Some agencies begin to embrace the Mobile Channel
While various Mobile industry reports and surveys have highlighted the reluctance of many advertisers to commit major dollars to running Mobile Campaigns, there are some notable traditional and digital advertising & marketing agencies that have realized the great potential mobile holds in store for them and have begun to take action to ensure they don’t get passed by when the BIG money does start flowing in a few years from now.
Here’s a running list I’ve managed to capture: (it’s certainly not exhaustive, but it represents some notable players)
- •Omnicomacquires ipsh! – 10/2005
- •Publicis & Hal Riney announce mobile marketing practice – 5/2006
- •Interpublic’s R/GA create mobile unit – late 2006
- •Carlson Marketing forms alliance with Enpocket – 4/2007
- •Hill Holiday hires Mobile Marketing manager – 5/2007
- •Aegis Group acquires Marvellous Mobile – 6/2007
- •AKQA forms mobile unit – 8/2007
- •Interpublic Group in joint venture w/Velti to form “Ansible”– 7/2007
- •TheRadiate Group/Mango Mobile 7/2007
- •WPP’s Kinetic creates Mobile Unit for Outdoor display ads – 1/2008
- •Studiocom announces mobile practice – 3/2008
- •Havas launches Mobext – a mobile marketing agency – 4/2008
- Roska Direct buys Mueller & Wister - 4/2008
- •GroupM hires mobile director -4/2008
- •ID Media partners w/4info – 4/2008
It’s certainly great to see that these aforementioned firms are embracing Mobile as yet another medium to leverage with their clients. Because this list is still very small, I believe that there is still a tremendous amount of opportunity for budding Mobile Marketing start-ups to align themselves with Agencies in a variety of different ways such as a technical alliance (SEE Velti and Interpublic Group) OR through acquisition (SEE Omincom and ipsh!).
In terms of organically growing a mobile unit – it’s a great idea, but finding talented mobile marketing professional who REALLY understand the complexities of the Mobile ecosystem from handsets, to MMA rules to consumer behavior patterns is easier said than done. You need people with this skillset to sift through the hype from various vendors, establish best practices and train eager employees on the ins and outs of planning and launching a mobile campaign.
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