>With the unofficial start of the summer blockbuster season just days away thanks to the May 7 premiere of “Iron Man 2”, LG Electronics Mobilecomm has launched a multi-platform marketing campaign stressing the super powers its wireless technology can give the average person.
The campaign turns on the LG Ally, the manufacturer’s first smartphone model built on the android operating system. The phone, which will be prominently featured in the new movie, will not actually be on retail shelves until May 20.
But once it is, consumers will be able to use the new handset to text LGIM2 to a short code and download an Augmented Reality app—reportedly the first available for any Android phone, and exclusive to the LG Ally—and use it to interact with an online game. Augmented reality uses barcodes and scanning properties to unlock or interact with digital content.
Mobile users of any handset can also text in to access special “Iron Man 2” content over their mobile phones. They can also enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win an “Iron Man 2” prize package, including an LG Ally phone and free service for a year, two tickets to the first showing of a Marvel Comics movie, and a 55-inch LG HDTV and LG Network Blu-ray home theater system.
In stores, retailers will tout the Ally’s link to the movie with point-of-purchase materials and with a special limited-edition “Iron Man 2” comic from Marvel. Given away with the purchase of an LG ally, Chocolate touch or enV touch mobile phone, the comics will offer more augmented reality experiences and more short codes to text for additional Iron Man 2 content.
LG is also offering special “Iron man 2”-themed product bundles for Best Buy shoppers from now through May 22, consisting of the LG 5400 HDTV and several models of its Blu-ray disc player products and home theaters. These co-branded bundles are specified on the Web and supported with broadcast, online and mobile ad campaigns on ABC networks and Web sites.
Augmented reality and the “Iron Man 2” movie will also be at the heart of a live LG event to be held in New York on May 11. That event will showcase three finalists in the company’s third annual “Design the Future” contest crowdsourcing blueprints for mobile communications devices to come. Special to this year’s contest, which launched on March 15 and closed for submissions on April 25, is a new Prop Master’s Choice category, judged in part by Russell Bobbitt, prop master for “Iron Man 2”.
Winners in the contest, which is also sponsored by Crowdspring and design software maker Autodesk, will be announced on the Crowdspring Web site on May 14.
When the first “Iron Man” movie debuted in May 2008, LG—again featured in product placements in the film—offered fans an elaborate interactive site and a chance to text to win one of 100 limited-edition LG Shine phones in racing red and real 18-karat gold.
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