Celebrating their tenth anniversary, the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards introduced special categories this year to mark those who have led the mobile marketing landscape over the past decade. Last night, our team joined leaders in the digital industry at the awards ceremony and took home the award for Agency of the Decade!
The past decade has been one of both growth and radical change for our agency. We were born as a mobile agency in 2006 at the beginning of the smartphone revolution, that over the next 10 years would revolutionise how we work, play, interact and entertain ourselves. We existed to help brands reach their audience and grow through mobile. That was us then. By the end of our first decade, mobile had become the primary touchpoint, central to any digital strategy.
Our purpose has always been to deliver results. So when the world changed the way it consumed media, we changed with it. M&C Saatchi Performance is a performance agency built on serving brands in the modern landscape, where everything is measurable and accountable across digital touchpoints, at all times. This is us now.
Our Founder, James Hilton looked back at what it was like starting out as one of the first dedicated mobile agencies in a recent interview with Mobile Marketing Magazine:
“The late noughties were a Groundhog Day of sorts where marketers were out of sync with consumers who were rapidly embracing mobile technology. I launched my business in 2006 out of real frustration. At the time, I was watching the same trends develop with mobile as they had done with the fixed line internet and yet few marketers were taking the potential seriously.
In 2007, the mobile revolution began with the launch of the first iPhone, bringing an accessible device to the masses. With more computer power than the first Apollo rocket that reached the moon, paired with the simplicity to not need an instruction manual, the iPhone changed what was possible for a handset and was indeed the first true Smartphone.
Since then, Mobile has revolutionised how we live our lives, from the convenience of location apps, to the variety of messaging and social platforms. However, it took five years from the launch of the iPhone for the year of mobile come to fruition. In 2012, brands started taking mobile engagement seriously and an influx of investment hit the ecosystem as substantial media budgets were allocated to mobile campaigns.
We’ve come a long way from mobile advertising being an afterthought of the ad industry – a platform that never seemed to come of age, with each year touted as the year of mobile. Investment has steadily grown year-on-year and now the majority (51%) of digital ad growth is thanks to smartphone advertising, which totalled £6.85 billion in the UK last year.”
As mobile has grown, so has M&C Saatchi Performance. We are now a global agency with 180+ employees across 8 offices on 4 continents. To stay ahead of the rapidly evolving digital industry, we’ve continued to push the boundaries of multi-channel marketing methods to drive high performing campaigns for our long-lasting clients.
Winning of Agency of the Decade, an award voted for by our peers, shows the impact we’ve made on the industry in the last decade. Looking into 2020, we’re excited for the next decade as we continue to redefine what is possible for digital media.
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