Michael Becker has relinquished his job as North America managing director of the Mobile Marketing Association to become marketing development and strategic advisor for Somo, a full-service mobile agency with clients such as Audi, Red Bull, Groupon, BP and The New York Times.

Mr. Becker will work alongside Somo?s executives in Los Angeles, New York and North American headquarters in San Francisco to evangelize and educate marketers on the role of mobile marketing in the purchase-decision process and across industry sectors. The West Coast-based executive was one of the first members of the MMA, spending eight years as board director and three of those leading the North American region as member of staff.

?I decided to leave the MMA to go back to my entrepreneurial roots, but I will not be going very far,? Mr Becker said.

In this Q&A dialogue, Mr. Becker shares his thoughts on the evolution of mobile marketing, the role of mobile agencies, why he left the MMA and trends relating to market adoption of the medium. Please read on.

Why did you decide to work alongside Somo?
I want to work with one of the best and with a company that aligns with my aspirations for the market.

Somo is an amazing company. We have a unique set of interrelated attributes. One, we're global. Two, independent and responsive and, three, have a powerful mix of services ? media buying across hundreds of networks, strategy, cutting-edge creative, in-house development, and a big data aggregation and analytics offerings that power and enable critical business insights.

Finally, we have an experienced senior executive team with a proven track record of success and a dedicated staff around the world that unquestionably lives to the Somo values in all interactions: love of innovation, lead with knowledge, be brave and create success for all constituents.  

What will your role entail?
My role is to do what I've done for the last eight years, to be a mobile marketing evangelist, educator and strategist, to help players within the marketplace to better understand mobile marketing and its role within the marketing mix, and to understand how mobile marketing can be used today to achieve results. And to understand where mobile will be taking us tomorrow. 

Why pick a mobile agency? There are not too many around.
It takes a village. People and companies cannot be an expert in everything at all times --especially in today's world of mobile and tomorrow's world of universal connectivity.

An agency is a company that helps organizations source capabilities, skills, knowledge and resources to fulfill their mission, service and deliver value to their customers.

Again, it takes a village to create value for the marketplace. It takes a collection of buyers, retailers, agencies, media, advertising, technology enablers and more.

Agencies are an incredibly effective solution for an organization to close the gap for needed services in order to succeed. 

Somo is a perfect example of the great agency solution. We bring media, creative, strategy, data, cross-industry global experience and hard-core tech all under one roof, thus enabling developers, enterprises, publishers and brands ? aka advertisers ? to focus on their business and offerings, while Somo helps guide and execute their mobile efforts.

How is the market adoption of mobile going?
Jack Haber, vice president of global advertising and digital at Colgate-Palmolive, said it best at the MMA CEO & CMO Summit this week: "Mobile must be considered as part of the marketing strategy always."

This statement was followed by a fellow panelist from General Mills who added, "You can have a good marketing strategy without mobile, but you cannot have a great one."

Last year Mondelez committed ten percent of its media spend to mobile. Mobile advertising spend is on the rise. Leading brands and small business throughout the world are adopting mobile and incorporating it into their marketing mix.

The age of mobile is upon us. However, we're just at the beginning. There is still so much to learn and do.  

The next steps for the industry is to focus on a number of issues including embracing measurement and metrics, with a focus on prioritized spending and education.

Why did you decide to leave the Mobile Marketing Association?
I love the MMA and believe it is an incredibly important vehicle for the industry to understand, embrace and achieve success through and with all aspects of mobile marketing.

I was one of the first members in 2004, was on the board for eight years, and held an executive role for the last three years after seconding myself from the operations of my company, Archer Mobile, in 2009 to help the MMA navigate to the next stage of its evolution. Deciding to step down from the MMA has been an incredibly difficult decision.

I decided to leave the MMA to go back to my entrepreneurial roots, but I will not be going very far.

In addition to helping Somo grow in North America I will be focusing on completing my doctorate in the field of personal cloud services and the capabilities that provide consumers control over their personal information. 

I will be looking at the factors that will support the mutual exchange of personal information between the consumer and the marketplace through and with mobile.

Furthermore, I will continue to work on mobile marketing education. For example, I'm teaching mobile marketing at National University.

I will also continue to advise the industry as a North American MMA board member and as a trustee to Marketing Edge, a nonprofit helping college students embrace a career in marketing. 

What would you regard as your three biggest achievements at the MMA?
I've been a part of the MMA from the very beginning and have been fortunate enough be given the opportunity to lead and be part of many achievements, including:

? MMA's positioning in the market today. In 2010 I seconded myself from my company, stepped down from the board as the global vice chair and took on the role as managing director of North America to help guide the MMA through the transition of being a mobile technology-driven to a marketer and industry coalition-driven association

? Founded the MMA International Journal of Mobile Marketing. We just released our 17th issue and have seen over 110,000 article downloads in 115 countries

? Lead the team that authored the MMA's 2009 definition of mobile marketing

? Was on the board for eight years and will continue to be on the board going forward as an honorary board member

? Fielded a North America board of directors with an incredibly balanced structure of buyers, sellers and enablers

? Guided the development of new standards, such as the MMA Consumer Best Practices 6.0 and 7.0, Universal Mobile Ad Package, and the strategic initiatives framework to engage members

? Influenced public policy, including leading the team's effort with the 2012 FCC declaratory Soundbite ruling around confirmatory stop messaging

? Took the reins of the MMA New York Forum and oversaw its incredible growth as a vehicle for industry collaboration and education over the last three years

? Launched compelling mobile marketing educational webinar series and workshops

? Represented the MMA alongside other industry trade groups like the DMA, GSMA, GS1, IAB and Marketing Edge

? Made lasting friendships through the industry that I will cherish forever.

What are the biggest trends in mobile?
There are so many. The biggest trend in marketing is the concept of omnichannel/omni-presence and mobile is at the heart of this.

Mobile is helping stitch together traditional and digital marketing and is empowering the opportunity for true one-to-one relationships between marketers and the individual consumer. 

All of the trends revolve around the fundamental shift in consumer behavior ? again, behavior that is driven by mobile and connectivity.

Going forward, as an industry, we'll see a tremendous amount of effort put towards:

? The reshaping of the purchase funnel
? Enhanced creative within mobile advertising and marketing programs that get to the emotional root of consumer engagement
? Enterprises will begin to adopt mobile
? More investment will be made in 360/365 analytics and channel attribution
? The privacy talks with continue, Big Data will meet my data, i.e. a balance will form around marketer- and consumer-controlled data
? Location standard will continue to evolve
? New business models will emerge around data and there will be a whole world of not just mobile-first, buy-mobile-only businesses
? New strategies for enabling any service to be interactive through and with mobile and related connected devices
? Education at every level will become not just a tactical need but a strategic imperative
 
How will this holiday season be different?
We're entering into this holiday season with the knowledge that mobile use by consumers will be huge.

Last year was a tipping point. Starbucks has proved that mobile commerce can have a huge impact on the bottom line, as have the top 400 retailers.

Mobile will take center stage in this year's holiday season.

We'll see the standard messaging, mobile Web, app and engagement services, but we'll also see an increase in in-store Wi-Fi, hyper-local location advertising and enablement, and an increase in mobile coupons and offers and more experimentation with augmented reality and advanced services.