What do you think the marketing would be like?

[TheNorthernForest]

So, we're getting closer and closer to the highly anticipated HTC EVO! Jackson has said commercials will be rolling out on the 16th of April. With so many features this power-housing device supports, I can only imagine what commercials would be like.

I'm hoping Sprint doesn't do the usual by talking about how many people are making a call or how many people are sending a picture message while using the bathroom and devout 5 seconds by adding, "Oh, and look at our new HTC EVO 4G. Only on the now network". That will not be good enough! Sprint needs to cut out the fluffy white background and go back to the yellow on black look that they had, at least for EVO's marketing.

It's obvious this phone will e geared toward the man, much like DROID's marketing shouted out. I picture some of the first few commercials opening up with EVO slowly approaching the screen. Once done approaching, a quick, yet impactive display of tons of things you can do on it flashes before your eyes and when it's done, it fades away, and yellow letters slowing appearing, stating "Summer 2010. A new evolution begins. Find out more at sprint.com/evo" BAM! Instant curiosity would run through the viewers body, as they run to the computer and look up the EVO with pre-ordering information.

I also expect to see some dissing commercials, Sprint! If Apple can get away with it, so can you!

What do you guys have in mind?

 

[dylan88]

ive always been thinking of something like the evolution of phones. go back to the first cell phones, then flip phones, sliders, move on to touch, then the 4G.

 

[dylan88]

oh! and i hope they come out with a slogan like the droid (does)

 

[dbpaddler]

If it's anything like they did for webOS the phone is screwed...

 

[billsmed]

So, we're getting closer and closer to the highly anticipated HTC EVO! Jackson has said commercials will be rolling out on the 16th of April. With so many features this power-housing device supports, I can only imagine what commercials would be like.

I'm hoping Sprint doesn't do the usual by talking about how many people are making a call or how many people are sending a picture message while using the bathroom and devout 5 seconds by adding, "Oh, and look at our new HTC EVO 4G. Only on the now network". That will not be good enough! Sprint needs to cut out the fluffy white background and go back to the yellow on black look that they had, at least for EVO's marketing.

It's obvious this phone will e geared toward the man, much like DROID's marketing shouted out. I picture some of the first few commercials opening up with EVO slowly approaching the screen. Once done approaching, a quick, yet impactive display of tons of things you can do on it flashes before your eyes and when it's done, it fades away, and yellow letters slowing appearing, stating "Summer 2010. A new evolution begins. Find out more at sprint.com/evo" BAM! Instant curiosity would run through the viewers body, as they run to the computer and look up the EVO with pre-ordering information.

I also expect to see some dissing commercials, Sprint! If Apple can get away with it, so can you!

What do you guys have in mind?

I'm with you TNF. The Droid was successful because Verizon ran an aggressive ad campaign and the name became well known overnight. Compare that to the campaign of the Nexus One, which lacked TV commercials, and sales have been mediocre at best. Sprint only has one chance to make the name EVO 4G as well known as Droid (Does). If they don't EVO (won't). I don't care how good it is.

Like you, I'd really hate to see the EVO go by the wayside because it lacked good promotion. I also believe the iPhone loving media is going to attack the EVO like they did the Nexus One and they're going to say WiMAX isn't as good as LTE (which is ridiculous, because Sprint has the ONLY 4G network here in the US). Sprint has to impress us if they want non-Sprint customers to adopt their phone and they need to show they have the best 4G network in the world. I fully expect them to go for it, because they have everything to loose if they don't. I really believe they have the best phone in the world and the way I see it, they're going to get a lot of their customers back.

 

[dylan88]

If it's anything like they did for webOS the phone is screwed...

that lady thing in the pre commercial gave me nightmares.

 

[cary328is]

they should show 8 awesome gadgets doing their own thing in individual boxes....like iphone, ipad, nexus, droid etc...then all of a sudden show them all running on the Wimax 4g network via the EVO!!!! PWNED

 

[mcbtrain929]

they should show 8 awesome gadgets doing their own thing in individual boxes....like iphone, ipad, nexus, droid etc...then all of a sudden show them all running on the Wimax 4g network via the EVO!!!! PWNED

mine would be similar to this, but, i would have a screen showing a bunch of different people using a ton of devices/objects: a fancy camera, and fancy camcorder, a nice laptop computer, a nice phone, a map for directions, etc. then have those objects zoom out and have the evo zoom in, stating how this one device can do everything so you don't need all those other devices.

"EVOLUTION"

there's a cooler way to describe/display this idea, but it sounds good in my head lol.

 

[neodorian]

that lady thing in the pre commercial gave me nightmares.

Those were Palm ads, not Sprint. They were going for surreal and something to stand out against all the obnoxious XXX-TREMEE!!! robots and explosions and stuff but obviously that is what sold (Droid) so they miscalculated. I think they were shooting for a more grown-up audience but failed to attract the younger early adopters.

As far as the current Sprint ads, I disagree about the yellow and black thing. That was the most annoying part of Sprint PPC phones for a while. The yellow and black themes were garish and ugly. I'd like to see more minimalist and classy (like the Evo itself) and less Fast and Furious neon yellow and such. Not to keep coming back to it, but Apple constantly gets attention for their look and feel. That is because over the past several years they have moved away from the neon colors of the old iMacs and moved to silver, black, white, metal, glass, and other muted and industrial design themes. Not saying you don't want color but looking at lots of the home-made themes for WebOS and Win Mobile reminds me of high school Myspace pages with flames and garish colors and it doesn't exactly scream quality.

 

[dylan88]

me and my dad are die hard steelers fans, so the yellow and black are perfect for us lol.

 

[cabbie]

I'd like to see more minimalist and classy (like the Evo itself) and less Fast and Furious neon yellow and such

There's a delicate balance between trying to do this while also pimping the specs of Evo.

I think you need a multi-pronged campaign. One for the 4G experience, one highlighting the specs that incorporates 4G, and comparison based ones. It also needs a killer tagline. 'Droid Does' is simply brilliant, its concise, eloquent and perfect. Since they went with 'Evo' instead of supersonic, I think something like 'Evo has Emerged' would be on the right track, given that evolution (in popular culture, not in hard science) is the subliming of superior characteristics from the chattel.

So imagine four columns of images in the spec highlighting commercial. Start the commercial by saying "There used to be many..." The columns would have the oldest technology in each line drop tetris style: cameras (wooden sliding box cameras), video (B&W crank machines), telephone (telegram), computer (ENIAC). All these are in muted colors as the progression increases in pace with appropriate music. As the lines begin to merge (cameras to camcorders. cameras to phones. computers to phones) the lines visually twist into eachother till there is one remaining. "And from all of this..." Lightning strike representing 4G hits the column..."Evo has emerged"

just some musings im sure it will be vastly different than how i picture it

 

[dylan88]

"Evolution, not Revolution" idk, not catchy enough. well Sprint probably already has all these commercials and ads made, so they probably came up with something good. ill be glued to my tv and computer all day friday.

 

[mogulust]

I wonder if there will be commercials from both Sprint AND HTC for the EVO, and if they will be anything like the current commercials they're doing. Currently there are plenty of ads for the HD2 with the HTC "You" campaign which showcases the device in a minimalistic animation sequence and talk about its "ridiculously big screen", and then they just mention t-mobile at the end. And Sprint's commercials are Dan Hesse standing in a huge open modernly designed building with people walking around aimlessly in the background, and him just standing there talking soothingly to the camera about his service plans.

Personally I think they need to do an apple style ad where the phone is shown closeup and demonstrating the things it does well. And without a condescending voice telling you angrily that the phone DOES things and talking about weird searches for the word human. (droid commercials are terrible imo) No matter what they chose to do, I don't really care because I already know what the device is capable of and will be buying it even if they have the worst commercials imaginable, and I can't see how it would make any difference to me if other people in the general population buy it.

 

[TheNorthernForest]

they should show 8 awesome gadgets doing their own thing in individual boxes....like iphone, ipad, nexus, droid etc...then all of a sudden show them all running on the Wimax 4g network via the EVO!!!! PWNED

ROFL, that's golden, bro.

 

[acp]

One word for Sprint: KISS

Keep It Simple Stupid

You don't need fancy backdrops, cities, clubs, etc etc etc, just focus on the brilliance of the phone.

 

[dylan88]

i posted this sometime last week. first ad for the evo. its on bestbuy still in the mobile phones section.

 

[TheNorthernForest]

i posted this sometime last week. first ad for the evo. its on bestbuy still in the mobile phones section.

Yo, Yahoo! Answers is FLOODED with EVO marketing. It's kind of like what I expected! IT's just a list of random features popping up on difefrent sides of the phone as it twists around; it's hard to read everything, but they made sure they highlighted 4G and HDMI Out.

Also, even on this forum, itself! Sprint is promoting 4G. It said, "It's here, Houston." Pretty funny and clever.

 

[neodorian]

Yo, Yahoo! Answers is FLOODED with EVO marketing. It's kind of like what I expected! IT's just a list of random features popping up on difefrent sides of the phone as it twists around; it's hard to read everything, but they made sure they highlighted 4G and HDMI Out.

Also, even on this forum, itself! Sprint is promoting 4G. It said, "It's here, Houston." Pretty funny and clever.

Adblock is a wonderful thing...

(although I guess I should probably whitelist this site since I use it enough).

 

[Novoken]

Sprint should use the crap out of Facebook, Twitter and even Google Buzz to advertise. Like have a commercial continue online on sprint and so on. Also a add that we can interact with. I just cant wait to see the first add lol

 

[dandm4life]

Sprint should use the crap out of Facebook, Twitter and even Google Buzz to advertise. Like have a commercial continue online on sprint and so on. Also a add that we can interact with. I just cant wait to see the first add lol

if they are going to do that than they really should make sure that they have a good app for these mediums right out of the gate. Pre advertised all over facebook but for a long time they had the worst facebook app ever. I've read that the android facebook app isnt so promising either.

 

[neodorian]

if they are going to do that than they really should make sure that they have a good app for these mediums right out of the gate. Pre advertised all over facebook but for a long time they had the worst facebook app ever. I've read that the android facebook app isnt so promising either.

Honestly I hate the dedicated-app-for-everything model. I liked using the web browser to see the full Facebook site (including chat) until they changed facebook to detect the browser and feed me the mobile site. The whole point of these great browsers is to have the full web experience.

As far as advertising, they need to be careful about spamming all these social sites. People need to be exposed to a product without feeling like it's contrived. The trick is to advertise tastefully and make sure all sorts of outlets from the WSJ to Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon have demos to show off and brag about. Let people see how cool it is rather than hiring actors to play the hip young customer in a commercial. People know when they are being pandered to.

 

[Caloy]

I'm with you TNF. The Droid was successful because Verizon ran an aggressive ad campaign and the name became well known overnight. Compare that to the campaign of the Nexus One, which lacked TV commercials, and sales have been mediocre at best. Sprint only has one chance to make the name EVO 4G as well known as Droid (Does). If they don't EVO (won't). I don't care how good it is.

I have to agree with you in part on the Nexus' demise. But I think we are forgetting another part of the equation. Google has extremely limited it's market by offering only one plan. Not everyone will buy the phone, if the plan doesn't cater to their needs.

Marketing is not only how to sell a product, but also making the consumer want the product as well.

 

[neodorian]

Nexus One was basically their current dev phone with all the basic features that would be in current Android phones (Snapdragon, big screen, etc) and they sold it directly but their goal wasn't so much to sell phones (I don't think) as to define the state of the Android project.

 

[cabbie]

People know when they are being pandered to.

I have to disagree. I have a marketing background and the honest truth is that you want to frame branding at a middle school grade level so people get it. The justification for marketing as a discipline is to drive sales. For the majority of consumer goods, your message has got to be clear, concise, engaging and dumbed down to attract the biggest pool of targeted segments. This doesn't apply to niche products, but EVO is not supposed to be a niche product. It's Sprint's silver bullet and they better not have bad aim.

/2cents

 

[dylan88]

Yo, Yahoo! Answers is FLOODED with EVO marketing. It's kind of like what I expected! IT's just a list of random features popping up on difefrent sides of the phone as it twists around; it's hard to read everything, but they made sure they highlighted 4G and HDMI Out.

Also, even on this forum, itself! Sprint is promoting 4G. It said, "It's here, Houston." Pretty funny and clever.

i just saw that ad on yahoo. that is the perfect ad for the phone. gave me goosebumps. made the features seem infinite, then blacks out into "America's first 4G phone" perfection.