HTC to launch U.S. marketing tour for HTC One phone

HTC Corp. will soon launch a new marketing campaign for the HTC One across the United States in an attempt to boost consumer awareness of the Taiwanese smartphone vendor's new flagship device.

Starting on April 11, the "HTC One Showrooms" campaign will begin appearing in high-traffic malls across the U.S., with the showrooms to remain in the shopping centers for a minimum of three months, HTC said in a statement on April 5.

The campaign, to be held in eight major U.S. cities -- Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. -- will offer consumers the opportunity to see, hear and hold the new smartphone before it becomes available nationwide through conventional retail outlets.

"HTC One Showrooms are taking the concept of a pop-up store to a different place by creating a large, playful, interactive exhibit where we expect people to be entertained and have a new experience with the HTC One at each visit," said Erin McGee, vice president of marketing for HTC in North America.

"We've created a mobility-powered playground that is good for our consumers and for our retail partners as we send informed customers to their doors," he wrote in the statement.

Unveiled Feb. 19 in London and New York, the new HTC One sports a 4.7-inch display with full-HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, a 1.7-gigahertz quad-core processor and a new "UltraPixel" camera that enables ultra-sharp photo shooting and video recording.

Customers were able to pre-order the HTC One online in the U.S. beginning on April 5 through carriers AT&T Inc. and Sprint and retailer Best Buy. The device will be available nationwide at the three companies' stores starting on April 19, and through T-Mobile later in the spring.

The new marketing campaign echoed HTC's announcement in late March that it will take a new approach in its upcoming advertising campaigns to reshape its brand image.

The Taoyuan-based company has been using "quietly brilliant" as its brand slogan since October 2009, but has decided to market its new HTC One flagship phone under the themes "bold," "authentic" and "playful."

The term "bold" means HTC will promote its new products' features more heavily, while "authentic" indicates that HTC will focus on its own innovations and will not copy others' ideas, said Ben Ho, chief marketing officer of HTC.

"Playful" means HTC will create more interesting features based on consumer demand, he said.

To strengthen communication with tech-savvy smartphone users, HTC plans to increase its marketing spending in digital media by 250 percent and in conventional media by 100 percent this year, Ho added.

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