Mindshare and Google launch Mobile Garage venture

Mobile Garage will set up mobile hubs around the globe – initially New York, London and Singapore – where Mindshare clients will gain access via dedicated teams to mobile strategists and product experts.

The hubs will consist of a mix of Mindshare and Google employees and will work across all aspects of the mobile ecosystem, from search optimisation and app development, to strategy, planning and creative optimisation.

Mobile Garage will aim to give Mindshare clients an advantage in the race to react to the growing global trend of mobile device usage. Mobile search traffic has increased 400% in the past two years.

The GSMA, the industry body for mobile operators, predicts there will be 24 billion connected devices by 2020 creating an industry worth $4.5 trillion and introducing innovations such as connected cars, building automation and traffic management.

Nick Emery, chief executive of Mindshare Worldwide, said: "We designed Mindshare to be open source and to work with the best partners for the benefit of our clients.

"It’s about trial, experimentation and speed to re-design our business. Working with Google on mobile will give our clients a competitive advantage in a key battleground both now and for the future."

Matt Brittin, vice president, sales and operations, Northern and Central Europe at Google, said: "We have adopted a 'mobile first' philosophy at Google to keep pace with the rapid acceleration in consumer mobile usage.

"We are delighted to team up with Mindshare on a similar strategy for their clients. Mindshare have already shown strong momentum in the mobile marketing space, and have a great opportunity to lead their clients to win on mobile in the future."

Mobile Garage will complement Mindshare's existing relationship with WPP's mobile agencies Joule and H-Art.

The news follows Mindshare's capture last week of Sony Music's £10m media planning and buying account.

Follow Nick Batten on Twitter @NickBatten2

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk