WPP Takes Stake in Mobile Reward Specialist TMARC

WPP company tenthavenue has acquired a majority stake in South African mobile activation firm Jupicorp Proprietary Ltd (trading as TMARC), which offers a consumer profiling, segmentation and targeting tool.

Founded in 2010 and employing eight people, TMARC (The Mobile Airtime Rewards Company) provides the chance for shoppers to win free airtime, once they have purchased selected brands in retail outlets. In return, the retailer gains consumer insight into purchasing behaviour, along with targeted marketing information available through the firm's proprietary Mindshaft database mining, profiling and analysis tools.

The firm is led by former FMCG exec Nick Terry (pictured), and for the year ended February 2013 had revenues of ZAR 60m (around £3.2m).

tenthavenue's portfolio of companies includes out-of-home specialist Kinetic, mobile agency Joule, custom content specialist Spafax, and multi-channel content agency Forward.

WPP did not disclose terms of the deal.

Web sites: www.wpp.com , www.tenthavenue.com and www.tmarcweb.co.za .