ITV

Tag: Mobile Marketing Association

  • Digital marketing veteran leaves Reckitt after nine-year stint

    Digital marketing veteran leaves Reckitt after nine-year stint

    MUMBAI: Shashishekhar Mukherjee, one of India’s most decorated digital marketing executives, has ended his nine-year tenure as head of digital marketing at Reckitt, the British consumer health and hygiene giant behind brands including Dettol, Durex and Veet.

    The departure of the 18-year industry veteran, announced on LinkedIn this week, marks another high-profile exit from the fast-moving consumer goods sector as companies grapple with rapid digital transformation and fierce competition for top talent.

    Mukherjee, who joined Reckitt in April 2016, spearheaded the company’s data-driven marketing strategy across its marquee portfolio, which also includes Moov pain relief gel. His campaigns earned recognition at prestigious industry awards including the APAC Effies, Asian Warc and Emvies.

    The executive’s credentials include being named among Brand Equity’s top 30 digital marketers. He currently serves as a board advisor to the India Influencer Governing Council and is a member of the Mobile Marketing Association’s APAC retail media network.

    “After nine incredible years, I recently bid farewell to my team, coworkers, and friends at Reckitt,” Mukherjee wrote in his LinkedIn post, describing the role as having “profoundly shaped me both personally and professionally.”

    His exit comes as multinational consumer goods companies face intensifying pressure to digitise their operations and connect with younger consumers across India’s diverse markets. The sector has witnessed a wave of senior departures as executives seek new opportunities in the rapidly evolving landscape.

    Mukherjee’s departure follows a distinguished career spanning blue-chip agencies and brands. Before Reckitt, he served stints at GSK (now Haleon), where he led digital initiatives for wellness brands including Sensodyne toothpaste and Eno antacid, and at Mindshare, where he headed digital strategy for PepsiCo’s portfolio.
    His early career included roles at GroupM, handling accounts for Twinings tea, Kurkure snacks and Domino’s Pizza, and at Publicis Groupe, managing digital offerings for Hewlett-Packard and telecom operator MTS.

  • Amit Jain named chairperson of MMA India board of directors

    Amit Jain named chairperson of MMA India board of directors

    MUMBAI: MMA, formerly known as the Mobile Marketing Association, has appointed L’Oréal India managing director Amit Jain as chairperson of its India board of directors.

    Jain succeeds Priya Nair, who is the executive director – beauty and personal care at Hindustan Unilever. Nair will move into a new role as chair emeritus of MMA India.

    “MMA has been doing stellar work in helping marketers use insights and tools to harness the convergence of marketing and technology to drive personalised and customised engagement, in line with evolving consumer needs and purchase behaviour. I am delighted to take on this role and lead MMA’s commitment to shape the future of marketing today by bringing brands closer to consumers through connected consumer journeys," Jain said.

    MMA India country head Moneka Khurana added, “Amit Jain’s business leadership, progressive outlook and experience in managing credible boards will help in shaping the future of Modern Marketing for MMA India at a time when it’s central to all marketers to drive business ROI, customer engagement and innovations.”

    MMA Asia Pacific managing director Rohit Dadwal said "Amit Jain’s deep knowledge of digital marketing in the 21st century will prove invaluable to the furthering of MMA’s mission in advancing modern marketing in India. I look forward to working with Amit and would like to thank Priya for her invaluable contribution and for paving the way forward.”

  • India leads Mobile Ad Fraud across Asia with 62%: MMA’s Ad Fraud Benchmark Report

    India leads Mobile Ad Fraud across Asia with 62%: MMA’s Ad Fraud Benchmark Report

    MUMBAI: Mobile Marketing Association, a global non-profit organization, today released an Ad Fraud Benchmark Report on the state of mobile ad fraud in India. The report revealed interesting facts about the level of fraud, and its awareness in the country and aims to help marketers benchmark their exposure to various kinds of fraud.

    The report has been published in collaboration with a leading research firm Decision Lab, with the objective of understanding the current industry practices around ad fraud and the methods adopted by marketers. It also highlights the rising and prevalent issues such as adware traffic, ad stacking, domain spoofing, that will help marketers understand organizational challenges and combination of various measures to tackle the problems effectively.

    Speaking on the launch, Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India said, ?In India, the awareness on ad fraud risks is very low with almost a fifth of the marketers being unclear of their ad fraud budget and majority of them believing that fraudulent activities will only increase. Brand safety on mobile is the biggest concern today and this benchmark report clearly demonstrates that this needs immediate addressal. Marketers will need to be extra cautious to attacks such as ad injections, data fraud, cookie stuffing, etc. Marketers must understand the potential of technologies such as Blockchain that can help solve issues related to fraud and create security and transparency in mobile marketing ecosystem.

    Key highlights from the report are:

    ·         With a rate of 62 per cent, mobile ad fraud remains as one of the biggest challenges in India

    ·         Indian marketers spend nearly 20 per cent of their advertising budget on ad fraud

    ·         9/10 marketers feel there is scope for improvement in ad fraud prevention methods

    ·         95 per cent respondents feel that lack of penalties and transparency in industry regulations give rise to ad fraud

    ·         95 per cent respondents agreed that lack of data sharing and large number of middlemen are also a cause to ad fraud risks

    ·         Major types of ad fraud ? Cookie Stuffing (74 per cent), Adware Traffic (65 per cent), Data Fraud (61 per cent), Ad Injection (54 per cent)

    ·         Only 37 per cent respondents are aware of Blockchain and its application to fraud prevention

  • Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Facebook Partner To Launch Industry’s First Creative Playbook on Short-Form Mobile Video Strategy

    Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Facebook Partner To Launch Industry’s First Creative Playbook on Short-Form Mobile Video Strategy

    Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Facebook today jointly released a creative playbook at the MMA Forum India event in Mumbai. The creative playbook – a special MUMBAI: white paper on short-form video strategy titled ‘From a Blink to a HeartBeat’ – will help marketers and agencies push past the conventional creative practices to adapt and execute winning short-form video ad strategies and Thumbstopping creatives that are built for mobile as a medium.

    The white paper combines MMA’s groundbreaking neuroscience study of mobile ads, the First Second Strategy Cognition Research, with the core principles behind Facebook's Thumbstoppers initiative to provide the advertising and marketing industry in India with its first in-depth, research-backed creative playbook focused on short-form mobile video ads strategy.

    “A core guiding principle of the MMA is a commitment to science and truth in marketing for brands, leveraging future oriented research techniques and methodologies.” said Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, MMA Asia Pacific. “The neuroscience cognition research undeniably supports marketers in making better decisions around both their marketing investments and creative strategies in digital. This white-paper, authored by MMA and Facebook, serves as a unique playbook for the industry to develop both strategy and creative or mobile video advertising“.

    MMA’s research about cognitive processing of advertising in a mobile environment is one of the world’s first and most comprehensive neuroscience-based studies on understanding how consumers respond to advertising on mobile. The most important insight from this study is that the cognitive process is faster than we thought, and that the human brain needs less than 1/2 second to engage with mobile advertising and trigger a reaction, positive or negative. The main implication of these findings is that brands have less time than they thought to win consumers in today´s fast-paced advertising environment. This is where Facebook’s Thumbstoppers comes in.

    For the last six months, Facebook has spearheaded ‘Thumbstoppers’ Program, which was launched in May with an aim of inspiring, educating, and challenging the creative ecosystem with powerful storytelling for video ads in less than 10 seconds. To help marketers make the greatest impact with their targeted audiences using short-form video, Facebook has partnered with the top advertising agencies and brands of the country.

    Speaking about the whitepaper and the collaboration with MMA, Sandeep Bhushan, Director and Head, Global Marketing Solutions (GMS), Facebook India said, “The findings of the MMA ‘s neuroscience cognition research are testimony to the rationale behind Thumbstoppers. This white paper combines the comprehensive knowledge of MMA on the topic with Facebook’s study and experience with thousands of campaigns across verticals. We’ve consistently delivered business results for our advertisers, large and small, and this is an opportunity for us to now take the best-practices of Thumbstoppers even wider across the industry, helping our advertisers realize even stronger efficiencies.”

    The key belief behind Thumbstoppers is that there has been a dramatic change in consumer behaviour due to mobile; people consume as well as recall content faster on mobile. With mobile becoming more pervasive the industry needs to embrace the possibility that stories that stop thumbs from scrolling, evoke emotions, and change human behavior can be told in under ten seconds. Facebook’s understanding of Thumbstoppers is built on the back of meta studies of thousands of campaigns and fine tuned by creative directors who have used them.

    How to create an effective Thumbstopper Ad – The playbook for the marketer in the mobile age

    1)      Duration – Stop thumbs, move hearts in under 10 seconds: Thumbstoppers are brief and need to remain under 10 seconds to be effective

    2)      Branding – Convey your key message immediately: Thumbstoppers showcase their brands and message early on and often

    3)      Visuals: Show your products in action: Thumbstoppers use striking visuals to grab attention

    4)      Sound – Design for sound-off but delight with sound on: Thumbstoppers use visual concepts to communicate to viewers who might watch with sounds turned off

    5)      Opening – Make the first few visuals count: Thumbstoppers have strong opening visuals to grab attention and lock the audience in

    Top-performing mobile ads have an element of surprise. By experimenting with strong design elements, one can make ads more effective. The key is to ‘Be creative, and test, learn and adapt’.

  • MMA releases ‘Mobile Ecosystem and ad-Sizing Report’ 2018

    MMA releases ‘Mobile Ecosystem and ad-Sizing Report’ 2018

    MUMBAI: Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) along with media investment group GroupM has released the its ‘Mobile Ecosystem and ad-Sizing Report’ 2018 highlighting an in-depth analysis of India’s mobile reach, smartphone penetration, rural and urban usage pattern, with an emphasis on gaming, and mobile advertising spends. Advocated by GroupM, the report is a collaborative effort by the marketing and mobile industry.

    The report offers an insight into how India is moving towards a new era of mobile marketing, seeing rampant growth in both usages and spends. It explores how programmatic works along with updates on the latest trends in data growth, content play, and device status. The report also reveals that Xiaomi became the most shipped smartphone, the first time any smartphone crossing Samsung in the last five years.

    The report highlights the ‘mammoth growth’ of Jio, which is now 18 per cent of the total market and has added more than 200 million users to the mobile ecosystem. It also states that rural India is bringing online three times more people than urban areas. “India will cross 500 million mobile internet users by the end of 2018, we foresee that this growth will be led by the rural populace,” it adds.

    It mentions that India is in the top three countries in programmatic spends growth with the spends growth of 81 per cent in the past year. Programmatic adoption in the country is growing; standing at 32 per cent right now and poised to grow to 52 per cent in the next 24 months. The propensity for programmatic guaranteed increasing in India – penetration to grow from 6 per cent to 17 per cent by 2020.

    Talking about the key verticals in mobile advertising, the report states that gaming, vernacular, OTT video, and OTT audio are leading the segment. “Mobile gaming in India is dominated by freemium games. 2016 saw a 200 per cent increase in gaming app revenue, which will grow at a CAGR of 87 per cent till 2020, crossing the $1 billion mark,” it reveals.

    The report claims that vernacular language users in India will grow 12 times by 2021. “In the next five years chat application, government sites, and digital payments will lead to more vernacular content consumers online,” it mentions.  

    The report further mentions that on-demand video platforms have crossed 100 million users in India with Hotstar leading the market. The user growth on these platforms has got maximum traction from tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

    MMA Asia Pacific managing director Rohit Dadwal said, “Mobile Marketing is now a main stream advertising and marketing medium and it is imperative that we start to decipher the various parts of this burgeoning media. We hope the ecosystem study would provide insights to marketers and the industry on the whole on the opportunity and will help in making the right investments for its continuing growth.”

    GroupM CEO and Mobile Marketing Association India co-chair Sam Singh noted, “The number of smartphone users is expected to only go up and it just shows how much potential these digital screens have. Hence, we as marketers must understand various facets of mobile marketing. Times are changing fast and we want to enable marketers with the knowledge that can help them in a long run.”

  • Mobile Marketing Association India announces shortlist for SMARTIES™ Awards

    Mobile Marketing Association India announces shortlist for SMARTIES™ Awards

    MUMBAI: The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), today has announced the shortlisted entries for the 2018 SMARTIES™ Awards in India. From this list, the winners will be announced on 28th September at the MMA Forum to be held at Taj, Santa Cruz Mumbai.

    90 entries were shortlisted from across industries from hundreds of entries. Back for its seventh season this year, the SMARTIESTM India Awards has grown rapidly, but remains focused on its core mission to accelerate the transformation and innovation of marketing through mobile in the region. The Awards is the world’s only global mobile marketing awards program that honours innovation, creativity, success and Business Impact.

    Those shortlisted for this year’s Awards include global brands like Google, Unilever, 21st Century Fox, HSBC, Cadbury, Godrej, Patanjali, Coca-Cola, Diageo, PepsiCo amongst others leading national and international brands. The top agencies that worked with the 90 shortlisted brands include Mindshare India, Isobar, Interactive Avenues, Essence, Madison, and Omnicom Media Group etc. The full list of shortlisted entries can be found here. https://www.mmaglobal.com/india/smarties2018

    A total of 12 senior level brand marketers made up the list of juries, namely, Siddharth Banerjee of Vodafone, Priya Nair of Unilever, Gaurav Suri of UTI, Shabnam Panjwani of Edelweiss Financial Services, Viral Oza of Lodha Group, Avinash Kumar of Patanjali, Sandeep Singh of Bira, Asha Kharga of Axis Bank, Kartik Jain of DBS Bank, Abhishek Joshi of SonyLiv, Vishikh Talwar of Millward Brown, and Nitin Agarwal of Hotstar.

    “It was not easy judging the entries this year with new and innovative ideas put forth. The level of creativity brought to the table exceeded expectations as the standards of submission improve year on year.” said Priya Nair, Executive Director of Homecare Hindustan Unilever Limited, who was the jury chair at this year’s MMA SMARTIES™ Awards.

    Across the categories like brand awareness, audio and video campaigns, brands had the opportunity to showcase their marketing and technological capabilities and compete amongst the best in the industry through the SMARTIES™ Awards. Entries were judged on creativity, execution, strategy, and most importantly, business impact.

    “It’s not every day you get the best ideas and the brightest minds in the mobile marketing world in one room. The SMARTIES™ Awards is indeed one of a kind, with entries judged by senior level brand marketers and agency leaders. Through the awards and the Forum, we look forward to celebrating the powerhouse of talent in the industry,” said Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India.

    “As mobile continues to take a larger share of the marketing pie in India, we are seeing more marketers make the leap when it comes to reaching out to their customers. The SMARTIESTM Awards celebrates this move and acknowledge those who have taken the bold step to innovate and be creative in the space,” said Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director of MMA in Asia Pacific.

    MMA has partnered with Millward Brown as the knowledge partner and observer for MMA SMARTIES™ India and will be presenting their insights of what it takes to win the esteemed metal at the SMARTIES™ Awards. Millward Brown will also present key insights at the MMA Forum to help marketers understand the key drivers in the ever-emerging landscape of mobile advertising and marketing.

    “The annual MMA SMARTIES™ Awards is one of the biggest and most prestigious awards for marketers, and we are proud to have been a knowledge partner and observer over the years. Based on the quality of entries this year, I’m certain that we will be seeing the industry grow massively in the near future, “Vishikh Talwar, Managing Director South Asia at Millward Brown.

    MMA has also partnered WARC to launch the first-ever Business Impact Index, to identify, rank and award agencies and brands delivering the highest level of business impact, by analysing winner and finalist data from all SMARTIES™ Awards globally. The results of these will be published early next year.

  • Students get creative to tackle real brand problems at Mobile Marketing Association India’s first ever Ideathon

    Students get creative to tackle real brand problems at Mobile Marketing Association India’s first ever Ideathon

    MUMBAI: The inaugural Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) India Ideathon 2018 culminated with a bang over the weekend, after participants spent 30 long hours strategizing and programming mobile apps with practically no sleep.

    A lead up to the MMA Forum that will take place next month, the Ideathon was conducted in collaboration with IncubateIND. 145 tech driven entrepreneurs and students participated on August 25 & 26 at Ideathon held in Bangalore. They were selected from a pool of 432 applicants. The event saw four big brands: Cleanipedia Unilever, Godrej Consumer Products Limited, Tata Sampann and Vodafone define their full problem statements. Participants were then given 30 hours to come up with a solution for their brand of choice, and present their ideas before a panel of judges.

    The mentors at the event were – Amrita Purkayashta, Senior Brand Manager, Godrej Consumer Products, Pooja Singh, Digital Marketing Lead, Unilever,  Aanavi Dewan, Brand Manager, Tata Sampann; Rupa Mittal, Senior Brand Manager, Vodafone; Harsha Kikkeri, CEO, Kaya Tech; Nelson Vasanth J; Vijetha Sastry, Lead, Open Innovation, Nasscom Centre of Excellence; Akshay Padwal, Co-Founder and Chief Product and Tech Officer, Vserv; Paras Pundir, Founder – Community Folks.

    The three winning teams that showcased the most creative ideas were Team Excelsior, Team Programmers and Team Bluebottle. One of the winners, Dinesh from Bluebottle said, “We are excited that our technological solution for Tata Sampann won the first prize.”

    Bluebottle used voice based/ natural language-based application using which people can understand about nutrition rich products, dishes, and availability of discounts. This application works seamlessly on other applications such as FB messenger, Google Assistant. Technology used is Dialogue Pro for natural language processing.

    More than just a competition, the event also served as a space for brands and students to network.

    “India now accounts for 20 percent of mobile phone subscribers globally.  As we continue moving towards a mobile-first economy, it is important that brands leverage more and more technology solutions to build scalable and scientific strategies to meet the needs of tomorrow’s consumers. I hope this Ideathon has given brands a fresh perspective and insight into their businesses,” said Moneka Khurana, Country Head at MMA India.

    Anand Chakravarthy, Managing Director, Essence India, who was part of the jury added, “We were very impressed by the quality of ideas presented. Indeed, youth today determine the future of advertising. Growing up as digital natives, they bring a different perspective to the table. This challenge has definitely been an eye-opener for many of us, as we understand what motivates and drives loyalty for this next generation.”

    The panellists also agreed that trust remains to be an important factor when driving consumers to their brands. Pankaj Parihar, Vice President & Head, Digital Marketing & Transformation, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd said, “Brands can only come up with so many creative ways to target consumers. What keeps customers coming back is the transparency and consistency, that wins the customer’s confidence.”

    “With the success of MMA India’s first Ideathon, we look forward to running similar events like this across the region. I also hope that more brands will continue to be open to the idea of communicating and working with young talents when thinking about their advertising strategies, something that will be equally beneficial to both parties,” said Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, MMA Asia Pacific. 

    “MMA India’s first Ideathon has been a success. This will encourage more brands to try a different approach to their campaigns. MMA will help define the brand problem and the approach,” said Shivakumar, Chairman, MMA.

  • PepsiCo’s D Shivakumar to chair Mobile Marketing Association India’s board

    PepsiCo’s D Shivakumar to chair Mobile Marketing Association India’s board

    MUMBAI: PepsiCo India Holdings chairman and CEO D Shivakumar has been elected as the head of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) India board of directors. 

     

    This is the association’s maiden board, which comprises 12 industry stalwarts across the marketing, technology and advertising spectrum.

     

    The board members include Novi Digital Entertainment president Ajit Mohan, OLX South Asia CEO Amarjit Singh Batra, United Spirits Limited chief marketing officer Amrit Thomas, GroupM CEO South Asia CVL Srinivas, Facebook India MD Kirthiga Reddy, Millward Brown MD South Asia Prasun Basu, Hindustan Unilever Limited executive director – Home Care Priya Nair, Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific MD Rohit Dadwal, J. Walter Thompson chief creative officer Senthil Kumar, Godrej Group head – strategic marketing Shireesh Joshi and One97 Communications & Paytm founder & CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

     

    Speaking on the appointment of the new board, Shivakumar said, “The Indian market is brimming with great opportunities for mobile media and marketing. The MMA India Board of Directors brings together some of the best practitioners and minds in marketing, advertising and media, and our collective experience and expertise will hopefully propel the market to quickly adopt mobile marketing as a mainstream medium.”

     

    “Our board members have identified key areas where our immediate focus in needed. These initiatives will facilitate sharing insights, create industry benchmarks and guidelines that will help marketers leverage mobile as core to their business and marketing strategies,” he added. 

     

    “Mobile continues to push India marketers to re-think the way they approach marketing and use data and technology to engage with consumers. The conversation has shifted towards how we can build capabilities and further help the ecosystem to leverage mobile,” said Dadwal. “I’m confident that under the guidance of the new Board, our members will be able to leverage the MMA’s resources and network to accelerate mobile marketing in India. The Board of Directors will be instrumental in shaping the future of the industry and developing the MMA and its initiatives. I look forward to working with them to drive the growth of our industry.”

     

    Recent studies from the MMA, Mary Meeker and others suggest that there will be a dramatic shift in media spending in the near future and it is imperative for the marketing community to reboot their marketing mix with mobile as a key driver for future business strategies especially when mobile is poised to be the third largest mass medium in India after TV and print.

  • Mindshare awarded Global Mobile Agency of the Year by MMA

    Mindshare awarded Global Mobile Agency of the Year by MMA

    MUMBAI: Mindshare has won the most desired ‘Global Mobile Agency of the Year’ title during the Annual Global Smarties Awards 2015 organised by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).

     

    The 2015 MMA Global Smarties Gala held at Pier Sixty in New York City celebrates and awards best-in-class mobile work across the globe.

     

    Mindshare Asia Pacific won five awards across multiple categories and clients in the global competition namely:

     

    . The Ghost is Calling, Silver, Brand Awareness, Mindshare Malaysia

    . Bond of Love on the Mother’s Day, Bronze, Relationship Building / CRM, Mindshare Pakistan

    . How Zespri Got Kids Across China to Slice 18 Billion Kiwis, Gold, Marketing Within A Mobile Gaming Environment, Mindshare China

    . The Language of Hair, Gold, Mobile Social, Mindshare Vietnam

    . Lifebuoy Flood, Bronze, Location Based, Mindshare Indonesia

     

    Mindshare global CEO Nick Emery said, “We are delighted to be the global mobile agency of the year, especially with such outstanding competition. A mobile first approach is central to our adaptive strategy and the geographical breadth of our awards across many clients is testimony to our success.”

     

    MMA CEO Greg Stuart added, “Most marketers tell me they really want and need their agencies to keep up and lead in mobile – the best we heard was Mindshare.”

     

    Mindshare Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Russia & Emerging Markets chairman & CEO Ashutosh Srivastava said, “We are proud of the work that is emanating from our region. The APAC market is unique, diverse and innovative. Most of the countries are ahead of the game in the mobile arena. The combination of our understanding of the ecosystem coupled with our capability to solve real world challenges results in such award-winning work.”

     

    Mindshare has already been named Mobile Agency of the Year 2015 in both, China (1 Gold, 3 Silver, 1 Bronze) and India (7 Gold, 5 Silver and 4 Bronze) at The Smarties.

  • Indian brands eye 25% increase in mobile marketing spends

    Indian brands eye 25% increase in mobile marketing spends

    MUMBAI: In this ever changing and developing world, which is led by technological advancements, brands need to constantly re-examine their strategies and explore the full extent of the tools at their disposal. In a scenario like this, the key to the mobile marketing industry’s success is for brands to take a focused and consumer-centric approach.

     

    What’s more, according to a research called “State of the industry – mobile marketing in India” conducted by WARC in conjunction with Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), around 75 per cent of Indian marketers are looking to raise their mobile marketing spends to 25 per cent from this year from 10 per cent or less from the previous years. What’s more, the number might even hit 50 per cent in the next five years.

     

    According to WARC Asia Pacific MD Edward Pank, the study indicated that Hindustan Unilever was the most innovative mobile brand in the country followed closely by Flipkart, Samsung, Amazon and Paytm while Telecom and Retail ead the way in terms of innovation and location based marketing.

     

    The annual MMA Forum India 2015, which was held in Gurgaon recently, was themed ‘Acquiring, Reaching and Engaging the Right Consumers through Mobile.’ The forum saw speakers from brands, agencies and technology companies, dissecting successful and innovative brand campaigns over the previous year to highlight the importance and effectiveness of mobile within the marketing mix.

     

    “Capability-building and innovation are key to the success of the mobile marketing industry. In light of the rapid evolution of technology, it’s important for brands to take a focused and consumer-centric approach to mobile,” said MMA Asia Pacific managing director Rohit Dadwal.

     

    The MMA Forum India 2015 kicked off with a keynote session by Unilever regional vice president – media Rahul Weld, who discussed Unilever’s innovative approach to marketing and its success in reaching out to the targeted customer through effective strategies.

     

    Talking about the importance of “seizing the moment” when reaching out to the consumer, Google India industry director – e-commerce, retail, online classifieds and technology Nitin Bawankule said, “The most effective way to reach out to the consumer is to target them in time of their need. Every consumer looks for solutions on their mobile devices and strategic advertising are key to catching the consumer at this moment.”

     

    Media specialist and writer Vanita Kohli-Khandekar and Vserv co-founder & CEO Dippak Khurana brought to light the various aspects of mobile commerce, advertising and data that can help shrink the intent-purchase gap. 

     

    Talking about the need to share data to leverage its power to reach, engage and acquire the consumer, Khurana said that publishers with significant “consumer attention” will try to move to commerce and that while consumers in India have regularly demonstrated their appetite to pay through mobile, marketers have been shy of sharing data that could help them buy through mobile platforms, significantly limiting their success.

     

    Madhouse Inc founder & CEO Joshua Maa discussed the similarities and the difference between different Asian markets with a focus on India and China during his session – “No two markets are the same yet they are not different.” He covered aspects and opportunities where India could learn from China and vice versa.

     

    Group M CEO CVL Srinivas moderated a panel discussion with Pepsico India vice president – beverages category Vipul Prakash, ZEEL chief business officer Sunil Buch and OLX India CEO Amarjit Singh Batra, where they shared insights on becoming “mobile capable” and how media owners, brands and agencies can come together to build mobile insight and capability to achieve the desired level of maturity.

     

    Yahoo Asia Pacific senior director marketing Nitin Mathur unveiled the various aspects of Flurry, the mobile-analytics company acquired by Yahoo, and discussed its potential to influence the consumer by tracking their behaviour on apps and building personalised and relevant communication thereby highlighting the need for more such tools in the space.

     

    Opera Mediaworks Asia managing director Vikas Gulati illustrated the effectiveness of mobile devices in connecting brands and consumers by discussing the success of AskMeBazaar.com’s campaign with Askme India group CMO Manav Sethi and Findit Malaysia that was executed by Opera MediaWorks. Gulati discussed at length, the power that mobile empowers brands with, to control consumer behaviour as they are most intimate and used media device.

     

    As part of the MMA forum 2015, Madhouse – South Asia COO Milind Pathak introduced the winners of Madlabs, a platform introduced by Madhouse to showcase the innovative mobile communications and solutions in the startup ecosystem and espoused the effective use of mobile to reach out the targeted consumer.

     

    The MMA Forum was followed by the MMA’s mobile excellence awards program – SMARTIES India 2015 where the winners from 15 categories and five Industry awards were announced.

     

    Over 330 delegates and 34 industry leaders representing the mobile marketing ecosystem in the country came together for the day-long event to discuss and deliberate over the future of the industry.