The recent fireside chat at TRIBE – The CMO Connect in Dubai, featuring Branch CEO David Karnstedt and Anghami/OSN+ VP of Product and Growth Mohammad Ogaily, wasn’t just a conversation about tools and tactics — it was a masterclass on how to align product and growth to meet today’s user expectations. In this blog, we dive deeper into six of the most actionable insights they shared.
Hear the whole conversion now!
Anghami, a leading music streaming platform in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, serves over 100 million users with both freemium and premium subscription options. Since its launch in 2012, it has built a vast music library of over 100 million songs, featuring everything from international hits to regional favorites. Anghami focuses on delivering seamless, high-quality music experiences while maximizing user engagement and optimizing its freemium-to-premium conversion funnel. OSN+ is a subscription-based video streaming service offering a wide array of content. In 2024, OSN+ merged with Anghami, and migrated the OSN+ platform onto Anghami’s infrastructure. This merger allowed them to integrate the services and create a unified ecosystem for users. It’s with this new lens that Ogaily shared his experiences of driving growth.
1. Omni-channel is the new baseline
Consumers no longer engage with brands on a single platform. They navigate among mobile apps, mobile web, desktop, email, and social media effortlessly. This means brands must deliver a seamless experience across all channels — or risk losing users at critical conversion points. Karnstedt pointed to how many companies still operate with disjointed systems: “If you think about your typical customer journey, it doesn’t start and end in your app. And yet most analytics and engagement tools are siloed.” He emphasized that without a unified view of the customer, brands can’t personalize or optimize touchpoints effectively. Bridging these data silos is critical for delivering consistent, real-time experiences that drive retention and growth.
Key takeaway: Growth is no longer about any one channel—it’s about stitching them together.
2. Retention is the new acquisition
“Retained users are five to six times more valuable than acquired users,” Karnstedt emphasized. This is a powerful reminder in a world where acquisition costs are climbing and privacy changes like App Tracking Transparency (ATT) are limiting targeting effectiveness.
Ogaily drove this home with a shift in perspective: “If you build a product people love, retention becomes your best acquisition strategy.” He described how Anghami views its premium experience as a retention engine, which in turn drives word-of-mouth growth and organic installs.
They also noted that retention starts before acquisition — the user’s first interaction with your brand (even in an ad) sets the tone. A well-personalized post-click experience can turn curiosity into long-term value.
Key takeaway: Acquisition teams should be obsessed with lifetime value, not just install volume.
3. Product and growth must be unified
Traditionally, growth was seen as a marketing function — focused on user acquisition, onboarding, and activation. Product was responsible for the in-app experience. Ogaily challenged this divide: “You don’t build features for their own sake. You build them to drive growth.”
At Anghami, growth and product now operate as one cross-functional team. This allows experiments to happen at every layer of the user experience, from onboarding flows to subscription prompts. The integration also speeds up iteration, because engineers, designers, and marketers are aligned on shared growth goals — not just outputs.
Companies that silo these functions often suffer from misaligned incentives and fragmented insights.
Key takeaway: Organize around the user journey, not internal roles.
4. First-day experience is everything
It’s tempting to try to capture every data point during onboarding — but Ogaily warned against this. When Anghami simplified their onboarding flow to just asking for three artists, retention and engagement improved dramatically.
Why? Because that small input created immediate emotional resonance. Users felt seen, understood, and rewarded with a personalized feed right away. An initial 30-minute session became a leading indicator of long-term retention. So it’s important to ask only what’s essential, deliver value fast, and focus on momentum.
Key takeaway: Onboarding is not the place for friction or over-optimization — it’s the place to spark emotional buy-in.
5. “Clear” is more important than “short” in the funnel
In an interesting twist, Ogaily revealed that Anghami actually increased conversions by adding an extra step to the funnel. Instead of deep linking users directly into the app, they introduced a lightweight web landing page with contextual content. This page framed the experience and set expectations, leading to better in-app engagement and higher conversion.
This challenges the long-held belief that shorter funnels are always better. As Karnstedt noted, “People want to know what they’re clicking into. If you manage their expectations clearly, they’ll follow you farther.”
Key takeaway: Users don’t mind extra steps if those steps add clarity and confidence. Sometimes, more friction (when it’s informative) is better than fewer clicks.
6. AI and measurement are the next frontiers
Both speakers agreed that the next wave of growth innovation will come from better measurement and AI-driven personalization. Karnstedt described how Branch is leveraging AI to close the attribution gaps left by traditional analytics tools. For example, understanding where a user came from — even in cases where a link wasn’t directly clicked — can open up new retargeting opportunities and budget optimizations.
AI also plays a growing role in predictive engagement. Knowing which users are likely to churn — or which ones are likely to convert — allows teams to proactively shape experiences, rather than reacting after the fact.
Key takeaway: You can’t optimize what you can’t measure. And today, measurement must be smarter than ever.
Final thoughts
This conversation wasn’t just about what tools to use — it was about how to rethink growth holistically. Today’s winning teams aren’t just optimizing funnels — they’re orchestrating end-to-end experiences that blend product, data, and storytelling.
For digital businesses, the playbook is changing. Growth isn’t about hacking — it’s about harmonizing and aligning every touchpoint to build trust, deliver value, and earn loyalty. As Karnstedt put it, “Growth isn’t a department. It’s a shared mindset.”
Connect with us to learn more about how Branch is driving growth for enterprises all over the globe.