Motorola rocks Australia with exclusive Silverchair gig

Howorth helped Motorola officially rock Australia, developing a major buzz campaign to launch its exciting Artist of the Month program.

Kicking off with an exclusive live gig for over 1,000 of Sydney’s hippest VIPs, fans and industry fanatics with Silverchair – the nation’s most popular chart topping band, the campaign achieved:

• Extensive pre and post-coverage hype reaching more than 13 million Australians across news, music lift-outs and social pages, including print media; SMH, The Sun Herald, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier Mail, The Newcastle Herald, 3DWorld, The Brag. TV; Channel 10’s Video Hits and MTV. Radio; FBI radio. Online media; ninemsn, news.com.au, The Music, Fasterlouder, PopRepublic, suburbanforce.com.au, musichead.com.au, mediasearch.com.au

• Strategic brand positioning for Motorola’s new Artist of the Month program via engagement with key influencers.

Campaign key steps

• Targeted giveaways in TV, major metropolitan newspapers, online and street press – promoting the Silverchair AOTM event, and leveraging the Artist of the Month website
• Influencer engagement and seeding program
• Extensive media outreach campaign covering Australia’s top rating music TV and radio programs, major newspapers and online sites
• Unique mobile downloads of Silverchair content for 3 mobile customers via Motorola’s Artist of the Month Program
• In-store promotion with 3 mobile, to win tickets to attend the exclusive album launch.

Media and influencers commented that:

• “The event was a delicious delight for sight and sound. A stellar venue for one of Australia’s best bands. Young Modern in on high rotation!” ~ Alex Thompson, InStyle Magazine ~

• “In short, the night ROCKED. The whole event was really well orchestrated and made guests feel we were part of something very special.” ~ Emma Vidgen, New Woman Magazine ~

Luxury phone gets style-setting kick off

To launch Motorola’s new MOTORAZR2 V8 Luxury Edition phone and re-establish the company’s position as Australia’s ‘must-have’ designer mobile phone brand, Howorth utlised global brand ambassador, David Beckham, and a four pronged media strategy.

The campaign quadrupled target expectations:

• A whopping reach of over 34 million Australians was achieved within just two weeks
• More than 100 media hits across TV, radio, online and print
• A complete sell-through of stock within two months!

Having been allocated just one hour of the star’s time, Howorth’s strategy maximised the star’s appeal, but controlled access and messaging around the celebrity. This helped ensure positive pick-up around the product.

Campaign outline
Key steps:

• Pre-launch buzz created through media partnerships with Australia’s top radio, print and TV media including Nova, mX and The Morning Show
• An exclusive Sydney high-octane VIP meet-and-greet
• Exclusive press conference
• National media alerted via a digital news release to ensure widespread coverage.

The campaign was delivered within a three-month timeframe and on budget, yet sustained buzz for months following. The coverage from the launch and MOTRAZR 2 V8 Lux still generated talk and coverage up to one year later.

Beckham, an international football star and world-leading style icon, was in Australia to play for his team, LA Galaxy FC.

Stephen Amiet, National Marketing Manager, Motorola Mobile Devices, said:

“Howorth delivered an awesome campaign and the results are an amazing testament to the creativity, professionalism and superior organisational skills of the Howorth team.

“Our international guests, friends at Optus and attending media commented that it was one of the smoothest product launches they have ever attended.

“We could not have been happier, especially in relation to the way the positive coverage and reviews of the V8 Lux phone led to sell through of the product at retail.

“It was great to see the story covered in the evening news on every commercial TV station and on the front page of MX that afternoon. We wanted to stop traffic…and George St was mayhem!”

GRAND SLAM: Maria Sharapova launches Motorola S705 Bluetooth MP3 Player

With the Australian Open in full swing, Howorth leveraged Motorola’s association with top ranking women’s tennis player, Maria Sharapova, to generate buzz and excitement around the launch of the new SoundPilot S705.

Campaign highlights:

• Exclusive interview on Channel 7’s Today Tonight with Maria Sharapova demonstrating the Motorola Soundpilot against a backdrop Motorola’s pink batwing branding. The interview reached a national audience of over 1.4 million viewers
• National and online coverage on Channel 10’s Sports Tonight, The Age, Herald Sun, The Australian and news.com.au
• Media coverage syndicated internationally to more than 75 countries.

Campaign key steps:

• Exclusive invite-only media event attended by more than 40 media, including TV, print, radio and online news at Crown Towers in Melbourne. The active lifestyle themed event, featured a hosted Q&A session with Maria Sharapova
• Pre-placed promotions with top rating media offering signed Motorola merchandise
• Extensive product review and media outreach program.