In the summer of 2012, there was a new smartphone on the block that was favoured by a young urban crowd right across Europe. Was it endorsed by a famous movie star? No. Was it launched with a shock-value campaign that would lead to sensational headlines? Absolutely not. Then just how did the HTC One X smartphone make the transition from unknown device to a preferred smartphone model of 18-24 year olds across the continent? By being ‘Quietly Brilliant’ and speaking to the young urban masses on a personal level.

A celebrity endorsement, a ‘grip and grin’ photocall, and a headline toting a celeb name will get a brand some immediate attention – that is indisputable. But making an audience genuinely care for a brand and a new product takes a little more subtlety, and a great deal more respect for the audience. When a Russian fire artist, British street magician, French DJs, and Spanish skateboarders began creating their own stories about urban living via the media that was meaningful to them (photography, video, and text) and shared their stories across the media channels where their fans and followers spent hours each day (social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr), the young urban crowd were inspired enough to stand up and pay attention.

And the device behind these unique urban narratives? The HTC One X, whose stand-out camera and video capabilities were showcased to maximum effect through the creation of meaningful content across a localised, EMEA campaign.

Urban Ambassadors, from stunt riders to rappers, were selected across the key launch territories: France, UK, Poland, Greece, Spain, Russia, Netherlands and Turkey (and Croatia for the Zagreb tour). These urban influencers were encouraged to curate stories about their own urban lives, creating a narrative through photographs, images, video, and text, and sharing that content via social media channels to inspire the HTC audience.

Since it could not be taken for granted that the urban influencers of a Turkish resident would be the same as somebody in Russia, the campaign was localised to ensure that the Urban Ambassadors spoke in a meaningful way in each territory. In Poland where traditional media was an important aspect of the launch, Radio Zet reported on street artists and adventurers who engaged in urban challenges. In Spain, where social media was more important, designers, rappers, and skateboarders created and shared videos via social media.

Across the markets of the HTC One X smartphone launch, a total of 154 pieces of coverage were secured in lifestyle media, helping to position the device as a desirable lifestyle product rather than a phone for techies.

The Zagreb media trip also delivered 425 occurrences of the #myHTCurbanadventure tag being used across Twitter during the two day trip, resulting in 8.8 million impressions on that platform.

In total, the campaign drove 1,440 influencer recommendations, with a total campaign audience reach of 172,699,032. The key objective to highlight the phone as an ‘amazing camera’ across 70% of press was achieved as 77% of media publications mentioned the quality of the camera in their articles. Following the launch, the prompted awareness of the HTC One series increased by 59%, and the Urban Adventures concept was deemed to be such a success that it was rolled out into the Asian market.