Monday 24 September 2012

Snipp Interactive expands into the Middle East with new sales appointment


Mobile marketing firm Snipp Interactive (CVE:SPN) said today it has expanded into the Middle East, with a strategic sales agency agreement, appointing "digital marketing pioneer" Aye Kabbara to spearhead its client-facing activities in the region. 
Kabbara, who serves as the co-founder and managing director at Digitus Marketing, will initially focus on Kuwait, the company said. 
Digitus Marketing assists companies to develop full-cycle interactive and social media marketing solutions by providing a combination of agency side services and in house technology remedies. 
Earlier, she worked in the advertising and communications space at companies such as Leo Burnett, CNN and Alrai TV, Snipp said. 
Snipp recently kicked off its Middle East commercial operations with two high-profile campaigns in Kuwait with Asnan Tower, the biggest dental centre in the Middle East. 
The company is also currently in conversations with a range of regional media companies and marketing agencies looking to introduce mobile solutions based on Snipp's "Mobilize Me" technology platform. 
The platform allows advertisers to specify a set of actions that can occur with a user's mobile phone — everything from receiving an email, video, voice response, to complete sales tactics including couponing, social media campaigns and loyalty programs.
The company noted, citing Ericsson, that with mobile phone subscriptions already exceeding 260 million, current growth in Middle East mobile subscribers outpaces North America and Europe combined. 
"Nielsen sees total advertising spend in the Middle East increasing at double digits, while Deloitte expects digital advertising there to grow at an annual rate of 35% in the next three years," Snipp said in its release. 
Snipp's “Mobilize Me” platform supports several input mechanisms for mobilizing marketing campaigns for companies, including text message, QR codes, Microsoft tags and Snapp tags.
Already, the business, which was established in 2007, has provided its services to several Fortune 500 companies and other major brands, advertising agencies and publishers, including Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), ESPN, Time Inc, Ford (NYSE:F), Nike (NYSE:NKE), Wendy's (NASDAQ:WEN) and Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB). 
Last month, the company said second quarter revenue rose 19 per cent, citing a growing sales channel. Sales rose 19 per cent to $106,321, compared with $89,660 a year earlier. 
“Kuwait is a bridgehead for us in the Middle East," said co-founder and CEO of Snipp, Atul Sabbharwal.
"Our market entry follows the strategy to expand Snipp’s footprint across the most dynamic advertising and mobile markets in the world with experienced regional partners. 
"Such markets also include India and Mexico, in which we just entered in a strategic partnership with Virket, a marketing agency that serves high profile companies such as Seccion Amarilla, controlled by industry titan Carlos Slim.
"We are excited to benefit from Aya Kabbara’s extensive experience and industry network as we start scaling our services in the Middle East,"
Kabbara added: "In using Snipp's Mobilize Me platform, we can marry offline and online marketing solutions we build for our clients across a range of industries in Kuwait and the Middle East. There is a big excitement surrounding mobile phones in our region and Snipp makes that excitement a marketing reality.”

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