PepsiCo's D Shivakumar to chair MMA India Board

The Board of Directors includes 12 industry stalwarts across marketing, advertising and technology.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), the global trade association for the mobile industry, has created its first Board of Directors with PepsiCo's D Shivakumar been given the duty of chairing the new executive Board of the association. The newly-appointed Board in its first meeting set up an agenda to help marketers adapt to the evolving mobile environment in India with regards to advertising and commerce.

The Board will be led by Chairman D Shivakumar, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo India Holdings. Other board members include personalities such as Ajit Mohan, president, Novi Digital Entertainment, Amarjit Singh Batra, CEO, OLX South Asia, Amrit Thomas, chief marketing officer, United Spirits, CVL Srinivas, CEO South Asia, GroupM, Kirthiga Reddy, managing director, Facebook India, Prasun Basu, managing director, South Asia, Millward Brown, Priya Nair, executive director, Home Care, Hindustan Unilever, Rohit Dadwal, managing director, Mobile Marketing Association Asia-Pacific, Senthil Kumar, chief creative officer, J Walter Thompson, Shireesh Joshi, head, strategic marketing, Godrej Group, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO, One97 Communications, and Paytm.

Commenting on the appointment of the new board, chairman D Shivakumar says, "The Indian market is brimming with great opportunities for Mobile media and marketing. The MMA India Board of Directors brings together some of the best practitioners and minds in marketing, advertising and media, and our collective experience and expertise will hopefully propel the market to quickly adopt mobile marketing as a mainstream medium." He further added, "Our Board members have identified key areas where our immediate attention is needed. These initiatives will facilitate sharing insights, and create industry benchmarks and guidelines that will help marketers leverage mobile as core area in their business and marketing strategies."

Rohit Dadwal, managing director for MMA, APAC, says, "Mobile continues to push India marketers to re-think the way they approach marketing and use data and technology to engage with consumers. The conversation has shifted towards how we can build capabilities and further help the ecosystem to leverage mobile. I'm confident that under the guidance of the new Board, our members will be able to leverage the MMA's resources and network to accelerate mobile marketing in India. The Board of Directors will be instrumental in shaping the future of the industry and develop the MMA and its initiatives. I look forward to work with them to drive the growth of our industry."

The global non-profit trade mobile marketing association comprises of members from every faction of the mobile marketing ecosystem which includes brand marketers, agencies, mobile technology platforms, media companies, and operators.

Mobile marketing is broadly defined as one that includes advertising, apps, messaging, m-commerce and CRM, on all mobile devices including smart phones and tablets. The MMA board members have started working on initiatives focusing on research, measurement and education in mobile marketing to help marketers understand consumer behaviour and usage of data and non-data mobile users, and the capabilities across voice, text and data.