Sony Mobile appoints new marketing chief

Sony Mobile has appointed Catherine Cherry to lead its marketing in the UK and Ireland, a move that follows parent company Sony’s €1.05bn (£918m) buyout of Ericsson last month.

Sony Mobile

Cherry, who was previously head of product management at Sony Ericsson, will have oversight of the mobile company’s marketing initiatives in the UK.

She says: “It’s an extremely exciting time in our business ahead of our first Sony smartphone launch, with the Xperia S. In this rapidly changing market our aim is to give consumers what they need from a smartphone, while inspiring them to explore the new connected entertainment experiences Sony has to offer.”

She replaces former UK and Ireland marketing director for Sony Ericsson, David Hilton, who left the company after five-and-a-half years last month to pursue other business opportunities.

The announcement comes as Sony revealed plans to adopt a more global focus for its marketing once it drops the Ericsson name from its mobile offering.

The company added that the rebranding aims to ramp up “convergence between Sony’s lineup of network enabled consumer electronics products, including smartphones, tablets, TVs and PCs.”

Sony Mobile is readying a seven-figure integrated campaign to run at the end of the month to promote the launch of the Sony Xperia S, the first Sony-branded smartphone. The Sony and Ericsson partnership was founded in 2001.

At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the company said it was aiming for a fast rollout of mobile devices, leveraging the music and video content of Sony Entertainment.

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