PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire) -  With an eye to the 5 billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) have announced they are teaming on a new thought leadership initiative to explore the power and potential of what is both a highly personal and pervasive channel of customer engagement. The new global initiative will benchmark and explore where and how companies are embracing the new discipline of Mobile Relationship Marketing (MRM) to stay closer, more connected and available to their customers.

The new initiative, "Engage at Every Stage: Using MRM to Put More Interaction in the Hands of the Customer," is a multi-level thought leadership program that will examine how marketers can more fully leverage mobility to prompt purchase, deliver value-added services, increase loyalty, and gain greater intimacy and insight. The program will look at new MRM strategies, platforms, applications and best practices and how they are helping brand marketers increase customer contact and conversation, form mobile social communities, motivate and reward buying or referral behavior, deliver just-in-time deals and incentives, as well prompt usage, consumption or purchase.

"In both developed and emerging economies, senior marketers are telling us that mobility represents a key area of innovation for improving brand messaging and interaction with customers," said Donovan Neale-May, the executive director of the CMO Council. "The mobile phone is the most timely, targeted and persistent channel for opt-in communications and interaction in the world. With the rapid adoption of smarter devices and mobile social media broadening the palette of mobile marketing engagement opportunities, our partnership with the MMA will result in valuable knowledge transfer." 

Engage at Every Stage will reach out to marketers around the world on a qualitative and quantitative level to analyze and highlight new practices, use cases, application areas and ROI experiences, as well as the challenges and obstacles to greater adoption and use of mobile customer engagement. In addition to a global survey of marketers and other customer-facing executives and in-depth discussions with leading brand decision-makers at the forefront of mobile marketing, the program will showcase new MRM platforms, technologies and solutions, including pilot testing with leading brands.

"It is clear to us from examples we have seen from all over the world that the mobile channel is becoming increasingly important for brands and organizations wishing to engage with their customers and build longer term relationships with them," says Paul Berney, the CMO and MD for EMEA at the MMA. "The functionality of mobile handsets is allowing consumers to manage a much greater range of activities and we see them playing a bigger role in MRM. The MMA's new positioning clearly sets us out on a road of reaching out to marketers directly to both promote and educate, two of our five building blocks. This new relationship with the CMO Council is an important demonstration of that approach."

Recent demographic and user data indicates the growing relevance and potency of the mobile phone as a fertile channel for targeted market development, communications and customer interaction. For example:

• Nearly 5 billion mobile phone users worldwide (U.N. telecommunications agency)
• One-fourth of U.S. adults now own smart phones (Nielsen)
• 800 million users of mobile social networking worldwide by 2012 (eMarketer)
• Women representing more than half of all mobile social network users (Nielsen)
• Consumers between 25 and 54 years comprise 70 percent of mobile social users (Nielsen)
• Greater tendency to socialize, advocate and refer among mobile phone users than computer users (Ruder Finn)
• Fully 25 percent of consumers in the UK, France and Germany reporting they're more likely to respond to advertising that provides a mobile response cue. (Mobile Marketing Association/Lightspeed Research)

A new whitepaper on Mobile Relationship Marketing and other information and thought leadership content is already available on the Engage at Every Stage program page of the CMO Council web site (www.cmocouncil.org). Additional reports and content will be forthcoming.

In addition to the Council and the Mobile Marketing Association, other CMO Council strategic interest groups will also participate in the MRM-based initiative. These groups include the Customer Experience Board, the Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience (FAME), the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE) and the LoyaltyLeaders.org community, which combined serve a vibrant global ecosystem of communications service providers, device manufacturers, network equipment vendors, mobile operating system developers, mobile application and CRM solution providers, loyalty and rewards program operators, as well as resellers, dealers, integrators, consultants and distributors.

About the CMO Council

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide range of global industries. The CMO Council's 5,500 members control more than $200 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include over 12,000 global executives across 100 countries in multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The Council's strategic interest groups include the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE), Marketing Supply Chain Institute, Customer Experience Board, LoyaltyLeaders.org, Online Marketing Performance Institute, and the Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience (FAME). www.cmocouncil.org

About the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is the premier global non-profit trade association representing all players in the mobile marketing value chain. With more than 700 member companies, the MMA is an action-oriented organization with global focus, regional actions and local relevance. The MMA's primary focus is to establish mobile as an indispensible part of the marketing mix. The MMA works to promote, educate, measure, guide and protect the mobile marketing industry worldwide. The MMA's global headquarters are located in the United States and it has regional chapters including North America (NA), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Latin America (LATAM and Asia Pacific (APAC) branches. For more information, please visit www.mmaglobal.com.