Ex Bebo chief Cordero leads InMobi Australian relaunch
Head of marketing Fine
General manager Cordero
(Note: this article has been amended to reflect the fact that the company is relaunching, not launching)
InMobi, which claims to be the world’s largest independent mobile ad network, is to relaunch in Australia with a staff of around 20.
Among those on the team is digital veteran Francisco Cordero, whose previous roles have included launching the Australian operations of networking site Bebo and most recently local vice president of sales at group buying giant GroupOn. Cordero has also worked at Yahoo!7 and NineMSN.
Didn’t InMobi launch 2 years ago with ex Starcom guy?
Yes, they did.
“You need to either be in the market today or not be in it.” – words of wisdom.
Amazing – Rob Marston launches InMobi over 12 mths ago in AU , does a great job breaking ground – but is now out the door – & now it’s being “launched” again .. hmm…. more spin than a Warnie leg break !
20 staff? Really? That’s a hell of a lot of cheap ads. This at a time when even Facebook say that they can’t make mobile advertising work, and there’s a good chance that they won’t make it (according to their IPO documents today).
If there is enough profitable, effective, mobile advertising inventory in Australia to keep 75 people in a job in 2 years’ time, I will eat my hat. Are companies really buying that many mobile ads and making that media work?
Agreed Andrew – not sure how they think they can just ignore the last 18 months and that no-one will notice.
Careful placing brand messages on blind mobile ad networks such as Inmobi & admob. Inmobi is great for content providers looking for a cheap click.
If your looking to promote your brand on mobile, go with premium ad networks & publishers.
I’m not sure they realize the great work that Rob did. He covered the agencies and others in the market and was well known as the InMobi person in the market. I think the slow sales in the market were blamed on him, rather than the reality of the market size and scope.
Nothing against Francisco, and I wish him luck, but I don’t think they realize the goodwill they just stamped on. Very badly handled indeed.
I don’t think Rob was the only one. A few others left pretty quickly due to the management
Have you ever seen an InMobi ad on an Australian mobile site? You have to wonder where all of their ads are being served. They are very cagey about revealing the sites in their network. 50 -75 staff in a few years sounds inefficient – given that a lot of their technology is automated and the grunt work is done by staff in India.
Agree with @Andrew and the others. Rob did such a superb job – shameful for InMobi to feel they can just ‘start again’. This industry is one of the many where relationship-building is so key, and Rob built solid relationships from the start. InMobi’s loss will be someone else’s gain.
Agree with all the comments above. Rob is well respected in the industry and laid a fantastic foundation. But, the reality is that timing is everything. the industry was not ready for mobile advertising 1 year ago. Rich media was not there. smartphone penetration in Australia was not there. The rate of change is phenonomenal and those that are in front of the curve, will win. guaranteed!
so these are the guys who sell annoying ads in games loading screens etc?
formats are all well and good but context and distribution is the main game.
Thank you Andrew Lockwood, Fionn Hyndman and others for your kind words, support and correcting the obvious error in the above press release.
Whilst I understand the need to maximise PR with the Global CEO in town for the first time, I believe it is important that I provide the facts:-
For the record, I was employed by InMobi from September 2010 until December 2011 as Regional Director. I covered the full gamut for InMobi across agency, direct client and publisher. I worked with AIMIA’s Mobile Interest Group to support the industry and spoke (as an InMobi representative) at Ad Tech and other conferences.
I would like to thank InMobi for giving me my break in mobile advertising and the opportunity to learn about the mobile ecosystem, networks and where the opportunities lie within the industry. Having seen where the ‘real’ opportunity is with mobile, I have now launched http://www.zeusunwired.com to cater for agencies and direct clients as they evolve into the mobile space.
Thanks InMobi and good luck
Rob@zeusunwired.com
The Mobile industry in Australia is thriving and the people that have seen the opportunities and have stuck with it since the 90’s are a close bunch.
You can’t take what worked on the fixed Web and expect it to work on Portable Media, CTR don’t mean a pinch in Mobile it’s all about creating embedded experiences. People tell other people about great content/apps and they in turn consume it it’s about creating convenience via embedded tools in Mobile.
Well done Rob on the new venture, talk soon.
Rob, you’re a gent as always, fair play…