Motorola Wins Gold In Lipsyncing

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) a global leader in mobile communications, was honored with the Gold Award for the “Most Effective Use of Interactive Marketing – New Media” at the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards 2006 in The Grand Hyatt, Hong Kong on June 28th. At the black tie event, the judging panel, comprised of experienced marketers and senior agency executives, commended Motorola for its striking and highly inventive “Moto Lipsync” campaign. Ian Chapman-Banks, Motorola’s Marketing Chief for North Asia Mobile Devices accepted the award on Motorola’s behalf. Central to the Moto Lipsync campaign were the “Backdorm Boys” – two students at the Guangzhou Arts Institute who leapt to fame in 2005 for their spoof lip-synching music video of the Backstreet Boys’ song "As Long As You Love Me", which became an overnight phenomenon among China’s 100 million Internet users. Motorola China elected to use these real-life roommates (actual names Wei Wei and Huang Yi Xin) to promote four of its low-price-tier phones favored among China’s young first-time handset buyers. A key part of the strategy was to provide a platform for young consumers to create their own Backdorm Boys-inspired lipsync performances. The response far exceeded Motorola’s own expectations, with the related lip-synching and song re-mixing competition seeing 14 million page views. Online visitors cast more than 1.3 million votes to determine the winner of the contest, and powered sales of the new handsets. "It is a tremendous honor to receive this award, and it is wonderful to receive recognition from such a respected group or marketers." said Motorola’s Ian Chapman-Banks, "However, I have to say that we share this with the Boys themselves. They are a shining example of the power and value of capturing and sharing one’s creativity. I think the campaign was such a success because it employed guerrilla tactics to relate to China’s young population. It was truly gratifying to see their response – in fact the surge in traffic at one point actually crashed the website!" The Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards are widely acknowledged as the only regional awards to recognize marketing campaigns that show real results – the clear bottom-line gains that can be achieved when a company differentiates its product or service as a brand. The awards cover 18 categories across all marketing disciplines, including advertising, direct marketing, product design, sales promotion, and event marketing, and attract participation from both agency and client companies. The panel chaired by Darren Marshall, Group Marketing Director of Coca-Cola, and filled with luminaries from Hutchison Global Communications, ARC Worldwide, Kraft Foods, HSBC and Young & Rubicam, met for two days in May to agree on finalists from the 446 entries received this year. About Motorola Motorola is known around the world for innovation and leadership in wireless and broadband communications. Inspired by our vision of Seamless Mobility, the people of Motorola are committed to helping you get and stay connected simply and seamlessly to the people, information, and entertainment that you want and need. We do this by designing and delivering "must have" products, "must do" experiences and powerful networks -- along with a full complement of support services. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and impact, Motorola had sales of US $36.8 billion in 2005. For more information about our company, our people and our innovations, please visit www.motorola.com