Campaign: Motorola V2397 Launch
Agency: The Zipatoni Co., St. Louis
Client: Motorola, Schaumburg, IL
Looking to help Motorola score a direct hit with its first youth-targeted phone marketing effort, Zipatoni hooked the client up with the King of Teen: MTV.
The wireless phone manufacturer tied into Total Request Live for a holiday 2000 promotion to hook Gen Y and bump sales of a new V2397 phone — which features slick styling and two-way text-messaging — through retail partner AT&T Wireless. “We needed to make the brand relevant with an audience that wasn’t that familiar with Motorola,” says Rodney Mason, general manager of Zipatoni’s Chicago office.
To help with the familiarization, TRL host Carson Daly was recruited to appear in ads offering an MTV gift bag (featuring a TRL bag and compilation music CD) with phone purchase. An online component let consumers use the V2397 during TRL’s broadcasts to vote for their favorite songs, send messages to Daly, and enter a sweeps dangling a trip to the show’s set. A viral effort had Web site visitors sending creative e-postcards to friends and checking out interactive product demos.
Five private launch parties held in major markets generated excitement with the trade. Each event boasted performances by bands featured on TRL and showed off collateral and sell sheets from the campaign. P-O-P displays, which included a five-foot kiosk featuring Daly, were set up in all 15,000 AT&T stores. TV, radio, and print ads supported. “We watched as the momentum built,” says Mason. “The V2397 became the wireless phone of the holiday season.”
Young consumers gave the campaign a thumbs up. Some 28,000 people entered the sweeps (9,000 opting in for more product information) and 15,000 sent messages to Daly; launch parties beat attendance projections by as much as five times; and merchandise sell-through bested the target by 17 percent. “The phone became known as ‘The Carson Phone,'” says Angela McCune, senior marketing manager at Motorola. “We leveraged a property that was relevant with the target and, as a result, we resonated with that audience.”
AT&T Wireless placed a large order for the holiday 2001 selling season, and other wireless carriers have since asked Motorola to partner with them.
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