powerful ad currency of all.
Applications
With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
