Sony Made in Chelsea

The glamorous lives of Chelsea residents proved the perfect setting for the Sony Xperia range to breakthrough and reach their target audience.

The challenge for a challenger brand

In a highly competitive market with well established brands, a challenger brand has a big job to do; and this was certainly true in the case of Sony Xperia in the huge spending mobile market.

Sony wanted to increase awareness and create an emotional connection with young people, whilst improving perception and highlighting the superior functionality of the Xperia Compact phone. The perfect way to do this was a partnership with Channel 4.

Making a product central to the storyline

This partnership saw Xperia become the official smartphone of Made in Chelsea, E4’s biggest show for 16-24s. At its core was product placement that placed the Sony Xperia Compact in the hands of keys members of the cast, meaning the product became integral to every major storyline and viewers associated the product with the aspirational lives of the cast, but the partnership was activated via several other touchpoints.

These included contextual ads in the programme, bespoke content on the 4Shorts platform, social media activity by the cast and activation in store with official imagery and content.

Standing out

This Product Placement partnership allowed the Sony Xperia Compact to stand out and increase awareness with the target audience.

Research results show that the Made in Chelsea partnership grew spontaneous awareness of the Sony Xperia range by 36% versus non-viewers.

In addition, brand metrics were significantly improved. Most notably, viewers of Made in Chelsea are over twice as likely as non-viewers to describe the Sony Xperia range as “the coolest phones currently on the market”.