Fontmaker App Store Success: A Vungle Case Study

The Rise of App Store Marketing: How Fontmaker Reached No. 1

Have you noticed a pattern? Applications frequently gain rapid popularity through social media platforms, such as TikTok, and subsequently ascend to the top of the App Store charts, benefiting from increased visibility and subsequent installations. This is precisely what occurred with Fontmaker, the recently ranked No. 1 application on the U.S. App Store. This subscription-based fonts app experienced growth seemingly fueled by word-of-mouth marketing via TikTok videos and other social media posts.

A New Approach to App Promotion

However, what appears to be happening is a novel strategy in App Store marketing—one that now incorporates a well-established industry player: Vungle.

Initially, Fontmaker appears to be simply another independent application achieving significant success.

Fontmaker's Initial Success and Revenue

Published by an organization named Mango Labs, the app allows users to generate fonts using their own handwriting, accessible through a custom keyboard, offered at a price of $4.99 per week. The application was initially released on July 26. Within almost a month, it reached the No. 2 position on the U.S. App Store, as reported by Sensor Tower data. By August 26, it climbed to the No. 1 spot, before gradually declining in the overall free app rankings in the following days.

By August 27, the app had fallen to No. 15, before briefly resurging to No. 4 the next day, then declining again. Currently, the app holds the No. 54 position overall and No. 4 in the competitive Photo & Video category—still a strong ranking for a new and relatively specialized product aimed primarily at younger demographics. To date, it has generated $68,000 in revenue, according to Sensor Tower reports.

Beyond Organic Growth: The Role of Influencers

Despite its success in the Top Charts, driven by increased downloads from genuine users, Fontmaker may not be a purely organic success story. Instead, it exemplifies how mobile marketers are leveraging the influencer community to drive app installations. It also highlights the difficulty in distinguishing between apps promoted through influencer marketing and those that reach the top of the App Store due to genuine demand—such as the walkie-talkie app Zello, whose recent No. 1 ranking can be attributed to Hurricane Ida.

The Connection to Vungle and JetFuel

It turns out that Fontmaker isn’t a typical “indie app.” The true entity behind it remains unclear. Its publisher, Mango Labs, LLC, is actually an iTunes developer account owned by JetFuel, a mobile growth company that was recently acquired by Vungle—a long-standing and sometimes controversial player in the mobile advertising and monetization space, itself acquired by Blackstone in 2019.

Vungle's Acquisition of JetFuel

Vungle was primarily interested in JetFuel’s core product, an application called The Plug, which focuses on connecting with influencers.

The Plug: Connecting Developers with Influencers

Through The Plug, mobile app developers and advertisers can connect with JetFuel’s network of over 15,000 verified influencers, boasting a combined 4 billion Instagram followers, 1.5 billion TikTok followers, and 100 million daily Snapchat views.

While marketers can utilize the built-in advertising tools on these platforms to reach their target audience, JetFuel’s technology enables marketers to rapidly scale their campaigns to reach valuable users within the Gen Z demographic, the company asserts. This system can be less resource-intensive than traditional influencer marketing in certain instances. Advertisers pay on a cost-per-action (CPA) basis for app installs, while influencers simply browse The Plug to find an app to promote and then share it on their social media accounts to earn revenue.

The Transparency Issue and Conflicting Information

Therefore, while many influencers may have created TikTok videos about Fontmaker, prompting consumers to download the app, these influencers were compensated for their efforts. (Often, based on our observations of the Fontmaker hashtag, this financial relationship was not disclosed—an increasingly common issue on TikTok and a concern for the FTC. Update: JetFuel states that its influencers’ videos are tagged with an “ad” label, and those without the tag are not affiliated with them.)

The situation becomes complex when attempting to clarify Mango Labs’ relationship with JetFuel/Vungle. From a consumer’s perspective browsing the App Store, Mango Labs appears to be a developer of numerous consumer applications, with Fontmaker being its latest offering.

JetFuel’s website reinforces this image.

It featured a case study showcasing its influencer marketing system, highlighting an “indie developer” called Mango Labs and one of its earlier apps, Caption Pro. Caption Pro was launched in January 2018. (App Annie data indicates it was removed from the App Store on August 31, 2021…just yesterday).

However, Vungle informed TechCrunch that “The Caption Pro app no longer exists and has not been live on the App Store or Google Play for a long time.” (We could not find an App Annie record of the app on Google Play).

Vungle's Explanation and Continued Ambiguity

Vungle also stated that “Caption Pro was developed by Mango Labs before the entity became JetFuel,” and that the case study was used to demonstrate JetFuel’s advertising capabilities. (Without explicitly disclosing their connection.)

“Prior to JetFuel evolving into the influencer marketing platform it is today, the company developed apps for the App Store. After the company transitioned to a marketing platform in February 2018, it ceased creating apps but continued to utilize the Mango Labs account occasionally to publish apps with third-party monetization partnerships,” the Vungle spokesperson explained.

Essentially, the argument is that while Mango Labs originally comprised the team that later became JetFuel, and were the creators of Caption Pro, the newer apps published under “Mango Labs, LLC” were not developed by the JetFuel team itself.

“Any apps appearing under the Mango Labs LLC name on the App Store or Google Play were developed by other companies, and Mango Labs merely acted as a publisher,” the spokesperson clarified.

Further Complications: Takeoff Labs and Conflicting Ownership

There are reasons to question this statement—not only because JetFuel’s partners seem to prefer remaining anonymous behind Mango Labs’ name, nor because Mango Labs originated from the JetFuel team. It’s also unusual that Mango Labs and another entity, Takeoff Labs, claim ownership of the same set of applications. And, like Mango Labs, Takeoff Labs is also linked to JetFuel.

The Web of Affiliations

As of this writing, Mango Labs has published several consumer apps on both the App Store and Google Play.

On iOS, this includes the recent No. 1 app Fontmaker, along with FontKey, Color Meme, Litstick, Vibe, Celebs, FITme Fitness, CopyPaste, and Part 2. On Google Play, it has two additional apps: Stickered and Mango.

Most of Mango Labs’ App Store listings direct users to JetFuel’s website as the app’s “developer website,” aligning with Vungle’s statement about JetFuel acting as the apps’ publisher.

However, the Mango Labs app Part2 links to Takeoff Labs’ website from its App Store listing.

The Vungle spokesperson initially told us that Takeoff Labs is “an independent app developer.”

Yet, the Takeoff Labs website lists a team consisting of JetFuel’s leadership, including JetFuel co-founder and CEO Tim Lenardo and JetFuel co-founder and CRO JJ Maxwell. Takeoff Labs’ LLC application was also signed by Lenardo.

Meanwhile, Takeoff Labs’ co-founder and CEO Rhai Goburdhun, according to his LinkedIn profile and the Takeoff Labs website, continues to work there. When asked about this connection, Vungle stated they were unaware that the website had not been updated and that neither JetFuel nor Vungle has an ownership stake in Takeoff Labs following the acquisition.

Takeoff Labs’ website also showcases its “portfolio” of apps, which includes Celeb, Litstick, and FontKey—three apps published by Mango Labs on the App Store.

On Google Play, Takeoff Labs is credited as the developer of Celebs, along with two other apps, Vibe and Teal, a neobank. However, on the App Store, Vibe is published by Mango Labs.

(To add to the complexity, there’s also an entity called RealLabs which hosts JetFuel, The Plug, and other consumer apps, including Mango—the app published by Mango Labs on Google Play. Someone certainly enjoys using the term “Labs!”)

Vungle's Response and Future Plans

Vungle asserts that the confusion stems from its current practice of using the Mango Labs iTunes account to publish apps for its partners, which it describes as a “common practice” on the App Store. It states its intention to transfer the apps published under Mango Labs to the developers’ accounts, acknowledging that the current arrangement is confusing.

Vungle also claims that JetFuel “does not create or own any consumer apps that are currently live on the app stores. Any apps created by the entity when it was known as Mango Labs have long since been removed from the app stores.”

The Implications for Consumers

JetFuel’s system is intricate and opaque, but has proven successful in achieving its objectives. Fontmaker did reach No. 1, effectively “growth hacked” to the top through influencer marketing.

However, as a consumer, this means you may never know who actually developed the app you’re downloading or whether you were “influenced” to try it through essentially undisclosed advertisements.

Fontmaker isn’t the first app to leverage growth hacking to reach the top through influencer promotions. Summertime hit Poparrazzi also propelled itself to the top of the App Store in a similar manner, as have many others. But Poparazzi has since fallen to No. 89 in Photo & Video, demonstrating that influence can only take you so far.

As for Fontmaker, paid influence secured its No. 1 ranking, but its Top Chart moment was fleeting.