Havas Media’s Mobext eyes mobile marketing dominance

The announcement marks Mobext’s rapid expansion across the region, coming just weeks after the launch of operations in Singapore and Malaysia.

Mobext is now present in six markets across the region, but it is expected that it will also venture into China before the end of the year.

Arthur Policarpio (right), formerly the CEO of Mobext Philippines, will now head up Mobext operations across Asia.

He told Campaign Asia-Pacific that Mobext’s rapid expansion is indicative of its belief that “the time for mobile is now”.

He said foundations have been laid, with strong mobile penetration rates and high numbers of mobile subscribers across the region, and the task now is to make a “compelling proposition” to advertisers to increase investment.

It could be a tough task, with the goal to increase spend on mobile a notoriously difficult one. Despite years of discussion around its opportunities, there remains a significant gap between the time spent by consumers on mobile and advertising spend on mobile marketing.

Policarpio said he hopes to see around 5 to 10 per cent of marketing budgets dedicated to mobile. “It may be aggressive, but over time it will eventually get there,” he said.

Mobext’s strategy will be to encourage marketers to experiment in the mobile space rather than continue to theorise about it.

Instead of pitching for large projects, Mobext will aim to increase advertisers’ comfort level with mobile but encourage experimentation on smaller projects that require initial investments of “a few thousand dollars”, Policarpio said.

“If projects on this scale are successful, marketers will open to increase investment by 20-fold,” he said.

Mobext will also invest in research in its drive to become the leading mobile marketing network in Asia.

“There are lot of mobile players but no single dominant player that stands out as a network,” he said. “It’s our aim to become the biggest mobile agency network [across Asia], working with the largest clients.”

He also called on industry bodies like the Mobile Marketing Association, to develop unified standards of measurement for mobile, highlighting this as a key reason why investment in mobile marketing remains so low.