Moving on up: Appointment at The Cloud

Revolution UK 13-Sep-05

James Saunders has been appointed as marketing director at The Cloud to drive take-up of Wi-Fi. He previously worked as a marketing consultant at Vodafone, where he helped launch 3G and Blackberry services across Europe. Prior to that, he was brand director at Coca-Cola GB, with responsibility for consumer marketing, including Coke's presence at Euro 96 and the 'Eat Football, Sleep Football, Drink Coca-Cola' campaign.

How do you plan to increase Wi-Fi take-up?

By working closely with service providers, particularly mobile firms
like O2, our strategic partner and BT Openzone. They have a large
customer base, to which they market Wi-Fi.

More Wi-Fi-enabled handsets are being launched in the market. Nokia,

Samsung and Motorola handsets all have Wi-Fi compatibility. The more
these devices spread into other people's hands, the more Wi-Fi will
become a widespread means of communication.

Sony's new PlayStation console is Wi-Fi-enabled. You can download games
and play someone over a Wi-Fi network. You could sit in Coffee Republic,
one of our Wi-Fi hotspots, and play a game with another player in
Berlin.

How will your experience of Blackberry and 3G help in the new role?

The marketing of Blackberry was by word-of-mouth, without spending money
on marketing. It has been a massive, commercial success. Blackberry has
understood how to market to communities of users and that approach is
relevant to Wi-Fi as it emerges from niche to mass. It is important to
know how to work with mobile companies in order to position Wi-Fi within
their portfolio.

What are the sector challenges?

Educating users. The Wi-Fi industry operates on much smaller budgets
than mobile and fixed-band industries. We are connected to all those
industries, but they can shout where we are only able to whisper.