Twenty years ago, the RAZR was the first mobile device to become a fashion statement and cultural icon. RAZR fused the worlds of technology and fashion unlike any phone as its advertising and marketing efforts reinforced the cachet of its signature flip. Within a few years touch, apps, and full bezel screens remade the category. As new generations followed the first iPhone in 2007, smartphone launches became routinized annual events that all looked alike.

Motorola wanted to flip cliched scripts and capture public attention by presenting a truly mind-blowing launch event – with stunning visuals making the new razr the featured centerpiece of every story, and the reimaging of the new Flip Era the hero message. Success will gain Gen Z tastemaker attention and expand beyond tech press to recruit key lifestyle, entertainment, and pop culture media and influencers to attend, engage, and propel massive earned media and social buzz.

Research guided the hunt for the most resonant Gen Z creative partners who had high authenticity, pre-existing engagement, and a shared creative ethos for challenging norms, boundary-breaking art/fashion, and championing creativity. Working collaboratively with storytelling partner Cirque du Soleil, designers and star creators reinterpreted razr’s elements of motion, color, image, and sound into a live origin story that witnesses the rebirth of an Icon and the new era of Flip through an exclusive one-night-only performance. The origin told the three beats of conception, design, and cutting edge fabrication leading to the final reveal of a reborn icon.

This live show unfolded through movement inspired by the device itself – opening, flipping, bending, flying through the air. The story culminated in the reveal of the Motorola razr+, all while performers and guests were enrolled to become active content co-creators, chronicling the event and the new razr+ in live posts and stories.

The parade of annual smartphone version launches had become standardized and dull – typically formatted as TED Talk style presentations for the technology press. In order to engage beyond the tech press and propel the razr’s message of rebirth of a new icon, Motorola needed a storytelling event that could excite attention from lifestyle, fashion, and pop culture tastemakers. The event guest list reflected this fusion of interests from pop culture and entertainment reporters, Gen Z and fashion influencers, to mainstream tech and advertising press.

Prior to the show, Cirque du Soleil creators documented their creative process, rehearsals, development of the creation story, and BTS to create supporting narrative pieces as social content amplifying the event. Kim Petras sat with cameras to document her creative journey for the event. These content pieces, social vignette stages and hands-on hero plinths collectively provided +20 additional social assets.

Motorola’s invitation featuring exclusive performances by Cirque de Soleil and Grammy-winning Kim Petras immediately disrupted expectations. Early posts from Cirque creators and performers fueled anticipation that something quite different was coming, and the promise of mind-blowing visuals reinforced the embargoed pitches to key outlets. The event outline secured sold-out attendance from targeted fashion, entertainment, and pop culture press/influencers. Guests walked into a neo-classical bank building transformed into a 360-immersive theater space with two full stages, LED walls, custom lighting, and a tailored aerial rigging system that allowed performers to fly +100 over guests for this one-night-only experience.

The show was captured via 12 cameras, including GoPros attached to acrobatic apparatuses, supplemented by the performers holding razrs, as they live captured and shared live content. After the final reveal, a curtain parted and performers led the crowd into a hands-on razr playground, product stages, and after party featuring Kim Petras.

An onsite content studio generated 20+ pieces of original content created and distributed by the partners and used in social media video, press, paid and promoted assets, and digital ads. Additionally, the event drove hundreds of original user-generated pieces of content shared globally, resulting in +10B earned media impressions, vaulting over all competitors.

430+ VIPs attended the event, including 80+ top tier consumer media such as TODAY Online, Esquire, VOGUE, The Wall Street Journal, Refinery29, and more.

● 5x over-delivery: +571% over projected PR KPIs for media + social impressions.

● Key messages delivered: 98% of coverage includes key messages and 95% include key imagery.

● Uniformly positive coverage: 100% positive sentiment (including):

o Billboard: These Flip Phones are Gen-Z approved.

o Bustle: The Iconic Pink motorola razr+ is Making an Epic Comeback

o Hypebae: Channel Your Inner Barbie With The New motorola razr+

These razr launch impacts bolstered Motorola’s #1 position in Competitor SOV for lifestyle/consumer media. Launching the new era of Flip built buzz on social with over 255.6M+ social impressions across paid partners, media and organic influencers – Motorola’s best social metrics ever for a product launch.

Additionally, the successful launch event contributed to a +4pp boost in Motorola’s brand desirability, as measured by its Brand Pulse Survey, and contributed to Motorola solidifying a dominant market share within the flip phone category [confidential market share below].