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Market Leader Interview – Paul Berney, CMO & MD of the EMEA branch of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).

Tom Holmes talks to Paul Berney, Chief Marketing Officer & Managing Director of the EMEA branch of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).

Paul leads the MMA’s global marketing efforts and more specifically the activities involving more than 150 member companies in EMEA. He has over 25 years experience in a wide variety of sales, marketing, business development and commercial roles spanning several different industries and market sectors including automotive, printing, internet development and management consultancy.

He has spent the past nine years in mobile marketing and has been a speaker at over 230 mobile events, in 26 countries to a combined audience of over 35,000 people. In 2012 he recognised as the leading speaker on mobile marketing worldwide by C-Squared.

He is a Business Leader in The Marketing Society, writing regularly for their blog, a Fellow of the Institute of Direct & Digital Marketing (IDM), a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a mentor in the Marketing Academy. He was recently invited to join the editorial Board of the IDM and was voted one of the Top 50 influencers in mobile marketing in the UK by The Drum magazine.

TH: Paul, what is the Mobile Marketing Association and can you tell me about the vision behind it?

PB: The MMA is the global trade association for the mobile marketing industry. We have over 700 members around the world who come from every part of the mobile marketing ecosystem from handset manufacturers to mobile operators to publishers, technology enablers, brands and agencies. The aim has always been the same: to make mobile an indispensable part of the marketing mix. What we mean by that is, our activities are aimed at making mobile marketing so effective that every brand and every agency in the world will want to include mobile as part of the marketing mix. The vision we have for the future is that the MMA will empower its members to leave the evolution of marketing in a future that is driven by mobility.

TH: The marketing industry is full of associations, what makes the MAA unique?

PB: Well, we are solely focused on the mobile channel. We welcome members from every part of the ecosystem rather than representing one distinct part, and as far as we know we are the only global media trade association.

TH: As CMO & Managing Director of the EMEA branch of the MMA what is your primary focus?

PB: My primary focus is to grow mobile marketing everywhere in the region. All of the MMA’s activities around the world fit into what we call the five building blocks; promotion, education, measurement, guidance and protection. So the MMA works to promote the industry and the channel. It educates brands and agencies. It provides the measurement metrics and inside that companies need to make their investment decision in mobile. We provide the guidance best practice and standards to allow the industry to grow in a sustainable way. Finally we represent our industry with regulators and legislators.

TH: What attracted you to the job?

PB: Several things but the fact that it was international was very high on that list. I really wanted to understand how mobile was growing all over the world. Also my background is one of working in start-ups or early phase businesses and I saw the MMA as being just that. I also really enjoy being an evangelist for something new.

TH: How do you see the media landscape unfolding in the next 5 years?

PB: Well that’s very hard to predict because five years ago who could have said what the impact of the introduction of smartphones would have done to the media landscape. That being said I expect mobility to play a greater role in all of our lives and that will be reflected in our media consumption as well. My belief is that at least in developed economies we are moving towards an omnichannel future where consumers expect to be able to connect and engage with brands through multiple channels in real time whenever they want to. In emerging economies we are heading towards a mobile first world in terms of media.

TH: Which brands do you particularly admire and why?

PB: There are a huge number actually so it would be difficult to pick out just a few. There are so many in the mobile industry that it would be a huge list so instead I’ll mention a few outside of mobile. In retail I really admire what Justin King has done with Sainsbury’s over the past seven or eight years. I have always been a huge fan of Nike and on a personal basis I am fan(atical) about the cycling brand Rapha.

To read the rest of the interview please click here

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