Microsoft and the Publicis Groupe are already tightly aligned, but today’s announcement of Publics’ Phonevalley mobile marketing agency enterting into a strategic agreement with Microsoft signifies that Publicis has a lot of opportunity to build out Microsoft’s mobile ad and sales division for automotive, luxury, travel and other verticals looking to get into mobile advertising.
“As mobile advertising becomes more of a mainstream digital advertising medium, our collaborative work will help advertisers plan, execute and measure their mobile campaigns more effectively, and ultimately will enable them to harness the untapped potential of mobile advertising,” Charles Johnson, general manager at Microsoft Mobile Advertising, said in a statement.
Phonevalley will work with Microsoft properties such as Microsoft Media Network, Bing and MSN on packaged solutions that will be offered in 14 worldwide markets including the U.S., U.K, France, Italy, Spain and Germany. These packaged services will include creative, technology, and metrics. The packages could also use targed mobile media for behavioral targeting.
Microsoft and Publicis already have partnerships in other digital channels in online advertising and a TV ad exchange. In August, Paris-based Publicis announced that it was to acquire digital agency Razorfish from Microsoft for $530M.
