Publicis-owned mobile marketing firm Phonevalley has expanded its global footprint to the Asian Pacific (APAC) region, with the opening of a hub in Singapore and offices in China and India. Phonevalley says its APAC presence will help the agency offer regional brands and advertisers mobile campaigns that are more adapted with their local marketing objectives and client requirements.
We are committed to delivering the best in class mobile advertising campaigns in the APAC region, says Phonevalley CEO and Publicis Groupe Head of Mobile, Alexandre Mars. Our presence will facilitate our work and help our clients leverage the great returns available through mobile. It will also help us interact more easily with all APAC-based Publicis Groupe agencies.
Phonevalley has appointed Devashish Sarkar as its Regional Director for the APAC region. Sarkar has extensive consumer marketing and media experience in companies such as BBC Worldwide, British American Tobacco, Philip Morris and Tupperware, and has worked in China, India, Indonesia and Singapore.
Asia counts over 1.3 billion mobile subscribers and Phonevalley notes that analysts see mobile as the number one device to access the Internet in the region. In China, for instance, there are 600 million mobile subscribers, compared with 80 million PCs. The penetration rates of mobile phones and Internet are 42% and 14% respectively, says Phonevalley. In India, mobile growth is ramping up and the country has generated 100 million new subscribers over the last 12 months to total around 290 million people. Furthermore, the company adds, analysts foresee that mobile advertising expenditures in key APAC markets all will total $6.9 billion (3.9 billion)  in 2012, up from $738 million in 2007.