Agustin Calvo’s background is Director in Telefonica both fixed (Telefonica Sistemas) and mobile (Telefonica mobile Solutions) and manager in Nortel Networks. 5 years working abroad: in several countries in Europe and LatinAmerica. He is a recognised expert in mobile marketing and has been an active member of the board of the MMA Spain where he chaired the mobile marketing for SME’s commission. He is author of the book: Open your eyes and wake up your business (keys to survival in the world of mobile phones) which is available for free in English and Spanish in PDF format. In 2001 he founded MoviDream.
MoviDream is a mobile marketing agency based in Spain. Its main shareholder is the largest private reseller of Telefonica Moviles with over 1000 shops in Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina and more than 300 M€ yearly turnover. MoviDream’s main customers are in Spain but it also has activities in Mexico and Morocco. MoviDream has since its creation focused on using the mobile phone as a marketing channel as opposed to a Premium content micropayment. This lead to difficult times at its early years but solid know how and many innovative experiences. Since 2005 the company is in break even with 22 employees and more than 1000 loyal customers including Movistar, Heineken, Red Cross, Diageo, Phillip Morris, El Corte Ingles, Cadena SER, Renault,.. Its main strength is its strategic vision together with its demonstrated integration capabilities with other media and its full campaign creativity, implementation, operation and reporting skills.
MoviDream uses in its current services and campaigns a large set of technologies: SMS, MMS, WAP Push, videostreaming, QR Codes, WAP, Web, location (over 250.000 cellId locatable users), multimedia content, datamining, voice (over 4.000.000 voice greetings/year)....
MoviDream is currently growing fast with close to 3 million € revenues in 2006 and looks forward to extend its services into the EMEA region.
MoviDream is a founder member of the MMA Spain and can bring its experience, skilled personnel, success stories and initiative to the MMA EMEA Board. One of its initiatives has been the MMA Spain for SMEs commission and website which gathers and promotes mobile marketing products for Small and Medium Enterprises, with the aim of spreading the mobile marketing benefits to the more than 1.000.000 spanish companies. Thanks to the spanish MMA members push, today close to 1% of them are already using mobile marketing tools. Agustin Calvo even wrote and gave away for free (sponsored by Telefonica Movistar) thousands of copies of a simple and useful book in the style of “who stole my cheese” to help entrepreneurs understand the benefits and ease of use of SMS marketing solutions. These kind of initiatives could easily be replicated in the EMEA region.
Alberto Benbunan is a Venezuelan entrepreneur living in Spain since 2002.
In the mid 1990s, he founded several successful Internet start-up companies in Venezuela such as Ticketron Venezuela (tickets for events by phone and Internet), Webtron (Internet Project developments), Promotron (Events and Promotions Organizer) and TuCupon LLC CEO (Offline and Online discount coupons).
At the same time, Mr. Benbunan was Chapter Manager of "Wireless Around People" a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of wireless technologies worldwide.
When he moved to Europe, he was appointed Business Development Director at MobileSpear and later Business Development Manager at Marca’s Newspaper (Recoletos Group).
In 2004, he founded along with Salvador Carrillo "Mobile Dreams Factory." This is the leading Spanish mobile marketing and advertising agency with offices in Spain and Mexico. Since its inception, Mobile Dreams has been involved in the mobile area with innovative campaigns. Last year, Mobile Dreams won 2 MMA Awards and it has the distinction of being the first company to win two of these awards in the same year. Currently, Mobile Dreams is working with several high profile customers such as Coca-Cola, Adidas, Renault, Heineken, Vodafone, Movistar, and Cepsa, among others. Mobile Dreams is one of the founding companies of MMA’s Spanish and the unborn Mexican chapter.
Mr. Benbunan works in many different non-profit organizations in Europe and Israel.
Mr. Benbunan is an ideal candidate for the Board of Directors of MMA EMEA due to his proven track record as a successful business man in the area of wireless technologies as well as his extensive experience with international organizations. In addition to his personal experience, the international focus of Mobile Dreams and its success in the Spanish mobile market provide another compelling reason to support his candidacy for this Board of Directors position.
Marketing Director for the Microsoft Online Services Group (“OSG”) in EMEA. The OSG organization includes the msn.com and live.com services across both mobile and PC. OSG is one of the leading online sales and marketing organizations in EMEA with a presence in all major markets and a leading position in PC based communication services.
OSG is actively involved in the development of the mobile marketing industry across both consumer and advertiser propositions. The current focus on Instant Messenger will be particularly interesting to the MMA with partnerships in place with FT, Vodaphone, Bouygues and many others.
In terms of mobile marketing, I am particularly focused in how the customer base can be segmented, particularly based on the usage patterns behind Instant Messenger ad the propensity to sign-up for premium services. The brand impact of advertising on communications platforms (both mobile & PC) is also an area of research interest, particularly where campaigns can be delivered across multiple platforms.
Brief biography: Prior to joining Microsoft, I spent 10 years with the Virgin Group where I founded and then grew through to sale the broadband ISP Virgin.net. Before that, I was a TV producer. As a veteran of several dot com start-ups, I am also interested in how the MMA can work with VCs and similar organizations to gross the sector.
Alvise Zanardi, 36 years old, former Managing Director of Buongiorno France and MENA, is now responsible for Marketing Services division of Buongiorno Group. In his new role, Alvise oversees the Marketing Services development globally, overseeing activities of the different teams in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, UK, Germany and Austria, The Netherlands.
In Buongiorno since 2001 as Director of Buongiorno International, he has been involved in the European branches set up and wireless activities expansion in new markets such as Africa, MENA and APAC. Before joining Buongiorno, Alvise was in the research and development department in Generali Group (Insurance) mainly involved in post merger integration projects and in ATKearney as senior associate in the strategy division. Alvise has a degree in Finance and an MBA in Business Administration at Bocconi University, Milan. He is fluent in English, French and Italian.
Buongiorno is a multinational leader in digital entertainment. One of the first groups worldwide in the mobile value added services area, Buongiorno is market leader in Europe and the United States and has recently opened operations in emerging markets such as Latin America, Middle East and Africa.
Buongiorno’s Digital Marketing Services offer to businesses its consultancy in the conception and realization of marketing campaigns, leveraging on new technologies such as mobile phones and digital entertainment content as music, images, video and chat, for promotion, marketing and mobile advertising programs. Buongiorno’s offering covers the entire value chain, from conception to realization, throughout its own dynamic management technology of the “Ad serving” campaigns that is suitable for fixed and mobile phones’ characteristics.
Buongiorno’s Digital Marketing Services division can count on a relevant client portfolio in Europe, many of which are Fortune 500s, among which P&G, Kellogg, Mc Donald's, Masterfood, Danone, and Coca Cola. About this one, Buongiorno created the innovative digital marketing via Bluetooth campaign called “On the go”. Buongiorno and Coca Cola were short-listed among finalists at the MMA awards.
As Buongiorno Marketing services division is the Mitsui’s contact point within the Buongiorno group for digital marketing product innovation - the Japanese conglomerate is active also in the mobile services and technology industry - Buongiorno can bring to MMA Europe the expertise of one of the most advanced markets such as Japan where mobile marketing is already representing a really sizable marketplace.
Buongiorno Marketing Services strategy is to become one of the global leaders in the digital marketing industry also through and aggressive external growth policy; in fact, Buongiorno has just announced the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of HotSMS BV, an Amsterdam-based prominent player in the mobile advertising and marketing arena.
Buongiorno is member of MMA since 2005 – with a global membership as well as local membership in France, Spain and US. Simone Ranucci Buongiorno Hong Kong Co-CEO is member of MMA Asia board, and Buongiorno France is Member of Commission “Development & Promotion of Mobile Marketing on French Market” of MMA.
Alvise is bringing over 7 year's experience in mobile services and mobile-relationship marketing industry, being one of the first managers of Buongiorno since the early stage development of the company. He has a deep knowledge of European markets, having covered different roles in the past years as Managing Director in France and prior as Director Buongiorno International.
As current Global Head of Marketing Services of Buongiorno Group, one of European leaders in Mobile Marketing business, Alvise can bring substantial innovation and solid networking to MMA Europe.