São Paulo, Athens, October 24, 2024 – Upstream, a global leader in mobile marketing technology, made a significant contribution at the MEF RCS World event, held on October 15, 2024, in São Paulo, Brazil. The event brought together top industry players to explore the transformative potential of Rich Communication Services (RCS) in business messaging.
Upstream’s Head of Product & Growth, Katerina Matthaiou, and Senior Product Manager, Zoi Kotta, took the stage to present on the company’s extensive experience with RCS, revealing the impressive results of their most successful campaigns. The team shared valuable insights and key learnings from their extensive expertise, highlighting emerging trends and future opportunities for RCS. Additionally, Dimitris Maniatis, Upstream`s CEO, offered insights on the future of RCS and its role in performance marketing on the “Ask the Experts” panel that took place at the event.
RCS across markets and brands
During the event, Zoi Kotta emphasized Upstream’s role as one of the top RCS providers in Brazil and discussed the growing adoption of RCS across global markets. “While RCS has made great strides, there is still significant potential to be unlocked. Currently, only 15% of mobile network operators (MNOs) have signed with Google for RCS. However, based on data from Mobilesquared, Apple’s recent inclusion of RCS in the latest iOS is projected to expand the channel’s reach by 15% within the next year,” said Kotta. Despite this, she noted the ongoing challenges in predicting how RCS will compete with dominant platforms like WhatsApp and how evolving market conditions will impact pricing.
Real-world success stories
Katerina Matthaiou highlighted several key case studies that demonstrated the tangible impact of RCS in driving customer engagement and sales. She shared examples from a South African supermarket retailer and a skincare & fragrance brand in Brazil, where RCS campaigns achieved remarkable click-through rates of up to 44%. Matthaiou also discussed how a premium wine and fine foods e-commerce brand used RCS to overcome advertising restrictions on WhatsApp, leading to significantly higher engagement and conversion rates.
“These case studies illustrate the powerful combination of RCS’s branding capabilities and interactivity, which allow brands to deliver richer, more engaging messages compared to SMS and WhatsApp,” said Matthaiou.
Multichannel strategy with a leading mobile operator in Brazil, powered by Upstream’s Grow platform
One of the most notable case studies featured at the event highlighted Upstream’s partnership with a leading mobile network operator (MNO) in Brazil. Since 2020, RCS has been a core part of the operator’s media mix, delivering 19% better campaign performance.
Upstream’s Grow platform played a pivotal role in executing a multichannel strategy by leveraging its advanced features such as precise segmentation, seamless user experiences, and retargeting. This enabled the operator to upsell customers from prepaid to contract plans effectively. Additionally, Grow’s capability to seamlessly integrate rich media and text-based messaging ensured significantly higher engagement rates, optimizing RCS campaigns to deliver outstanding results.
As part of this strategy, Upstream implemented a multichannel retargeting campaign that drove superior engagement, making RCS an indispensable tool for the operator’s business goals. The success of this campaign underscores RCS’s strength as the perfect partner for multichannel strategies, and how Upstream’s technology maximizes its effectiveness.
The future of RCS in performance marketing
During the “Ask the Experts” panel, Dimitris Maniatis, Upstream’s CEO, addressed the commercial potential of RCS and how the platform is evolving as a performance marketing tool. “RCS is still underutilized for commercial purposes, but as brands gather more data and improve audience segmentation, we’ll see more automated and triggered use cases that truly leverage RCS’s potential,” explained Maniatis. He noted that e-commerce merchants are already seeing significant traction, with RCS beginning to replace traditional SMS in many markets.
The road ahead for RCS
Upstream’s leadership in RCS business messaging is evident through its rapid growth, particularly in key markets like Brazil. Since integrating RCS into its platform in 2018, Upstream has consistently led the market, delivering more than 400 million RCS messages monthly. As more mobile network operators (MNOs) and brands adopt RCS, Upstream continues to push the boundaries of this technology, making it an indispensable tool in the marketing mix. With over 3,200 RCS campaigns conducted globally in one year, Upstream remains at the forefront of helping brands and operators drive deeper customer engagement through personalized, interactive, and rich media messaging.
Looking ahead, Upstream is set to continue its pioneering efforts, driving innovation across industries such as e-commerce, banking, and telecommunications, and further solidifying its position as a global leader in mobile marketing technology.
