| WPP leads traditional agencies in take-up of mobile marketing |
| Wednesday, 06 April 2005 | |
|
New Media Age - Sir Martin Sorrell's advertising giant WPP Group has sent out a formal request for proposals (RFP) to find a global mobile marketing partner. Industry insiders view this as the first stage in a process that will see WPP acquire a mobile marketing agency.The move highlights a push by agency networks to stake a claim in the young mobile marketing sector, either by partnership or investment. Other agency networks understood to be actively on the hunt for such deals include Aegis and Omnicom. "Over the past three months we've had meetings with four of the biggest advertising holding companies, at a global CEO level, telling us they want to buy us or take a minority investment," said a source at one mobile marketing company. "It has shocked us at how high a level these were." WPP has been in talks with a number of mobile marketing agencies as it looks to include the medium as one of its core capabilities. "WPP has a huge RFP out for a global mobile marketing partner," said a source. "Mobile is being taken much more seriously and it's trying to buy in expertise." At another agency, a source said, "It's looking to acquire capability. It needs to work out whether to buy a company, or buy functionality and plug it into its existing networks." The last four years have seen a running debate as to when the traditional advertising sector would wake up to mobile marketing and begin to move in on mobile marketing specialists. Although brands including Coca Cola and Cadbury's have run straightforward mobile activity, such as text-and-win campaigns, the last six months have seen an upswing in brand interest as high-spec colour phones and fast networks usher in richer multimedia mobile marketing. At mobile marketing agency Enpocket, CEO Peter Larsen said, "As we've moved SMS into richer media, the bigger traditional creative agencies are seeing the potential of mobile marketing, along with higher budgets." At Flytxt, co-founder Pamir Gelenbe said, "2005 is the year mobile grows up and there's no doubt marketing services firms need their own offering. Mobile is also now happening in the US and a lot of agencies are US-led." © Copyright Flytxt Ltd 2006. Unauthorized use of any content constitutes a material breach. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|