Mindshare Joins Hands with Next Billion

Next Billion and Mindshare will promote and adapt new technology-enabled platforms to deliver marketing and data collection services.

After the launch of the GEMS (Growth and Emerging Market Solutions) hub out of Singapore, Mindshare has now announced the a new technology-enabled platform aimed at rural consumers in South Asia, South East Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The company has partnered with Next Billion to further consolidate its leadership position in providing new age solutions tailored to Emerging Market Consumers. Next Billion, one of the landmark initiatives by Newton Circus, is a company dedicated to creating technology innovations for improving consumers' lives in emerging markets. The two companies will promote and adapt new technology-enabled platforms to deliver marketing and data collection services suitable for these consumers.

The first such platform is 'Mobile Movies', which to date has been successfully piloted in Myanmar, Indonesia and Vietnam with the support of Unilever, Friesland Campina and Microsoft, which is also the mobile and management system technology partner. Next Billion is now rolling out Mobile Movies to several parts of South East Asia and South Asia and preparing to launch in Africa.

Gowthaman Ragothaman, chief operating officer, Mindshare, APAC, says, "As the name Next Billion suggests, the opportunity is huge. In fact it's not just a billion - it's the next 3 billion. Many of our large multinational companies still build their marketing designs around the top cities and towns of emerging markets but few actually address the challenges of non-urban consumers (for instance, in the Red River Delta of Vietnam). That requires a different design and a different infrastructure. It also places huge challenges on tracking, accountability and measurement of effectiveness. With Next Billion, we want to solve these challenges and provide marketers with technology-enabled solutions, they didn't have before".

Daryl Arnold, founder and CEO, Newton Circus (the parent company of Next Billion) adds, "Our partnership with Mindshare will scale our positive impact in rural communities. For example, Mobile Movies establishes networks of local agents who screen entertaining films to bring together rural communities, and then leverage these unique group opportunities to market MNC products that drive positive behavioural change. It's a triple win: good for the consumers who gain access to new goods and services, good for the thousands of local agents we employ, and good for our MNC brand partners that engage emerging market consumers and crowd source fast reliable data."