14 DAY TRIAL // Shortly after releasing the Xperia X1 SDK (Software Development Kit) and a new demo video with the long-awaited high-end smartphone, Sony Ericsson came up with what seems to be a very well-thought advertising campaign for the X1.
The Swedish-Japanese company has launched a teaser website, titled "Who is Johnny X?" which contains a trailer that starts with "I need help, I don't know who I am" and continues with scenes that seem to be taken from an action/thriller movie. Well, this shouldn't be a surprise, as Sony Ericsson is not at its first venturing into the movie industry – the company is known for making James Bond special editions for some of its phones.
Xperia X1 appears several times in the trailer, and it most probably has a major role in the story. Of course, for the moment we can't know what the story is about, but all this looks similar to the advertising campaign that Sprint rolled-out for its Samsung Instinct phone in the US. Sure, Sony Ericsson's handset is more advanced than the Instinct and it targets a slightly different category of users (being a smartphone), but promoting it via a mass-marketing movie-like campaign still seems like a good idea.
Apparently, the whole campaign was created together with Dare Digital, a famous London-based agency that worked with Sony Ericsson several times before. The Johnny X website, found at this address, will soon host new "episodes" that should unveil more about both the mysterious character and the role of Xperia X1 in this charade. We might even see a full-length movie with Johnny X, who would use its X1 smartphone to find out who he is – although it's very likely that the character is not made for the big screen.
The expected release date for Xperia X1, as seen on the official Sony Ericsson e-shop, is October 8. Let's hope there wont be any delays and the smartphone will finally be commercially available next month.