Effies 2007: How simple insights ‘flipped’ Motorola’s fortunes

At the Effies 2007 case study presentation round of judging, O&M made a point about how Motorola made market leader Nokia sit up and take notice with simple insights and a stylish yet affordable phone, the MotoFlip

Motorola has come a long way. With Abhishek Bachchan and Motoslvr, the brand shed its dowdy image, but clearly, there was more to do. At the Effies 2007 case study presentation round, O&M made a point about how Motorola made market leader Nokia sit up and take notice with simple insights and a stylish yet affordable phone, the MotoFlip.

By August 2006, Motorola was doing rather well for itself with its revamped branding, and its newly launched phone, the MotoFlip, faced double pressure to perform. The challenge for O&M and Motorola was that India is largely a ‘Nokia’ country. People thought you were stupid if you bought any other phone. O&M decided to flip that around and make it seem that if you were brave, you would look beyond Nokia, which, in the words of O&M executives, was a “mushy world”.

O&M targeted youngsters, who have the maximum urge to prove themselves and show themselves to be brave. They also form the group that likes to experiment. O&M pitched the Motorola versus Nokia war as ‘desire’ versus ‘morality’. In essence, O&M wanted to be the “corrupter of young minds” by being “bad company”.

MotoFlip looked deceptively high-priced with its styling, while it was actually quite affordable. So, the phone was pitched as a phone that you could flaunt. When people see a person with an object beyond his means, their tongues wag. This formed the basis of the communication, and the agency rolled out an ad which had a guy having tea with his parents. The latter question him suspiciously about his whereabouts and whether he has been doing anything illegal, all because the mother finds a MotoFlip in the boy’s room. The tagline goes, ‘MotoFlip. Dikhe itna mehnga, kuchch to log kahenge (Looks so expensive, tongues will wag).’

This ‘Dare to own a Motorola’ premise worked: MotoFlip established itself in the mass market and for the first time, Motorola entered the list of top 10 hot-selling phones in the country (the other nine were all Nokia phones – previously, all 10 were Nokia). MotoFlip also became the highest ever selling phone in the Motorola portfolio.

This entry has been short-listed in the Consumer Durables category.