Signaling its belief in the growth potential of mobile marketing, OgilvyOne last week announced a marketing partnership with mobile data services provider Acision.
“There is tremendous client interest in mobile marketing,” said Brian Fetherstonhaugh, chairman and CEO at OgilvyOne Worldwide, during a phone call from Germany. This is one reason why OgilvyOne has identified mobile marketing in its strategic plan as an area of “tremendous growth” over the next five years, he continued.
Another growth area pinpointed by OgilvyOne is the telecommunications industry, a sector where Acision already has deep relationships, Fetherstonhaugh continued. “The main value that this partnership will bring to a telecommunications company is to really help the company unlock the marketing value of the customer data that it already has,” he said.
While many telecommunications companies think that the next step is simply to start offering mobile advertising to their customers, OgilvyOne and Acision will be able to help these companies “get value in many different ways by helping them reduce turns in their customer bases, accelerate the adoption of data services and increase the timeliness and reduce the cost of customer service,” Fetherstonhaugh said.
In addition to its deep ties within the telecommunications industry, Acision brings to the partnership a mobile platform currently used by more than 300 network operators and generating more than half of all global text and multimedia messaging traffic worldwide. This, when combined with OgilvyOne’s CRM, analytics and brand building experience “is a really powerful combination,” Fetherstonhaugh said. OgilvyOne was recently named DM and CRM agency of record for the Sears and Kmart brands.
While the telecommunications industry is the first industry vertical where the partnership will be applied, Fetherstonhaugh said that the potential for “unlocking customer value goes beyond telecommunications.”
The OgilvyOne, Acision relationship is a global preferred partnership. The application of mobile marketing is, however, “at different stages of development” in various parts of the world, Fetherstonhaugh said. Asia and Western Europe, for example, “are substantially advanced in most aspects compared to the US.”
The companies are already involved in some pilot tests together in Western Europe, Asia and the US.
