Fashion designer web site promotion

Tommy Can You Hear Me? Motorola, AT&T Hook Up for Designer Cell Play - AT and T Wireless and Tommy Hilfiger Toiletries - Brief Article

Looking for new ways to target Gen X and Y mall rats at the height of spring break activity Motorola, AT&T Wireless and Tommy Hilfiger Toiletries are teaming up for a two-month promotion that offers a Tommy-designed Motorola cellular phone as top prizes.

Further casting the electronic must-have as a flashy fashion accessory the contest gives Motorola and AT&T Wireless Services broader exposure by bringing them into department stores' highly trafficked first floors and Tommy shops, versus specialty wireless and office supply outlets.

It also provides the brands street cred with a young demographic that has helped make Tommy and Tommy Girl best selling prestige fragrances "One out of every five teens are interested in wireless," said Angela McCune, marketing manager at Motorola.

The tactic was first exploited by Nokia, which distributed phones to celebs at last year's Academy Awards.

Motorola will manufacture only 2,000 of its colorful, younger-skewing TalkAbout cell phones for the Tommy's Wireless Phone Sweepstakes, but could decide to sell them outright to consumers. Service will be provided by AT&T, which will offer 250 minutes a month for a year.

The sweepstakes, which runs April through June, will be promoted via print created at the Aramis/Tommy Hilfiger Toiletries unit of Estee Lauder.

Ads proclaiming "Who wants to win a Tommy phone?" will run in May and June issues of such popular titles as Teen People, Playboy, Seventeen and Spin, with prominent Tommy-themed displays at retail, along with information on the Tommy Web site.

Denise Parpard, promotion marketing director at Aramis/Tommy Hilfiger, said the inspiration for the promotion came from a photo of young, hip beach goers sunbathing with their cell phones and hearing her 11-year-old niece begging for her own phone.

The effort is in keeping with Motorola's more consumer-focused positioning, and marks the first designer cellular phone on the market, said David Weisz, director sports marketing and special events.