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The global Mobile Marketing Association is launching into Australia and New Zealand as it looks to connect with more local brands and build the mobile industry here.
While it is launching with 20 local members including Dentsu Aegis; Inmobi; Amobee; Big Mobile; Kellogg; Millward Brown; and Group M, the question is being asked in the market whether the industry needs yet another trade body.
Rohit Dadwal, Asia Pacific managing director for the MMA, told AdNews that while it has already been interacting with international brands that have operations in Australia, the MMA is responding to a demand that wasn't being met from a regional perspective for the local market.
He said it plans to put in place its cross-marketing effectiveness studies (SMOX) to help brands with a mobilefirst approach. “Our objective is to really help provide the necessary assistance, guidance and structure to help build the industry,” Dadwal said.
Whether the MMA is welcomed from all quarters is up for debate. Some industry observers, who didn’t want to be named, question the relevance of a standalone mobile association, pointing to the fact the 'year of the mobile' has come and gone a number of times already.
Some say mobile should not be a silo but embedded into everything that brands and publishers are already doing. However, Dadwal is confident the MMA can play a role in Australia and hopes to grow its member base from 20 to 45 in the coming year. “Now is the right time for us to enter the market. There's a far bigger industry that's been moving up.
The top-tier advertisers have been focusing on mobile for the past three to five years, but this move is based on their feedback, as well as the growing infrastructure and industry landscape,” he said.
Big Mobile CEO and MMA board member, Graham Christie, told AdNews he hopes the MMA will be able to replicate locally the same brand connections with the likes of Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Unilever, that it has globally. “It’s unusual for trade associations, because some find it very difficult to get ongoing contribution from brands. The MMA enjoys those relationships in other markets and I think that's exciting,” Christie said.
“Having to do mobile isn’t the argument – it's how to do mobile. And for brands to do it well and to get that competitive advantage in the sector is actually the name of the game.”
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