HTC's bolder marketing includes 'HTC One Showrooms' in high-traffic malls

HTC hopes to boost consumer awareness for its next-generation flagship handset with a new marketing campaign across malls in the US.

Focus Taiwan reports that starting 11 April, the company will roll out "HTC One Showrooms" to high-traffic malls across the US to put the HTC One in front of more people. In a pop-up store approach, the Showrooms will allow users to play with the One before making a purchase on either Sprint, AT&T, or T-Mobile.

Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington will have pop-up stores for a minimum of three months as HTC hopes to bring a great start to the HTC One.

"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, VP of marketing for HTC in North America, in a statement to Focus Taiwan.

Available in Europe since March, the HTC One will be now be available on Sprint and AT&T beginning 19 April for $199 (£130).

The pop-up stores represent HTC's rethinking of its device marketing in 2013. It has not only dropped the "Quietly Brilliant" product tagline, but also wants to be louder in the way it markets devices to customers. This was evident in early March when the company took marketing to the streets of New York at the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4. It had a street team giving people waiting for the S4 event a preview of the HTC One, trying to distract from Samsung's hype.

HTC is taking a page out of Apple and Samsung's book with the mall tactic. Of course, Apple has a large number of retail stores in malls across the world where it pushes its devices, but Samsung has also been known to push devices through pop-up stores. It's a good idea, especially around the launch of a new product.

Beyond putting devices in people's hands, has HTC previously revealed it will also increase its digital marketing budget by 250 per cent in 2013 and traditional media marketing budget by 100 per cent.

We've reached out to HTC to see if there are any similar plans for the UK.


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