FDBusiness.com

Mondelez International has launched its Mobile Futures program in Australia. The initiative, already successfully launched 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 – start-up entrepreneurs.

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

“The Mobile Futures program has been an extraordinary experience for us and we’re thrilled to expand to Australia as our third market,” says Bonin Bough, Vice President of Global Media and Consumer Engagement at Mondelez International. “In Australia, around half of consumers’ online activity takes place on a mobile phone or tablet. This is driving us at Mondelez International to think differently about consumer engagement and path to purchase. Our goal is to become one of the top mobile marketers in the world, and the further expansion of Mobile Futures to Australia demonstrates our commitment to get there.”

For the US edition, Mondelez International selected nine start-ups in the areas of social TV, mobile at retail and SoLoMo (social/location/mobile). As a result, eight new mobile pilots were launched into market in just 90 days with ‘power brands’ like Oreo and Chips Ahoy! biscuits as well as Trident and Stride gum.

As part of Mobile Futures US, the company also teamed up with Prehype, a venture development firm, to launch two startups, Prankstr and Betabox, that are meant to be operated as standalone companies if seed funding is secured. Prankstr allows users to prank their friends and share the experience through social networks and Betabox distributes product samples through e-commerce companies.

For Mobile Futures Brasil, launched in June 2013, the company partnered five start-ups with some of the largest brands inBrazilsuch as Bis chocolate, Club Social crackers, Tang powdered beverages, Halls candy and Trident gum. The upcoming pilots will be focusing on the crucial areas of SMS,Mobileat Retail, Social and Apps.

Selected start-ups in Australia will work with the five brand teams to accelerate existing mobile platforms and activate pilots within 90 days. The pilots will focus on the crucial area of mobile at retail. Brands will start by spending one week working side-by-side with their startups at their headquarters, immersing the company’s marketers into startup culture.

“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,” says Amanda Banfield, Managing Director Snacking Australia, Mondelez International. “It will encourage all of us to adapt our daily marketing responsibilities to be more entrepreneurial – resulting in better, faster and more efficient decisions for our brands. It isn’t just about launching pilots. The biggest area of focus for us is the cultural change we’re creating within our organization.”