Qualcomm believes advertising provides an opportunity to establish a critical new revenue stream for the mobile industry. To realize this potential, a fresh value chain and set of relationships will need to be established. Qualcomm’s track record of providing platform technologies and tools that support the emergence of an innovative ecosystem of partners will be a valuable reference point to the MMA through this process. Qualcomm is an existing member and strong supporter of MMA activities in the US.
Anthony Sheehan is Business Development Director for Qualcomm Europe. Anthony is responsible for building Qualcomm software and services business with European operators, media companies and application developers. Anthony led the team responsible for the breakthrough launches of BREW applications and the uiOne user interface solution at TIM and O2 in 2007. BREW solutions power a vast array of content services at 70 operators worldwide and have generated over $700m of direct value for developer and publisher BREW ecosystem partners.
Anthony has been a strong advocate of mobile advertising within Qualcomm since 2005 and believes that only a genuine cross-industry organization such as the MMA can establish the common working practices and standards required to deliver the commercial environment and high quality end-user experience that will allow mobile advertising to scale rapidly over the next 2-3 years. This will be particularly critical in Europe where the demands of multiple language and legal frameworks will present additional challenges to be overcome in the early stages.
Anthony was previously Director of Applications and Services at Packetvideo where he was responsible for delivering the first commercial mobile music and video services with European operators and media companies.
Anthony has a strong track record of participation in industry associations and non-profit organizations having sat on the Advisory Board of the Games Developer Conference Mobile and worked closely with the MEF Board in the early days of that organization. He was founding Chief Executive of the UK’s first regional non-profit digital media networking organization, Wired Sussex, establishing a model that became the basis for UK government support for technology industries across the UK. He has also advised at a ministerial level to the UK government on mobile sector policy and promotion.
I would be honored for your consideration for nomination to the MMA Board of Directors.
Having graduated with a BA degree in Business Administration, I entered the mobile world in 1994 as a young entrepreneur. I am proud to have served in different disciplines of mobile industry for more than a decade.
As Mobilera’s founder and marketing director, I am in charge of mobile marketing, mobile advertising, VAS and community management services. I focused my efforts to bring Mobilera to the forefront of Turkey’s flourishing mobile marketing industry and have shown dramatic progress since its inception in 2001.
Now, Mobilera is the leading mobile solutions provider in Turkey with regional offices in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Georgia and employs around 150 people.
Mobilera has played a leading role in the development and implementation of mobile marketing in Turkey and now has the commitment to contribute to development in the countries it operates.
I am happy to have a key role in Mobilera’s success as pioneer in the mobile industry including:
• First push SMS services for promotional purposes in Turkey, 2001
• Introduction of Turkey’s first-ever pull campaign in 2003 (Lipton Ice Tea/Unilever - on pack promotion)
• First mobile donation project via SMS in 2003. Since then, dozens of donation campaigns have been executed including Unicef.
• Introduction of mobile community management in 2005 with Turkcell’s Youth Club, “gnctrkcll”. Since its beginning the member base reached a number of 15 million subscribers.
• Introduction of Turkey’s first mobile couponing project in 2005 (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Nestle)
• First “mobile-only” launch campaign in Turkey. (P&G launched its Olay Brand using MMS as the single advertising medium in 2006)
Under my project leadership Mobilera has implemented innovative and buzz creating projects such as breaking a world record of “Largest Photo Mosaic” created only by pictures (sent via MMS) and entered Guinness Book of World Records in 2006.
As a testament to its expertise and creativity in Mobile Marketing, in 2006 Mobilera was named “The Fastest Growing Technology Company” in Turkey and ranked 15th in EMEA region ( 2nd in telecommunications) according to Deloitte Fast 500 Survey.
I am proud to be an active member of MMA since March 2006. I have attended many MMA conferences and events including New York, Amsterdam and Istanbul. I believe MMA plays a crucial role in the mobile marketing world by setting standards for quality and efficiency while gathering and keeping the pulse of all players within the industry.
I am grateful for the opportunity to be nominated to the Board of Directors, and am confident that if given a seat on the board, I will be carrying all my enthusiasm, dynamism, experience and know-how that comes from actively working in a region where East meets West.
I thank you and look forward to your consideration.
Yours Sincerely,
Arda Kertmelioglu
Armando Avila is General Manager Europe & LATAM.- Based in Madrid, he manages the EU and LATAM Operations for: Digital Self and Social Expression Contents (avatars, emoticons, winks, etc…) for Microsoft MSN Instant Messenger in 12 Countries and Mobile Contents for more than 24 Mobile Operators (I mode/ Wap/ Brew). The territory covered with MSN is Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, UK, Belgium, Mexico and Brazil. The Mobile Operators are: Spain (Telefonica, Vodafone), Italy (Vodafone, Wind), France (SFR, Bouygues, Orange), Belgium (Mobistar, Proximus), UK (O2), Switzerland (Orange) and Telefonica LATAM (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Venezuela).
Avila is strongly Internationally involved with Internet and Mobile Marketing Campaigns mainly since it is one of it main incomes in addition to content download. On Portal Mobile Campaigns with banners on WAP/ I mode sites and SMS (MO and MO + MT) campaigns have been used many times to promote the companies services and have been sold also to 3rd parties.
An active participant in industry associations, he served as member of the Spanish Mobile Association (AESAM) where he lead the “on portal” Mobile commission and acted as speaker many times at the MEF association in London and Barcelona.
Prior to joining AG Interactive, Avila most recently served as accounts director for Tempos 21, a company created by Telefónica Movistar, Hewlett Packard and Ericsson to develop the corporate mobile market. He led the first Spanish cell location mobile service to mass consumers, creating a partnership between MSN and Telefónica Movistar. He held for a long period of time the Mobile Marketing Manager position where he established a network of partnerships with Marketing Agencies to supply the mobile technology for Mobile marketing Campaigns. In the year 2000, Avila served as co founder and business development director for the Spanish subsidiary of Sybase 365 (Mobileway). He participated in promoting the first SMS services in Spain and very quickly closed important deals leading the SMS to mass media formats such as TV, radio and magazines making them popular. Previously, he also served other telecom and technological companies, and has worked in Hong Kong, USA, and Mexico.
Avila holds an MBA from the ESADE at Barcelona Spain, attended the HKUST at Hong Kong, and is an Industrial Engineer from the ITESM Mexico City. He previously studied in French schools in Paris and Mexico City.
Company Highlights
AG Interactive is the new media division of American Greetings Corporation, a $ 2 billion dollar publicly-held
company and one of the world’s leading manufacturers of social expression products. It has a strong knowledge
of mobile marketing in EU, LATAM and USA.
Highlights of active participation within the MMA
None Yet. But very interested and Motivated.
Reasons why candidate should be considered for Board of Directors position
1. More than 7 years of experience on the Mobile Industry.
2. Strong Knowledge of SMS / Wap / Imode/ Brew due to his current and previous positions.
3. Strong understanding of Mobile Marketing possibilities and limits.
4. Very strong internationality
5. Contacts with many Marketing Agencies.
6. And most important, a background of many Mobile Marketing campaigns done.
I am responsible for the successful development and execution of mobile advertising for Yahoo! and our partners across Europe.
Yahoo! first launched mobile extensions of the company’s leading services in 1999 and today, through more than 50 global partnerships with mobile operators and device manufacturers worldwide, offers a variety of mobile services to consumers via SMS, the mobile web, as well as applications such as Yahoo! Go.
Yahoo! began leveraging its web strengths in search advertising for mobile in 2004 when it launched the world’s first mobile sponsored search product in Japan. This was followed by the launch of its mobile graphical advertising program in October 2006.
A graduate of Cambridge University, most of my career has been dedicated to bringing new services and technologies to market. I have immersed myself in mobile data services for the past six years.
At Orange UK I led much of the company’s thinking on what was required to enable customers to access services beyond the confines of Orange World. I was responsible for developing next-generation payment services and for implementing Orange’s response to the cross-operator code of practice for new forms of content. At Vodafone I managed the landmark global deal with Google on search and sponsored links.
In my new role at Yahoo!, one of my immediate priorities is to ensure that we develop a successful partnership in display advertising with Vodafone UK. But I will not be able to achieve this without playing a far wider role in ensuring that mobile in general gains traction as an advertising channel.
Irrespective of my potential election to the MMA EMEA Board, my commitment will remain in 2007 to actively participate in the association to evangelise the opportunities uniquely available to the mobile medium, while leveraging the best practices of advertising industry as it exists today.