Mobile Marketing Association appoints Preeti Desai as country manager, India

Desai joins MMA after several years at Rediff, where she was vice president - strategic alliances.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has announced the appointment of Preeti Desai as country manager in India, in order to strengthen the association's presence and commitment towards developing the mobile marketing industry.

MMA serves the growing mobile marketing ecosystem in India with support from GroupM, a media investment management company, in a collaboration that was recently extended for the third year running.

"MMA currently leads the growth of mobile marketing and its associated technologies in Singapore, India, China, Indonesia and Vietnam," says Rohit Dadwal, managing director, Mobile Marketing Association APAC. "Preeti's appointment marks MMA's continued commitment toward building and implementing mobile marketing best practices in India. Her industry experience and vision will be crucial in helping us pave the way forward for the mobile industry in the country," he adds.

Some of MMA's priorities will include increasing the adoption of existing MMA best practices and guidelines, recommending adaptations for local market conditions where appropriate, promoting education and skills development for practitioners and developing suitable measurement metrics and tools for the industry. Desai's appointment as country manager for India is a step toward ensuring that all players in the mobile marketing ecosystem get adequate support.

Desai joins MMA after several years at Rediff India, where she was vice president strategic alliances, evangelising the spliced TV advertising opportunity to leading SMEs across sectors and geographies. Between 2004 and 2006, she was the founding president of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, working with industry and government stakeholders and end users to address key industry challenges, raise awareness of internet and mobile effectiveness, and set up industry standards and benchmarks.

"India, a young and highly mobile market, presents the ideal opportunity for innovation in mobile and is only set to grow in the next five years. However, brand investment in the medium is still relatively limited. With the market evolving as quickly as it is, this is an opportunity that we need to capitalise on immediately," comments Dadwal. "GroupM has been instrumental in helping MMA set up its presence in India over the last two years, and I'm very excited to be working with their visionary team once again in order to shape the mobile marketing conversation in the country," he says.

MMA also announced the return of its two flagship events, MMA Forum India and the Smarties India Awards, to be held on September 16, 2015. The MMA Forum (MMAF) India is one of the largest mobile marketing events in India, welcoming major brands, mobile specific and traditional agencies, operators and technology enablers from across the mobile marketing landscape. The Smarties India Awards submissions are now open and will close on July 24. Delegates will come together to connect and learn from experts and peers in the industry about best practices in mobile marketing and the future of the industry.

MMA is a global non-profit trade mobile marketing association which comprises more than 800 member companies, from nearly fifty countries around the world. Its members hail from different factions of the mobile media ecosystem, including brand marketers, agencies, mobile technology platforms, media companies, operators and others.

MMA industry-wide committees work collaboratively to develop and advocate global best practices and lead standards development. Members include American Express, AdChina, Colgate-Palmolive, Dunkin' Brands, Facebook, Google, GroupM, Hewlett Packard, Hilton Worldwide, Kellogg Co., L'Oreal, Mastercard, McDonald's, Microsoft, Mondelēz International, Inc. Pandora Media, Procter & Gamble, R/GA, The Coca-Cola Company, The Weather Company, Unilever, Visa, Vodafone, Walmart, xAd, ZenithOptimedia and others. The Mobile Marketing Association's global headquarters are located in New York with regional operations in Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA), Latin America (LATAM) and Asia Pacific (APAC).