Our clients

MOTOROLA THUMB BOY

Destination

With the launch of the Motorola A732 Motorola introduced a new finger writing technology system onto the market. Initial phone sales were strong among technology embracers. We knew however that there was a technology barrier for a broader range of consumers about the intelligent finger writing function. Motorola needed to maintain momentum on sales of the product by educating this type of consumer.

Direction

MindShare understood that animation is incredibly popular in China. People love its sense of fun and its story-telling tradition. So we decided to use this to excite a broader audience.

Design & Delivery

We created Thumb Boy; a cartoon character to engage urban adults with intelligent writing on the Moto A732. Thumb Boy championed a viral campaign. His sense of fun attracted people through several long-term communication platforms like the thumb painting competition (consumers created their own Thumb Boy and posted it in a special environment online for public voting), a BBS special painting function, a Thumb Boy animated story, a Thumb Boy game in messenger and data packs in MSN and QQ.

Evaluation

We sparked a massive explosion of participation. Everyone was playing the Thumb Boy game, using the BBS special painting function, sending Thumb Boy e-cards and posting their painted thumbs to our special website ready to receive the public vote. It became a huge social phenomenon online as Chinese consumers expressed their own creativity and sense of fun.

Finally, we recorded: 225 million impressions on internet - 10 million visits to the Motorola A732 website and 100k units were sold in Q4.

This campaign was awarded

• M!DEA 2006 : Gold - best creative media awards - Internet
  M!DEA is an internal MindShare celebration of creativity in channel usage amongst the Greater China offices.