The document summarizes Sony Ericsson's 2005 launch of the Walkman phone, the W800i, in Brazil. It describes the challenges of adapting a global campaign to the local Brazilian market. Through market research and consumer insights, the Brazil office developed an urban guerilla marketing campaign using graffiti and projections to create buzz. The low-cost campaign was hugely successful, selling through the entire stock earlier than projected and winning Sony Ericsson of Brazil awards as the best launch in Latin America.

1. PRODUCT LAUNCH
2005

2. HIGHLIGHTS
- Through the understanding of the local market and
consumers, its drivers and expectations, Sony Ericsson of Brazil
was able to maximize the efficiency of the proposed
worldwide communication for the launching.
- Due to the successful work developed, Sony Ericsson of Brazil
was awarded by its main office as the best launching effort in
Latin America.

3. BACKGROUND
Sony Ericsson was about to release
a revolutionary cell phone: the w800i:
Revolutionary due to its:
GRIFFE FEATURES VISUAL
the cell phone was 2 mp camera, Unique orange
relaunching Sony’s music player colour
Walkman brand, with dedicated
20 years later keys and long
lasting battery

4. CHALLENGE
The agency was hired to develop a low cost launching
campaign adapting its worldwide communication:
“Always Connected
to Your Music”

5. MARKET
The w800i was one of the first devices to mix, in a effective
way, both the cellphone, camera and mp3 player functions.
Therefore, it had many different competitors:
CATEGORY STYLE FUNCTION
mp3 cellphones trendy-phones dedicated devices

6. CONSUMER
Cellphone penetration was starting to gain traction in Brazil,
with a growing 56mi users base (out of 152mi habitants), being:
- Almost 50% (27mi) located at the Brazilian
South-Eastern region, where the big urban
centres like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are.
- Among them, almost 50% (13mi) in the
20-39 y/o range.
- 85% prepaid x 15% contract
Source: Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, 2005 - http://www.ibge.gov.br/

7. PROFILES
PREPAID CONTRACT
Work phone Personal phone
- Simple but reliable - Status/ Trend
- Inexpensive - Design
- Long lasting battery - Feature-driven
“I depend on my mobile to work, “My cellphone reflects who I am!”
to have work.”
TARGET

8. PERCEPTION
Market perception at the time was that
convergence resulted in devices...
“that were too bulky
to be used as cellphones,
or too clumsy
to be used as music players”.
OPPORTUNITY!

9. PRODUCT
The first one to offers their users a complete “out-of-
the-box” solution for music on-the-go:
POSITIONING
- 10x more music capacity
- high-quality earbuds
- dedicated keys
- long-lasting battery
- intuitive UX ...
That was reinforced by
Walkman’s brand adoption

10. INSIGHT
All that information led to the insight that the worldwide
Communication campaign
Always connected to your music
had to be not only related to the music itself,
but also reflect product’s uniqueness
and the urbanity of its potential consumers.
“LOCAL” INSIGHT

11. COMMUNICATION
STRATEGY
The strategy to reach a broad target with a scarce budget was
to explore the places and situations where our consumers
could be found, focusing on their urban profile.
Its communication had to be aligned with the w800i’s
uniqueness in order to help building its brand and positioning,
being innovative and unlike anything that has been done so far.

12. EXECUTION
Weeks before the official launching the main streets at Sao
Paulo’s wealthiest neighbourhoods received an expressive
number of Graffiti interventions, allusive to the product.

13. EXECUTION
Two blank panels were mounted alongside the high-traffic
central avenues where, at night, a special projection could be
spotted highlighting the w800i’s main features and positioning.

14. EXECUTION
In addition to that, a demonstration booth was mounted at the
Iguatemi Mall - city’s oldest and wealthiest - and two teams
visited bars, universities and gyms for a hands-on experience.

15. Video online at - http://youtu.be/wZI0yedAtQ8

16. RESULTS
The whole effort, that was expected to last from July to
December, had to be halted on October:
all the w800i brought to Brazil were sold out!
Sony Ericsson of Brazil was awarded by the main office as
the best launching effort in Latin America.
The project won a Grand Prix as “Promotional Case of the
Year” in 2006 and four other awards at different Festivals.