June 21, 2013

Can Robert Downey Jr. Save HTC's Dwindling Marketing Campaign?

He’s phenomenally depicted Sherlock Holmes, Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man) and a plethora of other legendary characters throughout his golden cinematic career, and now, Robert Downey Jr. is slated to participate in HTC’s newest marketing campaign. HTC – a Taiwanese manufacturer of Android and Windows smartphones – has been swimming in the news lately after experiencing a bit of trouble, the majority of which is being attributed to its marketing tactics. This is reportedly what fueled it to reel in RDJ, who agreed to a cool $12 million smartphone ad campaign.

Bringing this A-lister onboard has left many considering it a wise move indeed. With his latest silver screen hit “Iron Man 3” having received critical success after its May 2013 release, RDJ seems like the perfect celebrity to revive a quickly drowning marketing movement. Celebrities can be a content marketer’s dream, and this new partnership is proving once again that this sentiment is all too true.

So far the likes of Bloomberg and TechCrunch have reported about the new collaboration, where RDJ will not channel any of his popular characters but will rather be true to his own personality. Some, however, argue that leveraging the popular “Iron Man” persona would have been a prime opportunity for bolstering HTC’s marketing strategy (Consider that “Man of Steel” absolutely dominated content marketing campaigns, with the film touted by companies from Gillette to IHOP to Sears).

RDJ is an impeccably charismatic person – something which helped significantly build his fan base over the years – but HTC reportedly doesn’t want just another person trying to convincingly push its message. To support its zealous new marketing vision, the company plans to double its global marketing budget to really pack a punch. The only things to consider now are the repercussions of having this financially weighty move backfire.

It just goes to show how much power a celebrity holds when it comes to marketing a company’s brand, message and offerings. 




Edited by Brooke Neuman




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