Launching a new product? Celebritize IT!

One of the toughest challenges marketers in the IT industry face is getting people interested in a new product the company is about to launch. Their common gripe: how the heck do you make a rigidly-shaped IT system appear sexy? Or, how do you conceptualize business software tools so they would be appealing to an audience? If you don't want to go the way of IT vendors that have resorted to engaging sexily-clad women to market their products at trade shows--booth babes, as they're sometimes called--then, celebritization could be your best option. Take Motorola's marketing strategy for its ROKR E6, for instance. I was at the launch event at a hotel in Hong Kong this evening, and was stunned to see the ballroom lined with dozens of cameras, along with their cameramen. I don't recall seeing many product launches attracting this amount of media attention. Moreover, news about the upcoming ROKR E6 had already made headlines in the last two months, so it wasn't exactly "new" news. Then, it dawned on me who the media were there for--Jay Chou, a popular Taiwanese young singer known for his R&B and rap music.

Jay Chou

The celebrity is Motorola's "brand ambassador", appointed in August this year, to promote the company's products in the Greater China region. Chou was at the hotel this evening to launch the ROKR E6, and was even roped in to explain some of the features in the new phone. So, forget that Michael Tatelman, Motorola's corporate vice president for mobile devices, North Asia, was on stage and standing right next to Chou. Forget even that CEO and Chairman Ed Zander was seated in the front row. Once Chou was up on stage, the cameras were trained firmly--and solely--on the celebrity who posed dutifully with an E6 in hand. When the celeb left the room, so did the cameras--even as Zander took to the stage and tried to field questions from the media, over the rumpus created by the departing paparazzi. But I hardly think Motorola minded, especially when one thinks about the number of tabloids and other media publications that will be plastered with pictures of Jay Chou holding the E6 the next morning. So, how about getting Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt together with one of those x86 servers?