By Julie Johnsson
CHICAGO—Moments after tennis superstar Maria Sharapova won her first U.S. Open title this month, Motorola Inc. scored a major victory of its own.
With primetime TV cameras rolling, Ms. Sharapova plucked a gold Dolce & Gabbana Razr cell phone from her racquet bag and called her mother in Florida.
George Neill, Motorola’s corporate vice-president for global marketing, chuckles at the suggestion that the company orchestrated the stunt. “We made sure she had a great phone,” is all he says.
The triumph Motorola shared with Ms. Sharapova was fitting: Not only did the company help make her the highest-paid female athlete in the world, but her 2-year-old endorsement contract represents a massive marketing gamble undertaken by the once-staid Schaumburg-based communications giant.
Pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into celebrity tie-ins and promotional events, Motorola has launched what amounts to an assault on worldwide popular culture. “We want to be up there with the world’s great brands, and we’re pushing toward that end,” says Neill.
Since signing Ms. Sharapova as a relatively unknown Wimbledon champion in 2004—its first celebrity endorsement since golfer Lee Trevino in 1991—Motorola has reeled off a slew of endorsements with the likes of soccer legend David Beckham, race car driver Danica Patrick, Indian movie star Abhishek Bachchan and Taiwanese pop singer Jay Chou. The company has extended a major sponsorship with the National Football League while landing another deal with the House of Blues that puts its products and brand before 11 million concertgoers a year.
Non-traditional campaigns
Earlier this month, Motorola sponsored a rock concert by the Scissor Sisters that bathed London’s Trafalgar Square in red light—simultaneously drawing attention to a special-edition red Slvr phone and Moto’s affiliation with U2 singer Bono’s Project Red, which raises money to fight AIDS in Africa. Two days later, the company distributed 30,000 inflatable toy headsets to fans attending a Chicago Bears football game at Soldier Field, spoofing the headsets Moto provides for the league’s coaches.
Marketing experts say the scope of the non-traditional campaign is remarkable.
Companies typically enlist one or two celebrity spokes people at most, and take branding campaigns global only after they’re proven successful in a single region, says James Schrager, professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. “It’s a very interesting thing that they’re going around the world in this way,” he says.
Schrager is also surprised by Motorola’s sudden embrace of show business. “It’s Hollywood,” he says. “Most sober companies would disparage it.”
Aiming at emotions
But under CEO Edward Zander, Motorola isn’t as sober as it used to be. The current branding strategy was formed by the late Geoffrey Frost, Motorola’s chief marketing officer who died suddenly last year, and was taken into high gear by Neill, who joined the company from Apple Computer Inc. last year.
“We have been focusing on taking our brand into the emotional range so we connect with people,” says Neill. “We want to make sure that we’re not just reaching people on that rational level, but making sure we do something that’s memorable.”
Neill has moved Motorola away from traditional brand-building tools like print, broadcast and billboard advertising. The company spent $49.4 million on traditional advertising in 2005, according to TNS Media Intelligence. The amount it’s spent on promotions and sponsorships appears to be much higher, although Motorola won’t reveal its budget or the size of endorsement deals. Crain’s sister publication Advertising Age estimates the company poured $250 million into a five-year contract with the NFL and is paying $25 million for its affiliation with Patrick and her racing team.
Telecom and consumer electronics companies typically devote 25 percent to 30 percent of their total marketing dollars to sponsorships, says Jim Andrews, editorial director for IEG Sponsorship Report, a Chicago-based trade publication. “It’s very unusual for it to be higher than traditional media advertising,” he says.
While splashy, Moto’s approach is also risky, branding experts say. “These are human beings; they could do something that tarnishes the image,” says Nova Lanktree, executive vice-president of marketing services with CSMG International, which specializes in sports marketing.
But so far, the strategy appears to be paying dividends. A recent study ranks Motorola’s brand as the most valuable in Chicago and 32nd among major U.S. companies—up from 54th a year ago.
Julie Johnsson is a reporter for Crain’s Chicago Business, a sister publication of RCR Wireless News. Both publications are owned by Crain Communications Inc.
