HTC

Launch of the 'Wildfire' The business challenge
The Wildfire is HTC’s lead smartphone for the young, socially connected “Always on” target segment. We collaborated with Nelson Bostock, the PR agency, and the experiential agency Fearlessly Frank, to launch this across Europe. Our challenge was how to engage with this image-conscious group, as HTC was not a brand they knew or aspired to.

The solution
We felt that a conventional advertising approach would wash over these people. So we developed an “inside out” communications approach. We started by targeting key influencers at exclusive PR events, then used them to seed a competition idea – 'If you could get all of your Facebook friends together for a day, what would you do?' With no product sell at this stage, this positioned HTC as a desirable, relevant brand. Finally, we turned to selling the phone in mainstream public media.

Results
Over 1.2 million handsets shipped across Europe, beating targets by 250%. 40,000 Facebook fans, over 3,000 competition entries, 5,000 likes and over 4,000 comments.