Who are the top mobile agencies in the world?

Last year we published the Top 10 Mobile App Developers in the world based on more than a months research, benchmarking, talking to customers, competitors, investors and journalists. The criteria included

• client list - well known global brands scored higher
• referrals - recommendations by existing customers
• brand recognition - mentions by journalists
• competitor rankings - how their competitors ranked them
• valuation - how investors valued the size of their mobile app development department

The top 10 list was published on our blog and republished by other blogs, Quora, Twitter, Linkedin and app development sites throughout the world. In fact the blog generated 10x more traffic in the first day than any other blog we've posted. Since then we've had lots of follow-up questions and comments by customers and media:

• Why is it called top app developers when it's companies developing apps for others and not individual app developers?
• Who are the top mobile agencies?
• Who are the top mobile enterprise solution providers?
• Who are the top mobile providers in a certain region?
• Who are the top individual app developers?

We will do our best to answer all these questions but first we decided to have a closer look at the top mobile agencies in the world. So how do we define a mobile agency? The definition we used is a full service mobile agency including at least 70% of the following services even if they are not necessarily all performed in-house:

• Mobile Strategy development
• Creative / Service Concept Design
• User Experience / User Interface Design
• Mobile Web Development & Hosting
• Mobile App Development
• Messaging Campaigns (SMS/MMS)
• Mobile Commerce / Transaction Services
• Metrics, analytics & reporting
• Quality Assurance
• Media Planning incl app distribution
• Media buying

This disqualifies most mobile ad networks, specialist media buying agencies and mobile design agencies but the purpose is to identify full agencies. In addition to this we only included agencies with more than 50% of their revenue from mobile which disqualified a lot of bigger interactive and digital agencies with mobile specialist teams. Based on this definition we identified the top 50 agencies and benchmarked each agency using the same criteria as for mobile app developers (see above). And after weeks of research and benchmarking here's the final top 10 list in no particular order of Mobile Agencies in the world:

1. Velti (HQ: UK) - The biggest mobile marketing agency across US and Europe
2. Somo Agency (HQ: UK) - One of the top ranked mobile agencies in the UK
3. YOC Group (HQ: Germany) - The leading mobile marketing agency in the Germany with big focus on their own ad network
4. The Hyperfactory (HQ: US) - One of the first mobile agencies with operations across the US and Asia
5. Fetch Media (HQ: UK) - Fast growing UK agency with great reputation for strategy and planning
6. Joule (HQ: US) - Founded out of WPP/GroupM working closely with brands and agencies throughout the group
7. Phonevalley (HQ: France) - The nr 1 mobile marketing agency in France
8. Mobiento (HQ: Sweden) - A pioneer in mobile marketing that have consistently continued to innovate
9. Mobile Dreams Factory (HQ: Spain) - Leading full service agency in Spain next to Mobext with long history of award winning campaigns
10. Golden Gekko (HQ: US) - Started as mobile app developer and now a full mobile solution provider helping to create new mobile companies and transform existing businesses into mobile

Just like last time we look forward to hearing your feedback. Good and bad. Here are some of the other agencies mentioned and recommended outside the top 10 list:
Hungama (HQ: India)
Grupo.Mobi (HQ: Brazil)
Mobext (HQ: Spain)
2Ergo (HQ: UK)
Ogilvy & Mather (HQ: US)
Buongiorno! Digital (HQ: Italy)
Punchkick Interactive (HQ: US)
Pure Agency (HQ: UK)
Welovemobile (HQ: UK)
M&C Saatchi Mobile (HQ: UK)
Plastic Mobile (HQ: US)
Incentivated (HQ: UK)
Cornerblue (HQ: US)
5th Finger (HQ: US)
Ansible Mobile (HQ: US)
01Tribe (HQ: Italy)
Hip Cricket (HQ: US)
Marvellous Mobile (HQ: UK)
Ping Mobile (HQ: US)
Zonica (HQ: US)
Motricity (HQ: US)
Puca Mobile (HQ: Ireland)
Mobilera (HQ: Turkey)
12Snap (HQ: Germany)
Icon Mobile (HQ: Icon Mobile)
3rd Vine (HQ: US)
Moblin (HQ: Israel)
Panacea (HQ: South Africa)
Addictive Mobile (HQ: US)
Movement (HQ: UK)
Madhouse (HQ: China)
Sponge Group (HQ: UK)
Must Mobile (HQ: Argentina)
Jumpfox (HQ: US)
Digital Jungle (HQ: China)
Initext (HQ: US)

Disclaimer: Golden Gekko developed this research and list for competitor benchmarking purposes. We've tried our best to be impartial but several of the companies listed are our direct competitors.