Madhouse sets up shop in India

Madhouse, China-based mobile marketing company has launched in India in a bid to capitalise on the ever increasing demand for customised mobile marketing solutions. Vinod Thadani, in his capacity as chief operating officer of Madhouse India, will head the Indian operations. Previously, he was regional director, GroupM South Asia and headed the mobile business. Madhouse India plans to open offices across Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore to service brands across the spectrum. Though the agency has a strategic partnership with WPP, Madhouse India will work with other agency groups and directly with clients as well.

Thadani feels that mobile advertising is beginning to transform the way brands communicate with their consumers. Elaborating on their thoughts behind the launch, he said, “Madhouse will offer mobile marketing solutions created and carried out for advertisers by a team of experienced media professionals that understand this medium. On a technical level, mobile advertising can now achieve accurate intelligent targeting and can provide real-time reporting – a very convincing proposition for advertisers. The need of the hour is to unlock the potential and we are determined to change the face of the Indian digital media landscape and grow the mobile media market from 125 to 1000 crores within the next three years,”

Joshua Maa, founder and chief executive officer, Madhouse, observed, “We see tremendous growth and potential in India and are fully committed to investing in this market. With the right local partners, we believe that our technology and operational expertise can be leveraged to serve the unique mobile marketing needs of clients.  In China, we have been working with partners such as Rovio, EA, China Unicom’s app store, and ad agencies to grow our leadership position. Similarly in India we value our association with WPP to help develop and take leadership in this market as well.”

Ranjan Kapur, country manager, WPP explained, “Digital media is evolving and innovating at a very fast pace in India where especially mobile and handheld devices are poised to play a larger role in marketing communications. Madhouse India will help us build a unique value for our clients where in-depth domain and brand understanding is coupled with the strength of Madhouse technologies. A synergy is also established as our local market expertise and talent pool is well equipped in the Indian marketplace which is similar in complexity to China.”

The agency has also announced a partnership with Rovio, who will be reaching out to Indian brands through this association. Bijay Gurung, key account director, Rovio Entertainment, said, “We are very excited about the growing popularity of Rovio´s Angry Birds brand in India as we recognise India as one of our most important markets. India being the second largest Facebook country with a huge growth rate, it opens the door for us to entertain even more fans as we are aiming for one billion downloads by the end of the year. Madhouse is a valuable partner for us in China, and we are excited about the opportunity to extend our collaboration to India as well.”

Thadani informed that Madhouse India is already in talks with brands such as HSBC, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance, Nokia, LG, Sony Ericsson, Pepsi and Procter & Gamble, among others.