MMA provides global recognition to regional campaigns

"It is now a well known fact that when it comes to innovation in mobile, the entire world is looking to the Asia Pacific region on how to do it right," said Rohit Dadwal, managing director, Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific Limited. "With a market and consumer environment that is conducive to tremendous growth in this field, the APAC region will continue to fascinate the world with its dazzling applications of mobile technology. Innovation in the region is being spearheaded by such technologically advanced markets such as Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea etc. In addition, there are several developing nations that have growing populations and low PC penetration rates making mobile their primary choice for web access and related services."

"I am pleased to once again see such enthusiasm from our members in Asia Pacific to showcase their work at this global forum. By facilitating such recognition for our regional leaders we hope to add further value to their business and contribute to their future success," Dadwal added.

The MMA will announce all award winners and recognize the finalists at the Annual Global Awards dinner and ceremony, held the evening of November 17 at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. Here is what some of the finalists from the region had to say about their campaigns and what it means to be recognised by the MMA:

Affle India Pvt. Ltd. for Sports Sponsorship Goes Mobile

"We are very happy that our work with Maruti Suzuki to make sports sponsorships go mobile has been recognized by the MMA globally. For this particular campaign we leveraged multiple high impact mobile media opportunities to drive association with sports for Maruti Suzuki. Given the high mobile reach and the popularity of sports related content amongst users, we reached out to over 7Mn users with engaging advertising on SMS2.0, Mobile Internet, Voice Portals & SMS. The results for this branding campaign were equally dramatic helping up TOM awareness levels by 33%, product enquiries by 17% and delivering CTR's of over 7%. We believe that campaigns like this are true game changers and are helping make mobile the new mass media, which can effectively be used for scalable and high impact branding and engagement campaigns," said Anuj Kumar, executive director (South Asia), Affle.

Clearhub Pte Ltd. for ringEmail push Unified Mobility Suite

"Clearhub's ringEmail push Unified Mobility Suite uses compression and encryption technology to dramatically reduce data transfer to your mobile phone by 50 times resulting in more than 50 times faster performance without sacrificing capability," said Kevin Chia, chairman of Clearhub, "and we are honoured to be selected as Finalist for the MMA Awards 2010 under Innovation, APAC."

Iconmobile for The North Face Red Flag Campaign

Never Stop Exploring is the line behind the brand The North Face. The North Face believes everyone can be an adventurer. However, China was a great challenge for the brand as most modern Chinese have yet to adopt such a lifestyle. Iconmobile helped these urban dwellers and Internet explorers take their first step through a fully integrated plan that covered advertising, online and mobile marketing, in-store retail promotions, field marketing and live events at Beijing and Shanghai for over 18 days.

"Technology is not the driver but the enabler. To make use of the anytime anywhere features of mobile phone that integrates seamlessly into a well planned 360 degree campaign is the key to the success of any mobile marketing campaign. The North Face Red Flag campaign showed a perfect match between brand image, technology and user behaviour making it a grand success," said Joseph Tsang, managing director for Iconmobile in China.

Madhouse Inc. for Pepsi Music Revolutionary on Mobile

"Pepsi Battle of the Bands 2009 was a nationwide campaign in China to identify the country's most stellar musical band. It was broadcast on Zhejiang Satellite TV, traditional internet and mobile internet, with an unprecedented 360º online/on-air viewing experience. The advertiser wanted to engage the youth of China by the integration of TV, traditional internet and mobile internet, and the interaction between a virtual, online environment and reality. We are proud to be recognised for this one of a kind campaign," said Wendy Wang, associate marketing director, Madhouse Inc.

NAVTEQ Media Solutions for Pioneering Location Aware Mobile Ad Drives Consumers to Point of Purchase

"Recent MSRI research shows 78% of consumers say they welcome LocationPoint ad services on their mobile devices and reaffirms the power of the service in driving store traffic. The survey indicates consumers are receptive and responsive to ads when those ads are contextually relevant. It shows strong, stable consumer acceptance of LocationPoint - and even suggests consumer acceptance grows with continued exposure. LocationPoint's unique location intelligence is what drives that level of acceptance and makes the ads measurably impactful," said Christopher Rothey, vice president - Advertising, NAVTEQ.

"Location is the new demographic. It's no longer just about age, gender, and socio-economics, but about reaching mobile users who are in a geographic position to buy," added Rothey. "These findings show the power of LPA in helping advertisers find location-relevant consumers and guide those consumers into stores."

POCKETvouchers for Tui Blond Lager Sampling Campaign

"POCKETvouchers has been delivering trackable SMS voucher campaigns in New Zealand since 2007 but it is great to have our work recognized on a global stage. The Tui Blond lager campaign was a great example of using mobile to turn online advertising into tangible results, driving 26,000 new database registrations and 15,000 product samples through the participating bars" said Todd Wackrow, managing director of POCKETvouchers.

The Hyperfactory for Clinique 3-Step Product Launch & Sampling Campaign

"Once again the team at The Hyperfactory is delighted that our work has been recognised as world class by the MMA. The Clinique 3-Step campaign was a fantastic example of how the mobile channel has evolved into a powerful channel even without all the hype and innovation. A simple, straightforward sampling campaign that resulted in delivery of samples to the target audience at the lowest cost per sample of all channels and the acquisition of an engaged and open database made this campaign a success" said Geoffrey Handley, co-founder of The Hyperfactory.

TELiBrahma Convergent Communications Pvt. Ltd. for free on demand video delivery

"Sprite, a brand of Coca-Cola and one of the many sponsors for the CLT20 2009 event, wanted to achieve a superior recall amongst all the sponsors. This was a real challenge to achieve in a crowded market place. The brand wanted us to achieve scale, innovation and connect through mobile. We addressed these challenges with our proprietary solution BluFi that was deployed in stadiums where the matches were scheduled. We reached out to more than a million users during 70 hours of cricket match. We processed & converted live feed from ESPN into multiple mobile formats, indexed and included in the menu that was delivered to consumers mobile to enrich consumer experience. The brand witnessed a sporting event deliver real ROI and higher brand recall registered on consumers mind," said P.R Satheesh, president, TELiBrahma Convergent Communications Pvt. Ltd.

TELiBrahma Convergent Communications Pvt. Ltd. for Not another case of LOST entity

"Cadbury 5 Star is the 2nd largest chocolate brand in Indian market with a market share of 14%. Being a low priced FMCG brand, operating in a highly competitive market, Cadbury's wanted to make sure that they create deeper engagements in order to generate stronger brand connect at lower costs per engagement," said P.R Satheesh, president, TELiBrahma Convergent Communications Pvt. Ltd.

"'Getting lost in the taste of 5 Star' is the single line brief that had to be creatively rendered. We had to ensure that audience got lost in the taste of 5 Star but not the brand, in the clutter of communication. We created various exciting engagements for the students that included a treasure hunt, find your crush and other contests, all on mobile that engaged 1,10,000 users across 17 days of the event. Our solution not only demonstrated how a brand could create engagements to break away from the clutter but also created user generated content for the brand," Satheesh added.

For more information about the Annual Global Awards dinner and ceremony, go to mmaglobal.com/awards/ceremony-2010.