Mobile Marketing Association names new chief

By Mickey Alam Khan

January 12, 2009

Mike Wehrs is president/CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association

Mike Wehrs comes in as the new president/CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association, charged with evangelizing mobile marketing in a take-no-prisoners economy.

Although the news was made public today, Mr. Wehrs took office Jan. 1, succeeding the indefatigable Laura Marriott. He was previously vice president of industry affairs and evangelism at telecoms specialist Nuance Communications Inc.

"My mandate is to focus on member services and member satisfaction," Mr. Wehrs said. "Member retention as well as membership sustenance all fall into that."

Mr. Wehrs takes the helm of an organization with more than 700 members spanning all segments of the mobile ecosystem -- ad networks, ad agencies, wireless carriers, SMS aggregators, publishers and mobile service providers.

Under Ms. Marriott, the MMA's revenue rose from $300,000 when she took over as president in July 2005 to $5 million upon her departure Dec. 31.

Laura Marriott

Now MMA president-emeritus and board member, Ms. Marriott's last major act was to relocate the association's headquarters from Denver, CO, to New York, a move designed to make marketers take mobile more seriously.

New York is also home to other major marketing lobbies, including the Direct Marketing Association, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Wehrs Mike?
Mr. Wehrs is no stranger to mobile marketing.

In his previous job, the executive ran Nuance's mobile business and product strategy as well as industry and public policy. He was also a member of the company's mergers and acquisitions team.

In addition, Mr. Wehrs has served on the boards of directors or executive committees of such organizations as CTIA -- The Wireless Association, Open Mobile Alliance, dotMobi Advisory Group and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.

Other work stints predating Nuance include Mr. Wehrs' role as vice president of product management and global marketing for AOL's Tegic Communications and several positions at Microsoft Corp. driving adoption and support of Windows and the mobile and embedded devices division.

Mr. Wehrs is expected to maintain a peripatetic lifestyle as his predecessor did, travelling nationwide and overseas where the MMA has outposts and conferences. He will speak at events, network with members and lobby for the MMA's positions.

"Mandate No. 2 is growth of the overall organization that's measured in overall membership, overall revenues and overall scope," Mr. Wehrs said.

Bridge and funnel
In fact, Mr. Wehrs has set three goals for his tenure.

First, improve the access to information along the membership services and satisfaction axis. Growing awareness of the MMA's benefits and programs and how they help with a member's operations are key.

Next, Mr. Wehr wants to diversify the revenue sources of the MMA. The association currently generates the bulk of its revenue from membership fees and conferences such as the Mobile Marketing Forums nationwide and overseas.

Going forward, Mr. Wehr and his team will put more emphasis on educational activities, including research, training material, courses and books.

Finally, he wants to work with other trade associations and organizations to evangelize mobile marketing. The MMA already collaborates with other entities including the DMA and the ad:tech conference.

Mr. Wehr will be assisted by a team of 15, all of them new to the MMA as part of the shift to New York.

Members of the team include Ms. Marriott, who recently joined NeoMedia's board of directors; former DMA executive Peter Johnson, vice president of research and strategy; and Paul Berney, Terence Reis and Rohit Dadwal, managing directors, respectively, of the MMA's Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific branches.

This new team has its work cut out.

While mobile marketing is hot and trendy, the ongoing economic slowdown has emasculated budgets for branding and direct marketing.

Among Mr. Wehrs' other challenges will be business models for mobile, as well as privacy, technical and operational issues that prevent quicker adoption of the channel for marketing efforts. And then there is that tightrope to walk -- carrier relations.

"We will work hard to break down those barriers and build those bridges," Mr. Wehrs said. "We represent the entire ecosystem."