HTC is going to spend $1 billion on marketing to try and save the company. Part of that money will go into Robert Downey Junior’s pocket, who will become the face of the marketing blitz we’re all soon going to have to live with. The campaign is simple. Really simple. HTC is a string of three letters, and you can make that acronym stand for whatever you want. Huge Tinfoil Catamaran. Hold This Cat. Happy Telephone Company. You get the idea.
Will it work? As I’ve said in the past, celebrity endorsements will only get you so far. Did Batman using a Nokia 5800 get people to buy Nokia’s first touch screen phone? No. Did Superman using a Nokia Lumia 925 get people to switch to Windows Phone? No. Did Robert Downey Junior’s use of an LG phone in the second Iron Man movie get people to buy LG phones? No. I can go on, but I’ll stop. What will help HTC? They’re already focusing on fewer devices, which is great. Now they need to focus on trimming the fat, which in this case means letting go the army of developers working on Sense. I’m not suggesting that stock Android is better than Sense, I’m merely saying that stock Android has reached a “good enough” point where it doesn’t make sense to have a bunch of full time employees working on things like ripping off Flipboard and making it a home screen widget. If you have any better ideas, do let me know. Update: Since the ad leaked, HTC decided to release the video early. Embedded it above.
