Eighteen years is a long time in any industry. In mobile, it feels like several lifetimes.
Yodel Mobile was founded in 2007, just four months before the first iPhone launched. At the time, smartphones were still a novelty, app stores didn’t exist in the form we know today, and nobody could have predicted quite how central mobile would become to the way we shop, travel, bank, learn, communicate and entertain ourselves.
Since then, almost everything about the mobile landscape has changed.
So have we.
From a three-person mobile marketing agency to a full-service app growth partner, we’ve spent the past 18 years helping ambitious brands launch, scale and evolve their apps. Along the way, we’ve grown our expertise, welcomed a lot of brilliant people through our doors and worked with some incredible businesses.
As we celebrate our 18th birthday, we wanted to look back at some of the moments, and, more importantly, the people, that got us here.
It started with three people
Yodel Mobile began in 2007 with a team of just three.
There was no grand 18-year masterplan. As our CEO Mick Rigby puts it:
“When we launched, I never really thought about the future. I suppose, just like youngsters do, I was just excited about everything and lived day-to-day.”
That makes the timing of Yodel Mobile’s launch all the more remarkable. We were starting out just as the foundations of an entirely new industry were being laid.
By 2012, we had delivered 10 million downloads for our clients.
In 2015, we launched our App Store Optimisation services, recognising that how people discovered apps was becoming just as important as how brands acquired users through paid channels.
Two years later came First to Market, the framework that would go on to become the Infinite App Growth Loop: our way of looking beyond individual channels and thinking about app growth as an interconnected journey.
And in 2018, our team reached double figures for the first time.
Those milestones only tell part of the story, though.
Growing as the app industry grew
If you look back at mobile marketing in 2007 and compare it with where we are today, the difference is extraordinary.
We’ve moved from an era dominated by downloads to one where brands need to think about the entire user lifecycle: discovery, acquisition, conversion, retention, engagement and long-term value.
App Store Optimisation has evolved from keyword optimisation into an increasingly sophisticated growth discipline. Paid acquisition has been transformed by privacy changes, automation and machine learning. Creative has become a performance lever in its own right. And the places where people discover apps now stretch far beyond the app stores.
Today, AI is changing that landscape again.
Yodel Mobile has evolved with it. Our work now brings together expertise across App Store Optimisation, paid user acquisition, retention and engagement, creative, strategy and AI visibility.
But while the channels and technology have changed dramatically, the principle behind what we do hasn’t: help brands understand where their growth opportunities are and build a strategy that turns those opportunities into results.
Some pretty brilliant company along the way
One of the best things about looking back over 18 years is remembering just how many brands have been part of the story.
Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to work with businesses including B&Q, Tinder, John Lewis, TUI, Skyscanner, Zigzag, Confused.com, Global Player, Yodel Delivery, Hinge and many more.
Some relationships have lasted years. Others have been for a particular growth challenge or moment in a brand’s journey.
All of them have played a part in shaping our thinking, challenging our teams and pushing us to keep evolving what great app marketing looks like.
For Mick, some of those earliest relationships remain particularly memorable:
“Firstly, the clients that took a chance on us in the early days. There are a number I owe thanks to, but the ones that were pivotal at the time are The Economist, Trivago and Kobo – our first North American client.”
Eighteen years of work creates an awful lot of campaigns, launches, experiments, presentations, workshops, app store listings, creative tests and performance reports.
More importantly, it creates relationships.
The people behind Yodel Mobile
Our 18th birthday isn’t really about a number.
It’s about the people who’ve made it possible to reach it.
Some have spent a significant part of their careers here. Others joined much more recently. Across generations of Yodellers, the culture, curiosity and ambition of the team have continually shaped the business.
When we asked our team what they valued about being part of Yodel Mobile, there was a theme that came up again and again: the people.
One person described “a real sense of community”, while another spoke about the opportunity to “grow, take on new challenges and learn from some brilliant people.”
For some of our longer-standing team members, that history feels particularly special:
“I’ve seen Yodel Mobile change and grow over the years, but the supportive culture has always stayed the same.”
And perhaps one of our favourite reflections:
“Some of my favourite memories are seeing people join the business, develop their careers and become leaders within the team.”
That’s something we’re particularly proud of.
Agencies are ultimately built on people: their ideas, expertise, relationships and willingness to keep learning. And throughout all the changes the industry, and Yodel Mobile itself, has experienced, that has remained constant.
A few awards along the way, too
We wouldn’t be us if we didn’t allow ourselves at least a little moment to celebrate the trophy cabinet.
Across the years, Yodel Mobile and our team have been recognised for both the work we deliver and the company we’ve built around it.
Recent recognition includes being named one of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work in both 2025 and 2026, alongside industry recognition through the PMW Awards, App Growth Awards, Effective Mobile Marketing Awards, Culture 100, BIMA100 and individual awards for members of our team.
The awards are lovely. But what they represent matters more: brilliant work for our clients and a place where brilliant people want to work.
And then came a new chapter
Eighteen years in, Yodel Mobile is still changing.
Becoming Yodel Mobile by NP Digital has opened the next chapter of our story, giving us the opportunity to combine our specialist app growth expertise with the capabilities and global reach of the wider NP Digital group.
For a business that has spent its entire lifetime adapting alongside mobile, it feels like a fitting place to be.
The app industry isn’t slowing down either.
AI is reshaping discovery. App stores are evolving. User acquisition is changing. The lines between search, social, stores and AI platforms are becoming increasingly blurred.
Which means there is plenty left for us to figure out.
And if the first 18 years have taught us anything, that’s exactly the sort of challenge we like.
Here’s to what comes next
Mick probably says it best:
“Those 18 years have gone in the blink of an eye; it’s been a blast.”
There are too many people to name individually who have contributed to Yodel Mobile’s story: former and current Yodellers, clients, partners, friends of the business and people across the app industry who have worked with us, recommended us, challenged us or simply cheered us on.
So, from all of us at Yodel Mobile: thank you.
We’re incredibly proud of everything that has happened over the past 18 years.
But we’re even more excited about what happens next.
Here’s to the next 18.
