Mobile Marketing Agencies

Over the last five years there's been a massive boom in mobile marketing and mobile advertising which has lead to a load of new mobile marketing agencies emerging.  Of course the big generalist and digital agencies are also moving into this area now as well, by developing their own mobile-focused teams or mobile-specific units and buying up some of the independent agencies.  There are lots of differences between the different types of agencies in terms of their scale, their overall approach to mobile marketing, the types of services they focus on and the types of clients they focus on. 

I've put together a quick list of some of the mobile marketing agencies out there at the moment - it's a pretty UK/ London specific at the moment, however, if people have suggestions for others on the list shout in the comments and we will add them in.  

Hopefully this will be useful to anyone looking for a mobile marketing agency or wanting to understand more about the different types of services on offer. 

Mobile Marketing Agencies

Welovemobile - take a creative approach to mobile marketing and also do a lot of mobile user experience work alongside strategy and planning, media buying, technical implementation etc  Clients include application and software providers like EQO and Mobiluck, mainstream organisations like CIMA, record labels, media companies and mobile operators.  Having met with the guys at welovemobile a few times I can tell you that they are incredibly knowledgable and passionate about mobile and have a great range of skills in the team there. 

Fetch Media (www.fetchmedia.co.uk) is the full service mobile agency, experienced in strategy to media planning and buying. Most campaigns evolve around the mobile internet however Fetch also include more traditional forms of mobile marketing such as SMS into their campaigns. Fetch recognise the importance of integrating mobile into a cross-media marketing campaign and are experts at moving companies into the mobile advertising space. Companies looking to expand their mobile advertising presence to the next level or to try mobile for the first time should get in touch.

Ringring Media - focus on mobile ad planning and buying - they manage campaigns using multiple ad networks, mobile search and on-portal ads which allows them to optimize spend and gain advantages from buying inventory in bulk.  You could compare Ringring media to one of the online search agencies like Latitude.  They also run an ad server for publishers that aggregates all the major ad networks in order to increase fill rates and click rates. Ringring media are the ideal agency for anyone who is spending significant amounts on mobile ad or search campaigns and wants to get more for their money and improve conversion rates - recommended.

Incentivated - works across mobile marketing in a range of areas (e.g. from mobile customer relationship management to mobile advertising) and designs, builds and host technical solutions, manages marketing campaigns and does general consulting.  They work for a lot of blue-chip businesses like British Airways, the CIO, Hilton Group, Masterfoods, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Scottish Power, Transport for London and VisitBritain. 

Marvellous Mobile - these guys were acquired by the large agency Aegis in mid-2007 and were around pretty early in the day (founded in 2002).  They are now present in quite a few locations including London, Amsterdam, New York and Paris.  Its a full service agency and they work for all the big brands like Coke, Guinness and so on. 

Inside Mobile - another full service agency working across mobile research and consulting to media buying and planning.  Clients include Reebok, Adidas, Discovery Networks and HSBC. 

Candyspace Media - Candyspace is a full service mobile marketing agency with offices in London and New York.  They do a lot of work for film, music, technology and games companies like Microsoft Xbox, Sega, Samsung etc.  Canyspace have particular expertise in building branded portals, for example, they built the Skins mobile site for Channel 4. I know Candyspace well and they are nice people who really understand how to build creative and effective mobile marketing campaigns and solutions. 

Beep Marketing -  is run by Helen Keegan of Mobile Monday London and blogger at Musing of a Mobile Marketeer.  Helen does everything from consultancy projects, to the nitty gritty of campaign management as well as training and events.  The types of clients range from Vivendi Universal Publishing to Transport for London to Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and Arcadia.  Helen has a massive amount of experience in mobile marketing and a really good view on how to implement campaigns effectively across the full user-experience path - something that a lot of big agencies seem to really struggle with!

Que Pasa - these guys have been around for a long time in the world of mobile and are best known for running mobile portals for Channel 4 and Virgin Mobile.  In terms of mobile marketing they focus on producing branded content and developing mobile sites for brands including Nike and Orion books. 

 

Sponge - these guys run their own mobile applications platform that powers services like "text to win" competitions, IVR services and the like.  However, they also do mobile marketing consultancy. 

 

Ipsh! - a US agency that was bought by Omnicom - they are mainly based in San Fransisco and New York but I believe they also work in Europe and the UK through an affiliate. 

Update #1 - some suggestions in the comments:

 

The Hyper Factory - full service agency which is active in a lot of markets outside of Europe e.g. New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Auckland, Sydney, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Hyderabad.  They work for a lot of the big brands e.g. Toyota, Nike, BlackBerry, Coke and Adidas

Mobile One2One - Spanish Agency but also seems to be doing some UK campaigns e.g. for Nokia Mosh

update #2 - another suggestion in the comments

 

UserAdgents is based in Paris and focuses on "using mobile as a tool to drive traffic in mobile + web + high street stores through mobile advertising & direct marketing campaigns".  It was setup by a WPP subsidiary.  France is surprisingly advanced in a lot of areas of mobile internet so these guys are worth checking out.  

Update 3

YOC Group

The YOC Group is a full service provider of advertising, information and transaction services for mobile phones. Although based in Berlin, YOC recently launched a UK office in London and works for international brands, media houses, Internet portals, mobile phone service providers and financial service providers. The YOC Group offers three business areas: mobile marketing, affiliate marketing, and mobile B2C services. Clients include: Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, Nike, Kraft Foods, Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures, BILD, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Gruner + Jahr, IDG Media, Prisma Presse, Accuweather, Teletext and 123play.com. 

Right that's it for now - pleased to hear about any others you think we should add to the list. 

Comments

[Max]

James, you missed out The Hyperfactory.

[Nacho]

Mobile One2One
http://www.mo2o.com
Mobile Marketing Company based in Madrid.

[Nacho]

Mobile One2One
http://www.mo2o.com

[Renaud Ménérat]

You can add User ADgents, a mobile media agency, based in Paris.

Focus on using mobile as a tool to drive traffic in mobile + web + high street stores through mobile advertising & direct marketing campaigns.

Founded by a WPP group subsidiary.

[James Machin]

Shock Concepts are a Mobile Marketing agency and Mobile Technology provider....

[Blackberry]

Good information,

[Stop N Text]

www.stopntext.com A mobile Marketing company based in New Jersey, USA and also www.stopntext.ca based in Toronto Canada

[Stop N Text]

http://www.stopntext.com and http://www.stopntext.ca

[Ken]

You could also add http://www.kooaba.com/. They offer mobile marketing services based on image recognition.

It's a new way of adding interactivity to print advertising or products, simply by taking a photo of the item with the mobile phone camera.

[Unlocking]

This guys will do very well over the coming years, mobile marketing is finally going to explode and these guys will be best placed to exploit that

[Isabella]

You forgot http://www.mobileinteraction.com/

[jamie laux]

Bleep Purple is Scotlands first mobile agency with a strong focus on media, streaming and payments...we like them;)

www.bleeppurple.com

[Victor]

I would like to add www.involvemobile.com to this mobile marketing agencies list