Singapore, April 29, 2009 – Mobile Marketing Forum Asia (MMF), the premier industry event organized by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) ended today after an extremely successful conference held over two days. Over 325 mobile industry executives participated in the event. The MMF Asia was held in collaboration with the Infocomm Development Authority (iDA) of Singapore and Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), and had a special focus on Visual Code.

“We’ve seen tremendous support from the mobile marketing and Advertising ecosystem including leading companies AdMob, Comverse, Group M, Infinita Inc., I-new, Microsoft, Nokia, Omnicom Media, Proctor & Gamble, SMART Communications, Singapore Press Holdings, SingTel, Smaato, Turkcell, and Velti. There is a lot of potential for collaboration and partnership, which is of great value to our members. The MMA will continue to play a pivotal role on behalf of our members in developing the industry by sharing best practices, working with the industry on policies and guidelines in local markets and providing platforms like MMF to showcase the successes of our members,” said Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, MMA Asia Pacific.

“We’re delighted at the enthusiasm and interest in mobile marketing in this region. The response to MMF has been extremely positive, with solid representation from the different segments of the mobile marketing industry. The industry players are all committed to the success of the industry, based on the realization that the mobile phone is the only device that stays with a consumer throughout the day, and therefore presents a unique opportunity for engagement,” said Mike Wehrs, President and CEO of the MMA, who was in Singapore for the event.

In the Asia Pacific alone, mobile subscribers are forecast to reach 3 billion in the near future, with average penetration rates 20 times higher than Internet connectivity in many countries. Research from eMarketer suggests Asia Pacific spending on mobile advertising will reach a total of US$6.9 billion in 2012, by which time the region could potentially contribute around 36% of global mobile advertising spend.

Jeff Merkel, Managing Director of AdMob for Asia Pacific and Latin America, shared some interesting data on the growing use of mobile web, “Mobile internet traffic in Asia has grown twice as fast as Europe. In the last 12 months, Asia has seen an increase in impressions from 629 million to 2.2 billion. We see smartphone adoption driving a surprisingly high share of mobile web usage in this region, with Thailand having the highest number of smartphones closely followed by Singapore and Hong Kong.”

Andy Zain, Founder, MobileMonday Indonesia, highlighted some local nuances for a growth market, “Indonesia has 105 million mobile subscribers today. Of these, nine million subscribers use mobile internet. On average, Indonesian users browse 358 mobile pages per month, way above the world average of 238 page views, and the highest in Asia. This is driven by a combination of customer behavior, an open culture, value pricing and availability of handsets. Collaboration with telecom operators and application developers will be crucial for the success of mobile marketing in Indonesia.”

Japan is one market that has set the stage for mobile marketing. Kei Shimada, Founder and CEO, Infinita Inc. said, “Japan has a population of 127 million, with 102 million mobile subscribers. Of these, nine out of ten use mobile web.” He shared case studies of location-based services, job search applications, and self service options that consumers refer to on a daily basis. “A few factors contributing to the success of mobile marketing in Japan include the move to 3G, open-minded operators that collaborate with device manufacturers, technology enablers and content providers to offer services to consumers. In addition, we see little device fragmentation, an open market, revenue shares that favor content owners and the fact that one in three users is on ‘all you can eat’ plans.”

T Faud, Head of Mobile at Yahoo! Southeast Asia had some advice for the participants at the event, “Develop content relevant for mobile, integrate mobile into the overall marketing campaign, keep it simple and embrace the medium.”

Mr. Dadwal added, “Mobile delivers on the promise of one-to-one marketing with a personal, targeted conversation and a higher level of interaction. Relevant, tailored, and timely messages to a consumer’s mobile phone can translate to high conversion rates for vendors and operators. And mobile offers increasingly attractive returns on investment, especially as advertising budgets get cut and marketers look for smarter ways of connecting with their consumers.”

The event covered a range of topics of interest to brands and agencies, content creators, aggregators and media houses, operators and regulators, device manufacturers, application developers and platform owners. Over 175 delegates physically attended the event with an additional 150 people accessing the live webcast feed from around the world.
Session tracks included 11 case study presentations and six panel discussions, with 48 high profile speakers talking about monetizing mobile advertising strategies, maximizing reach, and creating full service offerings with mobile advertising networks. Other tracks offered perspectives on the kinds of applications that are driving consumer adoption, and how brands and agencies can engage with Asian consumers.

MMF Asia was also available to a global audience via live streaming for the first time. This was made possible through a partnership with bnetTV.com, and marks the start of a global partnership that will see all MMF content repurposed for web and DVD for convenient access to the industry. MMF is planned for New York in June 2009, Berlin in September 2009, and San Diego in November 2009. After a successful conference in Singapore, the MMA next moves to India for the launch of the India Local Council in Mumbai on May 5, 2009.
 

About the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is the premier global non-profit trade association established to lead the growth of mobile marketing and its associated technologies. The MMA is an action-oriented organization designed to clear obstacles to market development, establish mobile media guidelines and best practices for sustainable growth, and evangelize the use of the mobile channel. It has more than 700 member companies, representing over forty countries around the globe, including all members of the mobile media ecosystem. The Mobile Marketing Association’s global headquarters are located in the United States and it has regional chapters including North America (NA), Europe, Latin American (LATAM), Middle East & Africa (MEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) branches. For more information, please visit www.mmaglobal.com. For more information on Mobile Marketing Forum, please visit www.mobilemarketingforum.com.

Media Contacts:

Central email: [email protected]
 

Sonya Madeira-Stamp
Rice Communications on behalf of MMA
+65 9450 1090
[email protected]

Joan Khor
Rice Communications on behalf of MMA
+65 9187 0990
[email protected]