Snakk Media has responded to the smartphone user’s hunger for better brand experiences by launching a new division – Touch Create – a “true mobile-first” creative business providing a range of mobile creative services to brands, media agencies and creative shops across Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.

“Frankly, most mobile ads out there are completely uninspiring and it’s inhibiting mobile media spend,” said Snakk Media Group CEO Mark Ryan. “We were finding more and more brands and agencies wanted our mobile creative without necessarily needing our media capabilities, so we’ve kicked off Touch Create to service them with pure creative.”

He went on to explain that demand for mobile-first creative strategy is at an all time high, with marketers recognising that the only way to drive above-average mobile campaign results is by pairing the new breed of media technology with exceptional mobile creative.

“There’s really no point in cramming the same creative that’s been designed for TV, billboards or a laptop into a screen that fits in your palm. It’s simply not good enough. With access to touch, gyroscopic, GPS, accelerometers and other sensors on smartphones and tablets, we have much richer storytelling tools than ever before,” Ryan said. “The uniquely mobile combination of hardware, creative and content presents an enormously compelling opportunity for brands looking to go beyond simple mobile banners.”

Premium brands across Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia who have recently used creative from the Touch Create team include AirBnB, Adidas, Peugeot, Paypal, Lion Nathan, McDonald’s and Emirates. Prior to becoming a standalone division, The Touch Create team, via Snakk Media, has delivered more than 1000 pieces of creative for mobile campaigns over the past four years.

Touch Create is headed up creatively by award-winning creative director Carlos Guedes, who joined Snakk a little over a year ago from JWT & Isobar Portugal. He leads in conjunction with well-known Sydney creative agency identities Irini Jordan in Operations, and Chris Hackett in Client Services, both formerly of Ogilvy.

Guedes said the entertainment, auto and consumer goods industries are driving much of the innovation in mobile campaigns: “If your brand campaigns are not optimising the mobile experience for consumers from a creative standpoint, then you could be missing a significant opportunity over a competitor who is.

“With mobile campaigns, there is far more flexibility to deliver customised, engaging and immersive brand experiences. Yet research from the IAB 2015 Mobile Landscape Survey1 indicates over 40 per cent of marketers cite poor creative as a major barrier to using mobile advertising. Touch Create addresses a strong need for creative strategy, content and execution that understands the unique nature of the mobile device and the mobile audience.”

While working with Snakk, the team behind Touch Create has led several award-winning Snakk mobile campaigns. The global Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) named the Pepsi Next Taste Challenge campaign as an APAC finalist in their 2014 annual awards; while the launch of the latest release of the video game Assassin’s Creed Unity was awarded a prestigious 2015 Official Webby Honoree.

Touch Create complements Snakk’s portfolio of audience-targeting, geo-location and native advertising technologies, enabling the company to offer the full suite of mobile creative, content and technology services.