OgilvyOne forms mobile joint venture

Shanghai - OgilvyOne China has entered into a joint venture with Berlin-based mobile company iconmobile group to form iconmobile China that will be headquartered in Shanghai.

Iconmobile China will serve the Greater China region including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan by offering a broad range of services from design, development and implementation of mobile applications, portals, sites and marketing campaigns, mobile in car user interface design to consulting, mobile strategy development, cross-channel solutions and proprietary mobile technology services.

The joint venture will provide clients with expertise in all aspects of mobile marketing, focusing on building experiences and interactions with consumers on the go and integrating mobile in the overall communications mix.

Chris Reitermann, president for OgilvyOne China said, "With increasing demand for mobile marketing services and massive penetration of mobile in China and across Asia, we believe the mobile device will become a major communications channel in the very near future."

He said mobile marketing is not all about sms spamming and is confident that the joint venture set up and offering will be of value to consumers. 

Reitermann pointed out that iconmobile is a strong partner that provides high-end mobile offerings and act as strategic partners to operators, business service providers and car companies.

Thomas Fellger, CEO and founding partner for iconmobile group said, "We choose China as the starting point for this venture in Asia because we believe that China is at the tipping point where mobile will become a major marketing tool."

The partnership will leverage on OgilvyOne China's client base such as China Mobile, adidas and Nokia, while using the technology and background experience of iconmobile.

Fellger added, "For us in China, iconmobile China will demonstrate that mobile marketing is beyond text messaging and spamming and what we offer is different as we have the right technology to provide multi channel offering and highly personalised targeted campaigns."

Joseph Tsang will head iconmobile China as its general manager.