To appeal to young professionals we decided to move Siemens Mobile from a technology brand into a fashion brand. One element of this campaign was turning Turkey’s latest designer cinema – the exclusive 200-seat Towerside - into a powerful Siemens Mobile brand experience. This provided an important access route to the ‘style leaders’, allowing us to convert them into legitimate brand ambassadors.

In the first six months 40.000 people have visited the 200 seat Towerside. The value of on-screen advertising, branding, free tickets, venue usage and cinema listings is valued at 280% of the cost.

In 2003, spontaneous awareness increased 26%; consideration 10% and sales a whopping 307%.The strategy is producing dramatic results and Towerside remains a prominent brand symbol and key access route into the ‘style crowd’.

Negotiations began while Towerside was under construction, so we controlled everything from branding to internal décor to opening events. We even changed the name to 'The Siemens Mobile Towerside Movie Theatre'. The foyer branding included wall paintings, staff uniforms, posters, plasma screens showing the TV spots, exhibition cases displaying the handsets and piles of free merchandising. On the screen we had sponsorship accreditation,‘please turn your phones off’ messaging and further TV spots. Branded pop-corn bowls and coffee mugs replaced paper, and we put ‘cuddle blankets’ in the salons.

With a small arena like Towerside it is important that we always exploit it fully. We run regular ticket competitions on Siemens Mobile sponsored radio shows, websites and magazines. In-store promotions include free tickets to see the latest releases. The cinema is used for regular retailer, subcontractor and internal presentations. We appear in all cinema listings as ‘The Siemens Mobile Towerside Movie Theatre’. Siemens Mobile also sponsored local film productions and tickets for special preview screenings, with the cast present, are much sought after. And in-foyer activity always matches the above the line campaigns.

In Turkey mid-level handsets cost 250-300 USD – the average monthly income. Hence mobile phone usage is oncentrated to affluent urbanites in Istanbul and Ankara. To reach this audience we decided to first convert ‘style leaders’ and to use them to carry the Siemens Mobile message to the wider audience. This would mean repositioning Siemens Mobile as a fashion brand rather than a technology brand. So we only used targeted media with a high lifestyle context, including key TV programmes, lifestyle magazines, websites and specific venues and events.

The new luxury, designer cinemas that were opening around Istanbul provided ideal environments to talk to this normally elusive style crowd. While we set up a presence in all these cinemas, Towerside was our flagship.

Funda Taboglu, Esin Ozcan