D2C of Japan and Singapore-headquartered Affle Group of companies have floated ad2c as an independent full service mobile advertising and marketing agency. The agency's launch has coincided with the acquisition of MobiMasta, India’s first mobile marketing agency established in 2009, to combine their synergies with a team of mobile marketers.
Anuj Khanna Sohum, founder and chairman, ad2c, said, “India has a bright future as a mobile marketing destination with the insatiable consumer appetite for mobile content, games, news, music, video, applications, rich media and so on. Backed by credible partners that have dominated the mobile advertising business with over 10,000 campaigns delivered in Japan and Asia, ad2c’s entry in India will fulfill the need of an experienced and a competent partner to fuel innovations in mobile advertising and communications industry and this we believe would enable the disproportionate growth for mobile advertising in India.”
Takayuki Hoshuyama, chief executive officer, D2 Communications, said, “We are very excited about ad2c’s launch in India. We will bring to this venture the deep understanding of the mobile platform and the existing formats that can be adapted to the Indian marketplace. In our view there is an interesting similarity between India and Japan; both markets have seen the advent of typical smartphones in the last couple of years. Our success in driving mobile innovations in Japan was not limited by non-availability of smart phones. We will drive ad2c’s success in the Indian market as our success in Japan.”
Madan Sanglikar, chief executive officer, ad2c, added, “We are delighted to have hit the ground running. Our team at ad2c is already working with some of the most exciting brands in the market from FMCG to sports to mobile handset space. We look forward to creating exciting and engaging innovations for Indian companies going forward. Mobile’s popularity among the brands will be driven by the platform’s ability to offer location based consumer offers, interactivity. It will drive immediate call to action and provide rich media content apart from giving high return on investments to clients. Those days of only 50 per cent of advertising working for brands are over. Mobile marketing will bring in greater accountability.”
Commenting on the launch of ad2c, CVL Srinivas, chairman, SMG India and managing director, LiquidThread, APAC, said, “With over 771 million mobile phone users in India many small and big brands are seeing mobile marketing as a potent extension to the existing modes of advertising and connecting with consumers. ad2c is poised well to cash in on this boom. The capability of the mobile to target users and reach the right audience in the best possible way makes this space exciting. We have witnessed its increased popularity among our clients in markets worldwide and are confident that mobile marketing and innovations platform will experience double digit growth in India for many years to come.”
Rohit Ohri, executive chairman, Dentsu India Group, added, “We are delighted with the extension of the Dentsu family in India. ad2c will certainly add to Dentsu India Group’s capabilities in providing latest and coolest mobile innovations to our clients. We are convinced about the growing importance of the use of mobile in the marketing mix of all brands. With ad2c’s launch the important gap of a credible partner who could help in addressing marketing challenges and pushing brand messages using the mobile platform, has been filled.”
