Mondelēz International, the maker of iconic brands including Cadbury Dairy Milk and Philadelphia cream cheese, has announced the Australian launch of a mobile marketing initiative Mobile Futures.

The initiative, which launched last year in the US and Brazil, aims to ignite the Company’s consumer connections by collaborating with some of the brightest and most innovative minds in the mobile space – startup entrepreneurs.

The program will pair five of Australia’s biggest and most loved brands – Cadbury Dairy Milk, Marvellous Creations, Cadbury Favourites,Philadelphia cream cheese and belVita breakfast biscuits – with five startups to accelerate and scale existing mobile innovations in just 90 days.

“Around half of Australian consumers’ online activity occurs via mobile or tablet devices, but there’s a big gap between that mobile usage and where companies are investing their ad budgets,” said Bonin Bough, Vice President of Global Media and Consumer Engagement at Mondelēz International.

“Digitally savvy markets like Australia will play a lead role in our plan to invest 10 percent of our global marketing budget in clever and engaging mobile activations that span the entire consumer journey,” Mr Bough said. “Our goal is to become one of the top mobile marketers in the world, and Mobile Futures is one very exciting program that will help us get there,” he said

About Mobile Futures  

Mondelez International said the program was about “understanding and embracing the startup entrepreneurial spirit”. Selected startups will work one-on-one with the five brands to customise and accelerate their mobile platforms, and activate pilots within 90 days. Brands will start by spending one week working side-by-side with their startups and the startup’s headquarters, immersing the company’s marketers into startup culture.

“Mobile Futures is a first of its kind program because it begins and ends with startups,” Mr Bough said. “Startups are the innovative lifeblood for the digital world and we’re committed to supporting them,” he said.

“At the same time, this program will further drive innovation within our own organisation and create a culture of “intrapreneurship”,” Mr Bough said. “Out of that new culture will emerge new, innovative ideas that will shape the future of mobile,” he said.

“Mobile Futures is so exciting for us because it will step-change our thinking around how we engage with consumers in the mobile world that we live in,” said Amanda Banfield, Managing Director Snacking Australia, Mondelēz International. “Mobile Futures will also encourage all of us at Mondelez International to adapt our daily marketing responsibilities to be more entrepreneurial – resulting in better, faster, and more efficient decisions for our brands,” she said.

The Mobile Futures network

The Mobile Futures partner network is comprised of leading organisations in the tech startup ecosystem, including incubators, accelerators, shared work spaces, which Mondelez International said would allow it to tap into the most talented technologists and entrepreneurs to submit a startup application to the competition. Members include: Evol8tion, Pollenizer, LBMA, Hub Australia, MMA, BlueChilli, TechBeach Manly, Spacecubed, Startmate and ATP Innovations,Inspire9 and Angelcubed.

“The world is changing fast and startups have learned how to make businesses that can keep up,” said Phil Morle, Pollenizer CEO. “The disruptive nature of these businesses enables brands to adapt faster, meeting the needs of their consumers while giving startups access to a large consumer bases which is normally unreachable,” he said.

“Any brand that professes to be truly consumer-centric simply has to emulate the level of technology adoption in the market,” said Joseph Jaffe, CEO and co-founder of Evol8tion, the innovation boutique managing the Mobile Futures programs in the US, Brazil, and now Australia.  “Mondelēz International has put its money where its – or rather its consumers – mouths are…and these days, this is squarely in mobile,” he said.

Open call to startups

In launch events across Melbourne and Sydney during May 2014, Mondelez International will issue an open call to startups operating in some of the most exciting areas of mobile. Startups are encouraged to apply online now at www.mobilefutures.com.au. The application process will remain open until 5pm AEST, 1 June 2014.

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