Ericsson unveils 20m ad drive

Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson is launching its first global branding campaign with an estimated 20m budget but without featuring any telephones.

Its “Make yourself heard” campaign through Young & Rubicam breaks on Monday in more than 50 countries. The TV advertising is a mix of typography and sound that deliberately avoids product shots. This marks a departure for the company, which only entered the UK mobile phones market in 1994 and has traditionally concentrated on product advertising.

The campaign coincides with the appointment of Alex Rodrigues as Ericsson’s first UK marketing director for its newly hived off mobile division and a 50 per cent hike in advertising spend to 10m – the first stage of the corporate branding campaign will account for 2m of that budget.

The appointment of Rodrigues – formerly marketing manager for mobiles – is part of a restructure which sees Ericsson UK divided into three business units: fixed, cellular and mobile, mirroring the structure its Swedish parent adopted last year.

Rodrigues says: “We had to start from scratch really. We had a lot to make up on awareness. Last year there was a big product focus and it was appropriate to use the ad spend on those new models. Those products have brought us into the market. But having reached the same awareness as our rivals we now need a brand campaign.”

News Analysis, page 12