The problem
Sony Ericsson needed an impactful global campaign to launch its high end smartphone but only had a relatively small budget.
The brief
Build anticipation ahead of the launch of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1 and create awareness of the phone’s distinctive nine panel home screen. This allowed users to switch between different functions, giving them easy access to every aspect of their lives.
The strategy
Create an online thriller on YouTube, teasing the launch via a film trailer and advertising. The campaign would roll out over nine weeks, with a highly anticipated new episode dropping every Monday.
The creative
My role was to expand a conceptual idea into a fully fledged, nine episode script with multiple plot twists and cliffhangers. I created new characters and a compelling narrative while seamlessly embedding the phone’s intuitive interface into the storyline. We shot the full film in just 10 days in Bangkok.
The results
The online campaign generated significantly more impact for Sony Ericsson’s budget than they could possibly have achieved in paid-for media.
Within three weeks of launch over 2m people had watched the videos online. Over half of these were from Facebook referrals. This increased to over 6m views.
Campaign magazine voted Who is Johnny X? as one of its top 10 digital ads of the year.