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Tag: Mobext

  • Prior to joining Mobext, Marco spent six years as Associate Director at Phonevalley, Publicis Groupe's mobile marketing agency

    Mobext appoints Marco Rigon as its global head

     By A Correspondent

     

    Marco Rigon

    Mobext announced that it has appointed Marco Rigon as its global head, to further develop Havas Group’s overall mobile marketing strategy for its clients worldwide.

     

    Mobext, Havas Media’s award winning specialist mobile label, has offices in 53 countries around the globe which makes it the largest integrated mobile marketing agency and the first one to offer specialised end-to-end mobile marketing services within the global arena. Marco will work across all areas where mobile has an impact for clients and as Mobext continues to work in close collaboration with the group’s other products and services.

     

    Prior to joining Mobext, Marco spent six years as Associate Director at Phonevalley, Publicis Groupe’s mobile marketing agency. Previous to this he worked as business development director for Sharp Mobile in Southern Europe, and has also worked as a consultant supporting mobile operators such as Orange and Vodafone.

     

    With such long-standing expertise in digital marketing and emerging technologies, and having worked in the US, Europe and APAC, Marco, 38, will be charged with developing innovative, non-intrusive mobile experiences which connect consumers with brands across all of the group’s global operations.

     

    Marco Rigon commented: “It’s been clear from my meetings with Havas that they are serious about their investment in mobile and understand the power and impact it will have for their clients’ businesses. Mobext’s team of technologists, designers and strategists share my passion for creating innovative, meaningful experiences for people. With teams of experts in 53 offices around the world we are already in a great position to leverage its significant international expertise.

     

    I am particularly excited to join Havas Group as I can see how the group’s more integrated and flexible structure will allow me to push mobile thinking across its teams, without any inter-company barriers or silos.”

     

     

  • Havas Media has announced the launch of mobile marketing brand Mobext in Singapore and Malaysia with Michael de Souza being appointed General Manager of the newly launched agency

    Havas Media launches Mobext in S’pore, M’sia

    By A Correspondent

     

    Havas Media has announced the launch of mobile marketing brand Mobext in Singapore and Malaysia with Michael de Souza being appointed General Manager of the newly launched agency.

     

    Mobext Singapore and Malaysia will leverage the strengths of sister agency MPG and Havas Digital siblings Media Contacts and Ecselis and their strong portfolio of clients like Resorts World Sentosa, DBS Bank, NTUC Fairprice, Abbott, to expand its business in the market.

     

    Currently present in 19 markets globally, Mobext offers an end-to-end mobile marketing agency service to clients. The agency’s offering in Singapore will include messaging services like sms and download; mobile internet services like WAP consulting and development, mobile display, mobile search; proximity based services including LBS and mapping. It will also offer integration through reporting and analytics by Havas Digital’s campaign management platform.

     

    Mr de Souza is a digital strategist with broad agency, ad network, media planning and content development experience. He joins the agency from global advertising network Buzzcity Pte Ltd, where he served as a VP for Media. During his 12-year career, he has managed cross-channel campaigns and developed content for brands including Coca-Cola, Nestle, EAGames, Disney, Nike and MTN.

     

    Commenting on the launch, Vishnu Mohan, CEO of Havas Media Asia Pacific said, “Singapore and Malaysia are strategically important markets for Havas Media and very advanced when it comes to mobile penetration and usage. We think that the time is just right for the launch of Mobext in the two markets. Our vision is to be the only pure-play mobile marketing agency network with truly regional scale across the entire Asia-Pacific, with strong mobile leaders in every major Asian market. This will allow us to work with the largest advertisers across the region for region-wide mobile marketing agency campaigns.”

     

    The launch of Mobext in Singapore follows the launch of the agency brand in Asia Pacific starting from India in the second quarter of 2011. This year in February, the media group acquired a majority stake in Snapworx Mobile Inc in the Philippines, following which the agency was rebranded as Mobext.

     

  • The platform allows companies to launch sophisticated, multi-country mobile messaging campaigns

    Havas arm launches mobile msgng platform

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mobext, the mobile marketing agency brand of Havas Digital, has announced the launch of a proprietary, next generation global mobile messaging platform. The platform allows companies to launch sophisticated, multi-country mobile messaging campaigns.

     

    Rob Griffin, EVP – Global Director of Product Development of Havas Digital said: “With the exponential growth in mobile and mobile’s growing importance in creating meaningful brands, Havas Digital is proud to be rolling out Mobext’s ‘SAM’ for our clients. SAM, which stands for ‘Simplified Automated Messaging’, is a mobile messaging platform managed by Havas Digital’s Mobext division and was built for global scale that can be deployed very quickly to support our clients’ increasing messaging requirements. Mobile messaging is often overlooked due to mobile rich media, smartphones and tablets but we feel it is a critically efficient element when optimizing a consumer’s experience with a brand by supporting and enhancing CRM, social media, and promotional activities.”

     

    Among key features of the platform is the ability to send personalized, highly targeted SMS to an opt-in mobile database. It also enables powerful, 2-way SMS marketing campaigns, allowing advertisers to launch a vast array of interactive mobile campaigns such as polling, voting, trivia, contests, data profiling, couponing, on-pack promotions, and many others.

     

    SAM is managed and hosted in the Philippines.  The platform is already live in the Philippines, India and Argentina, with plans to launch it before end 2012 in all other Mobext markets worldwide.

     

    Arthur Policarpio, Asia-Pacific Head of Mobext as well as CEO of Mobext Philippines said: “The problem with most SMS marketing platforms is the high-degree of complexity as well as lack of global scale – it is an extremely complicated process to secure short codes as well as SMS push pipelines on a per country basis.  SAM simplifies all this. SAM enables enterprises of all sizes to quickly launch a multi-country, mobile messaging campaign – all from a simplified, easy-to-use web-based platform.”

     

  • Ex-Google industry veteran charged with leading Havas Digital’s search responsibilities

    Havas Digital names Alan Boughen SVP Global Search Director

    By A Correspondent

     

    Havas Digital, the umbrella group that manages all of Havas Media’s digital assets, including interactive media group Media Contacts, mobile marketing specialist Mobext, and creative interactive network Archibald Ingall Stretton, amongst others, announced that ex-Google advertising Search expert, Alan Boughen has been named SVP, Global Search Director, effective immediately.

     

    Based in London, and reporting directly to Rob Griffin, EVP Global Director of Product Development, Mr Boughen is charged with managing and developing the Search product within the agency. Mr Boughen will be managing Havas Digital’s search partners and building stronger relationships with the agency’s global clients, with a strong focus on continued development of search services and teams.

     

    Mr Boughen joins Havas Digital from Google where he was a Global Agency Business Leader. He was responsible for managing Google’s strategy and relationships with some of the world’s largest media and advertising agency networks.

    Prior to joining Google in March 2008, Mr Boughen spent over 7 years in senior search marketing roles at WPP companies in the UK and US. Mr Boughen launched and led the US operations of NeoSearch@Ogilvy, the search marketing division of Ogilvy’s digital and direct media global network, where he managed a large team of search marketing experts running SEM campaigns for Ogilvy’s Fortune 1000 clients.

     

    Before working in search marketing, Mr Boughen held positions with AIG and Whirlpool where he gained a background in information technology, business analysis and project management.

     

    “The search landscape is evolving at an extremely fast pace and advertisers are demanding more sophisticated solutions in order to stay relevant. In order to meet the needs and requirements of our clients, we need best in class tools and the most knowledgeable professionals. We have known Alan for a long time, and we are convinced he will add a new level of strategic leadership to the team, and will help define our Search capabilities going forward,” said Mr Griffin.

    Mr Boughen added: “I look forward to becoming a part of the Havas Digital team. By combining my search experience with the advanced search capabilities of Havas Digital, I will ensure all of our clients get the results they’ve come to expect.”