The Mob-Ex Influencer 2012 Mr. Ricky Chu - Lighthouse ...

Category:
The Mob-Ex Influencer 2012
Nominee:
Mr. Ricky Chu
Designation:
- Mobile Marketing Evangelist
- Chief Executive Officer, Gravitas Group
- Managing Director, AMAZE Mobile Media
- Founder, Mobile Friday
- Director of Marketing Services,
Retail Technology Industry Association

Showreel:
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=WDwFrNkoqtA

“You may say Ricky Chu is doer, dreamer, analyst, catalyst,
engineer or the pioneer, with single and firm vision in mobile to
continually innovate marketing the mobile way.”

The transformational mobile evangelist
Ricky Chu,
Chief Executive Officer
of Gravitas Group,
a transfor mational
evangelist who dared
to seed the farm of
mobile marketing
with virtually no one doing the same a
decade ago.
To keep leading the industry, he founded
AMAZE Mobile Media, the mobile
advertising arm of Gravitas Group, in
2009. AMAZE Mobile Media provides
quality mobile advertising inventory with
powerful ad formats like Push Messages
and Rich Media Crazy Ad as advertisers
continuously demand the best ROI.
With over 16 years experience in Telecom,
IT and digital media, Ricky is now one of
the most reputed mobile marketing
evangelist, influential thought leader in
emerging communications and trend
setter in mobile marketing in Asia.
He is also renowned as the founder of
Mobile Friday, a first and ever community
of Asian Mobile Marketers since 2008 and
Mobile Friday is now the largest
community of 5,000+ mobile marketers in
the region.
To seize the emerging opportunities
presented by people’s rapid adoption of
mobile and social channels to discover,
learn, compare, buy and recommend
products, Ricky has been steering the
Gravitas Group towards a direction on
SoLoMoCo (Social, Local, Mobile and
Commerce) across Asia.
He is now an active member in Asia
Digital Marketing Association (ADMA),
Retail Technology Industry Association
( R TIA) and Hong Kong W i r eless
Technology Industry Associations (HKWTIA)
and maintains excellent relations with
client marketers, advertising agencies,
m edi a c ompani e s and teleco m
operators in the industry.
43

Back to a decade ago in 2003,
could you imagine what was really about mobile marketing

In 2003, we were most probably using
Nokia 8210 or similar phone that could
only support text with monochrome
display. Not a lot could ever imagine we
can take photos, play games, check
emails and even watch TV with our
phone on the palm at that time.
The take up of mobile marketing by
marketers have been made quickly in
in recent recent years. years. Ricky Chu was
undoubtedly one one of most of the influential most
leader influential to set leaders the stage, to set develop the stage, and
inno develop vate and the innovate who l e the m owhole
bile
marketing mobile marketing ecosystem ecosystem in Hong in Kong
in Hong this decade. Kong in this decade.
However, Ricky and his brother Gary
dreamt about how might a mobile
device be able to serve different
marketing purposes. At that moment, he
believed that the advancement in
mobile technology in the next decade
would make it become an undeniable
channel for marketers to reach their
targets and achieve marketing goals.
Mobile device would be an indispensable
communication and entertainment
platform for all walks of life in the future.
He truly believed that his dream is going
to happen, and he could really make it
happen.
67

A visionary entrepreneur
with a mission to innovate, transform and achieve
In 2003, most of the mobile industry
players would love to work with telcos to
put the focus on some lucrative
businesses like selling r ingto nes,
wallpapers, and other value-added
services to earn money from mobile users.
Ricky, with a decade working experience
in sales and marketing of IT and Telecom
industry, thought in another way and had
a belief in spending another decade to
advocate the intelligent use of mobile
marketing and build his own empire in the
mobile marketing industry, at the time
there was actually no such industry in
2003.
In 2012, Ricky and his team built Gravitas
from a small start-up into a successful
group of companies, offering a wide
range of mobile marketing services to
brands of Fortune 500 companies,
multinational corporations and renowned
local groups.
Having built a solid foundation in Hong
Kong with 60 staff, 200 clients and over
100% year-on-year growth, Gravitas is
now ready to expand aggressively into
new Asian markets to keep innovating the
recipe of mobile marketing for all
marketers in the region.
Without any venture capital fund or
decent support from angel investors,
Ricky bravely decided to take this
unpr ecedented adventur e and
attempted to set the stage for and
innovate the mobile marketing industry
with his tremendous vision but tiny power.
87

Gravitas has been the most awarded
local mobile marketing agency since
2009 and was the biggest independent,
local and mobile winner in the Agency of
the Year Award 2012, scooping a total of
4 awards.
Moreover, Gravitas is also the only mobile
agency in Hong Kong to be shortlisted in
the mobile category of the Digital Asia
Festival 2012, competing with other 2
regional players in this category to strive
for the glory for Hong Kong mobile
marketing industry across Asia.
Ricky is such a passionate and visionary
leader to lead his team Gravitas to
become the most leading mobile
marketing company in the region.
98

“Gravitas has leveraged numerous unique marketing campaigns to help
retailers achieve business goals in the past few years. We believe that under the
leadership of Ricky, Gravitas will continue to bring new elements into the
marketing mix and contribute to the growth of the mobile marketing industry”
Carrol Cheng
Marketing Manager
Dickson Communications Limited

Extraordinary persistency
overcome challenges towards mission impossible
The road to advocate mobile marketing
was tough enough for Ricky at the
beginning.
2003
Gravitas profile
In the old days, mobile marketing
seemed to be equal to text-based SMS
marketing. Gravitas was born at that time
and Ricky started this full of hurdles
journey to make Gravitas a real mobile
marketing agency instead of a merely
SMS services provider.
11Jan2005
Hi-TECH Magazine
Compromise was not Ricky’s attitude. He
had tried many different ways to
innovate mobile marketing other than just
a SMS from advertisers to audiences.
In 2005, Gravitas was the first company in
Hong Kong to advocate the marketing
applications of QR code on mobile as a
coupon, ticket and loyalty card with live
campaigns for retailers and some big
brands like Nike. The similar idea is now
promoted by Apple with a Passbook
concept in 2012. Ricky is really a forwardlooking
leader to foresee a thing to
happen in the next 5 or 10 years.
10 11

In 2006, Gravitas was also the first
company to work with renowned outdoor
advertising media company such as
JCDecaux to advocate the use of mobile
for highly engaging interactive outdoor
campaigns while Gravitas also leverage
Bluetooth technology to setup and run a
fully interactive outdoor media within
popular restaurants in 2007 in Hong Kong.
2Dec2010
AMAZE 1 st Anniversary
The born of AMAZE Mobile Media in 2009
was also a remarkable step for Gravitas to
lead the market development a step
further to achieve the mission impossible
along the roadmap to advocate the true
adoption of mobile advertising by
marketers.
Ricky has never hesitated to take
challenges to make a better future for the
mobile marketing industry in Hong Kong.
11 12

“We believe under the leadership of Mr Ricky Chu, the CEO of Gravitas,
they will continue contributing to the growth of mobile marketing industry
with creative ideas.”
Jessica Che
Senior Manager – Customer Relationship Management
Corporate Communications & Marketing Division
Dah Chong Hong Holdings Ltd

Evangelizing to marketers
from both big corporations and small enterprises
Ricky would be the be guy the willing guy to willing expedite to
expedite the transformational the transfor development mational of
development mobile marketing of mobile industry marketing for all
industry marketers for without all considering marketers they without can
considering pay or not. they will pay or not.
Ricky has never been stop evangelizing
t o mar ket e r s f r o m Fortu n e 500
companies, list multinational corporations
and renowned local groups on mobile
marketing since 2003.
By the way, Ricky would never stop here.
Over 98% of the companies in Hong Kong
are SMEs. Shall we put the focus only on
educating the big brands and large
enterprises to adopt mobile because they
can afford to pay
With this intrinsic thought in mind, Ricky
founded the first and only mobile
marketers community called Mobile
Friday. Since 2008, over 50 workshops and
social gatherings have been run.
Together with a regular newsletter Mobile
Marketing Snap sent every week, Mobile
Friday has regularly connected over 5,000
marketers at different levels in the region
to share and exchange all things mobile.
4Jul2008
Mobile Friday Workshop#1
14 12

In the past 12 months, in addition to
Mobile Friday, Ricky f r equently
participated in many important events
and initiatives to inspire marketers from
both big brands and SMEs. To name a
few, they were HKTDC World SME Expo
2011, Digital Marketing 2012, Mobile Retail
Conference at ICT EXPO 2012 and SES
Hong Kong 2012.
The meeting and exchange through
the Mobile Friday platform with
executives of P7S1, German Largest
TV Company on 3 November 2011
made the excellence of Hong Kong
mobile marketing industry well
known to the European Media
Executives who are interested to
know more about mobile marketing
in Asia.
This meaningful project was funded by
the Office of the Government Chief
Information Officer (OGCIO), with the aim
to help SMEs to promote their products
and brand images through the adoption
of latest mobile technologies.
In addition, Ricky conducted 20+ mobile
marketing workshops for Hong Kong SMEs
on Consumer Connect Project organized
by GS1 with co-organizers including Retail
Technology Industry Association and
Hong Kong Institute of Marketing.
Last but not least, our voice has already
started spreading throughout Hong Kong
to the rest of the world.
15 13

“Ricky continues to pioneer the mobile industry in Hong Kong.
Rather than force a new technology upon consumers, Ricky had the foresight
to offer value via retailers in Hong Kong, who are constantly searching
for cost-effect ways to attract more visitors to their shops.”
Napoleon Biggs
Founder & Digital Catalyst
Web Wednesday Asia

Collaboration with reputed digital evangelist
Napoleon Biggs and his Web Wednesday
Napoleon Biggs joined Gravitas Group in
Oct 2012 as Chief Strategy Officer.
Biggs is a reputed digital marketing
evangelist and influential thought leader
in emerging communications and
advertising trends. He is well known as
hard-hitting host of “Web Wednesday”, a
community of Asian Digerati that he
founded in July 2006. It has grown Asia’s
premier networking community for digital
media and Internet executives, with
monthly gatherings and talks in Hong
Kong, Beijing, Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai
and Ho Chi Minh City.
Prior to joining Gravitas, Biggs was Senior
Vice President, Head of Digital Integration
at Fleishman-Hillard Asia Pacific where he
successfully built a team of digital
communications experts serving clients
across 18 regional offices.
With the collaboration with Napoleon
and his Web Wednesday, Ricky will lead
the further development of Gravitas
Group across Asia and let all marketers in
the region know the essence of mobile
marketing excellence through both Wed
Wednesday and Mobile Friday in the next
decade.
14 17

“Ricky has provided valuable work experience for our students,
who are passionate about the new industry but cannot get into it easily
as fresh graduates. I am sure he could contribute himself to the
economic and social development of the Hong Kong mobile industry.”
Ray C.C. Cheung
Assistant Professor
Department of Electronic Engineering
City University of Hong Kong

Powerful influencer
to build and transform the mobile marketing ecosystem
Ricky is one of the most influential thought
leaders to influence the continuous
evolvement of the mobile marketing
ecosystem.
Ricky believes the most important asset of
the industry is talent and therefore
undoubtedly takes up the responsibility to
cultivate new blood to sustain the
industry development.
The internship programs collaborated
with universities in Hong Kong successfully
trained up many new bloods to fuel this
development of this emerging industry.
Talent is critical but not only a single
factor to prosper the industry.
Advocating the publishers to go mobile,
advertising media to incorporate mobile,
and mobile telcos to move towards the
mobile advertising business were only few
of the Ricky’s achievements in the last
decade to shape the ecosystem
nowadays.
19 17

“We are deeply impressed by his commitment and contribution to nurture
and drive the industry adoption of mobile marketing.
He advocates the innovative use of mobile in marketing
and is a true influencer of the mobile marketing industry.”
PM Lai
Chairman
Hong Kong Retail Technology Industry Association

2013 and beyond
2013 is the 10 th anniversary of both
Gravitas and Ricky’s mission impossible in
mobile marketing.
His “can do”, “do even better” and
“always look head” attitude has
gradually evolved into the Gravitas
cul tur e , a n uncomp r omisin g
determination and commitment to
innovate the marketing process, inspire
marketers and transform the industry
across Asia in 2013 and onward.
Undoubtedly, many important milestones
in the industry like adoption of QR code,
advocates of interactive outdoor
advertising using interactive SMS and
Bluecasting, founding Mobile Friday, and
collaboration with Web Wednesday to
boost the development of the industry
acr oss Asia a r e r evolutionary
achievement which can only be
achieved by a dedicated and visionary
person like Ricky.
Ricky has been a true mobile
marketing ambassador over the
c o u r s e o f h i s car eer, s how n
leadersh i p i n the field, a n d
continually strove to make a
difference in the industry to make
the essence of our mobile marketing
excellence well-known to the rest of
the world.
Undoubtedly, he is the most influential
person in mobile marketing industry in
Hong Kong.
21 19

Nominators:
Ms Carrol Cheng
Marketing Manager
Dickson Communications Limited
Ms Jessica Che
Senior Manager – Customer Relationship Management
Corporate Communications & Marketing Division
Dah Chong Hong Holdings Limited
Mr Napoleon Biggs
Founder & Digital Catalyst
Web Wednesday Asia
Mr Ray C.C. Cheung
Assistant Professor
Department of Electronic Engineering
City University of Hong Kong
Dr PM Lai
Chairman
Hong Kong Retail Technology Industry Association