Motorola dupes consumers with unbranded campaign for Motoblur
Motorola has been revealed as the brand behind the creation of a fictional character who fooled people into believing that he was on a crusade to make friends.
Rob Multo, who launched a Facebook account and YouTube channel asking people to “be my friend” is part of an unbranded campaign created by Peer Group Media to promote Motorola’s new smart phones.
The name Rob Multo is actually an anagram of Motorola’s ‘Motorblur’ – the new social media functionality available on its Dext and Backflip handsets which it is launching in Australia.
It allows people to sync and automatically update emails and all their social media accounts such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter without having to log in each time.
It wasn’t until earlier today that “Multo” posted a video ironically denying growing speculation that he was representing a brand, as the Motorola logo is shown plastered all around him.
Soon after he posted a YouTube video link on his Facebook page admitting that he is promoting a brand and asking people to guess what it is in order to win the new product.
He currently has 2,611 fans on Facebook and has had 538 views on his YouTube channel.
However, some people on his Facebook page have already started to react negatively at being dumped into believing that Rob Multo was a real person.
One fan posted on his Facebook Wall:
Hmmm so it’s just all an act – man I am disappointed too. I honestly thought you were actually a legit Geek and little bit crazy ….. but you’re not real. Well aren’t we a bunch of gullible fools.”
While another said:
Nice anagram guys…… Oh look, it’s a new product from Motorola that updates everything at the same time! Very clever. Although, how many people are going to be pissed off that you guys weren’t honest from the start?”
The reveal coincided with Motoblur’s official unveiling today at an event held in Sydney hosted by Timo Brouwer, managing director for mobile devices at Motorola Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands.
Andrew Morley, Motorola VP international marketing said the creation of the Rob Multo character formed the teaser campaign for the launch of the main marketing push which will include TV, press, outdoor, online abnd radio ads created by Ogilvy Sydney.
Responding to potential backlash from consumers on the creation of the Rob Multo character, Morley told Mumbrella:
We’ve tried something new and different and we’ve been transparent about it, creating a fan page instead of a personal page on Facebook. With social media you need to try new things and interact in new ways and try to be innovative.
From an ethics perspective we didn’t pretend that this was anything other than entertainment and you can see that through the way Rob joked about how people thought he was attached to a brand.”
Adam Zammit, Peer Group CEO, added:
People have the option to opt out and it’s been growing fans even as we’ve launched today. It’s been a predominantly positive response to the character. And people have been guessing from the start. Most of the responses have been, ‘I don’t care, this guy is killing me’, because it’s a good story and it’s entertaining.”
Uhhhhh, It’s 2010. I’m fairly surprised that digital consumers would believe that a lonely man would buy advertising to win friends, instead of reading it as an obvious attempt at a humorous advertising campaign.
People had posted on the Facebook fan page weeks ago that they recognised Multo from other advertising campaigns.
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Are these same people shocked that Ricky Martin came out?
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not sure anyone was fooled by the campaign … it was bleeding obvious it was a corporate behind it.
hope moto didn’t pay much for the huge amount of facebook fans and youtube views!!
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“hope moto didn’t pay much for the huge amount of facebook fans and youtube views!!”
or the bill posters and ads in the street press
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Never thought I’d say bring back the Witchery girl with the jacket. This was just painful.
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Lame, lame, lame!
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Just had a look at the page.
It appears to have been hijacked by irate “fans” who are posting links to rival companies’ phones. Quite amusing.
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As for Zammit’s comment that “People have the option to opt out” – that is the weakest justification for blatantly misleading the public I have heard for a while.
“Oh, we tricked everyone, but after they’ve been tricked, they can walk away and feel stupid”. Nice one Adam.
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The only lame people are those who feel duped or who are still getting so uptight about the so-called misappropriation of social media. Facebook is not a sacred site; it’s a legitimate marketing platform. This was a simple idea, decently executed – all the more effective now that it is getting this post-reveal coverage.
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Almost as good as PGs ARIA and artist of the month work for Motorola. Bravo!
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It’s about as lame as copying an overseas brand page & dropping it into the Melb & Sydney markets just so that you can collect traffic.
If your going to set up a page for the purposes of your social media status in market pls make it at least somewhat a little bit original.
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@ Rocky: “all the more effective now that it is getting this post-reveal coverage.”
I love how industry people think that coverage on Mumbrella renders the campaign ‘more effective’.
I wonder how many 18-35 Facebook group-joiners read this site?
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Utterly average
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the most satisfying bit of this for me is watching the arrogant industry types (edited for courtesy by Mumbrella) churn out their pompous snipings in the facebook comments.
delicious.
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I think it was a very innovative idea….what’s with all the agro!!!!
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I think that the surge of bogans and internet slowpokes onto Facebook is what is to blame for this campaign seeming innovative, when really it is something that has a rather 2006 smell to it.
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I guess it’s just a reminder that, while we’re all so close to this every day, there are people that aren’t: our consumers…. let’s not forget who we’re selling to at the end of the day.
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Not sure anyone was really convincingly duped by it, even in the target demo.
It was reasonably transparent – not taking away from its cringeworthy execution however.
Yuck.
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ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
It’s a real stretch to call this an innovative campaign.
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“He currently has 2,611 fans on Facebook and has had 538 views on his YouTube channel.” MEGA EXPENSIVE FAIL!
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