Madhouse comes to India

China's leading mobile marketing company has announced its launch in India; Vinod Thadani will lead the Indian operations as chief operating officer.

Madhouse, China's leading mobile marketing company, has announced the launch of its Indian operations.

The company has roped in Vinod Thadani as its chief operating officer in India. Earlier, Thadani was regional director, GroupM South Asia and headed the mobile business.

With the large number of mobile connections in India, Madhouse India aims to leverage the opportunity of using the medium as a mass media device. The company identifies dearth of scaled solutions in data, voice and text, harmonising the different operating systems with multiple stakeholders across mobile inventory and lack of established tools and systems as the current barriers to mobile marketing.

Madhouse India hopes to address the same by offering its clients complete media solutions across the spectrum of paid, owned and earned media on feature phones, smartphones and tablets, and across all operating systems, with precise targeting by geography, user demographics and psychographics to ensure minimal media wastage.

"Mobile advertising is beginning to transform the way brands communicate with their consumers. Madhouse will offer mobile marketing solutions created and carried out for advertisers by a team of experienced media professionals that understand this medium. On a technical level, mobile advertising can now achieve accurate intelligent targeting and can provide real-time reporting - a very convincing proposition for advertisers. The need of the hour is to unlock the potential and we are determined to change the face of the Indian digital media landscape and grow the mobile media market from Rs 125 crore to Rs 1000 crore in the next three years," says Thadani.

Joshua Maa, founder and chief executive officer, Madhouse sees a lot of growth potential in India and affirms the company's commitment to investing in the Indian market.

"With the right local partners, we believe that our technology and operational expertise can be leveraged to serve the unique mobile marketing needs of clients. In China, we have been working with partners such as Rovio, EA, China Unicom's app store, and ad agencies to grow our leadership position," says Maa.

Similar to its associations in China, Madhouse has entered into a strategic understanding with WPP in India to to strengthen its presence in the country.

"Madhouse India will help us build a unique value for our clients, where in-depth domain and brand understanding are coupled with the strength of Madhouse technologies. A synergy is also established as our local market expertise and talent pool is well equipped in the Indian marketplace, which is similar in complexity to China," explains Ranjan Kapur, country manager, WPP.

One of Madhouse's key clients in China, Rovio Entertainment is also excited about the company's Indian foray, citing the growing popularity of Rovio's Angry Birds in the country and also the extensive use of social media.

Bijay Gurung, key account director, Rovio Entertainment, says, "India being the second largest Facebook country with a huge growth rate opens the door for us to entertain even more fans as we aim for one billion downloads by the end of the year. Madhouse is a valuable partner for us in China, and we are excited about the opportunity to extend our collaboration to India as well."

Madhouse runs China's largest mobile solutions and ad network company, working closely with over 120 brands that includes HP, Intel, Coke, KFC, Unilever, Volkswagen and agency groups such as GroupM, Aegis, OMG, Vivaki and their associated agencies.

In India, too, Maa says that it will look to build similar associations. The company plans to open offices across Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru to service brands across categories. Madhouse India is already in talks with brands such as HSBC, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance, Nokia, LG, Sony Ericsson, Pepsi and Procter & Gamble, among others.