McCann leads Sony Ericsson’s overhaul

Dee%20DuttaSony Ericsson is overhauling its global marketing strategy in a bid to “sharpen up” its brand campaigns and make them more “engaging” for consumers.

The handset manufacturer has appointed McCann Erickson to lead the new push, although incumbent Saatchi & Saatchi will remain on the roster, primarily to work on regional campaigns.

It wants to give its marketing a more “human connection” with less of a focus on technology.

Speaking exclusively to Marketing Week, the company’s corporate vice-president and head of global marketing Dee Dutta says: “Saatchi’s work has proved to be very workable in our regions, but going forward we need a more integrated consumer approach and McCann has offered us more of that vision.”

Saatchi was appointed to handle Sony Ericsson’s £80m global advertising business in September 2006, following a pitch that also involved McCann, which had won a Christmas brief for the mobile giant prior to Saatchi being appointed.

Dutta has appointed McCann as Sony Ericsson’s lead agency on its global business without a pitch. He says it was a “very close call” between the two agencies in 2006 and cites McCann’s experience with technology companies such as Microsoft as one of the reasons for the latest move.

He adds: “We need to say more than ‘This phone has five megapixels’. We need to talk about what it means in the daily lives of consumers.”

But Dutta stresses that “no single agency has all the answers” and says that Saatchi and McCann may compete for global briefs in the future.

Sports marketing specialist Octagon, which is part of the McCann Group, is likely to work on Sony Ericsson’s sports marketing as part of the deal.

Sony Ericsson is McCann’s biggest win since Brett Gosper took over as EMEA president last year.

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