| Type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Mobile Marketing and Promotions |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | • Alex Vratskides, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer • Marco Veremis, Co-founder and President • Simon Negus, Chief Operating Officer • Assaf Baciu, SVP, Product Management • Michael Linnert, SVP Sales, North America • Vu Nguyen, SVP, Global Sales • Panos Martinis, SVP, Finance • Guy Krief, SVP, Innovation |
| Website | www.upstreamsystems.com |
Upstream (www.upstreamsystems.com) is a global mobile marketing technology and solutions provider that serves brands and mobile phone operators in 40 countries. Upstream has offices in London, Redwood City, California,[1] Athens, Bucharest, Rome, Singapore, Rio de Janeiro, and Dubai.[2]
Through its Marketing Communication Suite (MCS) technology platform, Upstream has executed more than 160,000 campaigns and interacted with 500 million consumers worldwide for companies like Vodafone, T-Mobile, Telefónica O2, The Coca-Cola Company, BMW, BSkyB, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Shell, Unilever, América Móvil, MTN and Telecom Italia.
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Upstream campaigns run on the company’s proprietary Marketing Communications Suite (MCS), a mobile-marketing technology platform built around the objective of maximizing consumer response. MCS’ key components include its communications optimization engine; marketing gamification capabilities;[3] message contextualization and personalization filter; and advanced insights and analytics.[4]
Upstream conducted research in 2011 with YouGov[5] in the United Kingdom and Luth Research[6] in the United States. The resulting report, entitled “Consumer Attitudes to Mobile Marketing,” revealed the amount of interactions with brands and operators that consumers are prepared to tolerate on their cellphones. The research also showed an active consumer resistance to third-party mobile ads, but an equally active craving for operator offers or deals.[7] Two creative infographics give a visual representation of the UK research[8] and the US research findings.[9]
Upstream has stressed the importance of the intimate and personal nature of the mobile phone as a key component in the formulation of a type of marketing that is focused on effectiveness, operating in a contextual and relevant way.[10]
In a 2011 interview with the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones, Marco Veremis, Upstream’s President, described this as the main challenge for marketers.[11] CEO Alex Vratskides, in an interview with The Telegraph, expressed the opinion that to play to mobile’s strengths, marketers need to base their thinking around the device’s inherent limitations and advantages, with personalization and intimacy always a part of the equation.[12]
In a 2011 interview, CEO Alex Vratskides outlined the company’s approach to working with carriers and brands on a payment-by-results basis.[13]
Upstream has been the headline sponsor of Mobile Marketing Magazine’s Effective Mobile Marketing Awards, since its inauguration in 2010.[14] [15]
The company has won several industry awards, including: