NEWBURY, ENGLAND: As Vodafone embarks on a major partnership with Microsoft to extend web services to mobile devices, the British cell-phone giant has called in McGrath/ Power as its new US AOR.
McGrath/Power will oversee corporate and product PR, and the agency's first task was to help Vodafone announce its alliance with Microsoft, which will ideally open up the mobile-services market to web-services developers.
"The bulk of what we will be doing is media and analyst relations," said Jonathan Bloom, CEO at McGrath/Power, which also recently signed Coyote Point Systems and Reconnex as clients.
"This is one of our biggest wins, and they are one of the biggest cell-phone companies," said Bloom of Vodafone. "But they don't have the recognition here that they have in Europe."
Aside from increasing the company's visibility, Bloom predicted that the firm will assist in Vodafone's efforts to capitalize on what many see as the growing convergence between the wireless and IT markets. This phenomenon appears to be under- scored by both Microsoft's and Vodafone's desire to team up.
"There is going to be a wave of convergence over the next couple of years," said Bloom.
