Seems that Nokia is sponsoring Kylie’s European tour, which to be honest is quite surprising; I thought the days of big brands sponsoring single artist tours were pretty much over.
I can’t imagine that European tour and marketing rights for an artist like Kylie are particularly cheap, and given the added cost of amplification across a number of different markets, it’s all adding up. And I can’t quite see the return.
At a stretch it would be more worthwhile for a network brand, as there is a much bigger customer base; comm’s can be crafted to suit different customer segments, and there would probably be the opportunity to get some money out of different handset brands in each market as a contribution.
But for a handset manufacturer to spend what is almost certainly a vast amount seems a little crazy, given that it is probably going to be a fairly narrow customer segment buying into the tour and surrounding excitement (doubt you’ll get that many SME’s or young fashion concious males that love new technology etc etc.)
Kylie’s probably doing alright out of it though; aside from the cash fee she’s getting a massive contribution to Europe-wide tour publicity and album promotion as well, as customers will be able to download her latest album to the 5310 handset (what about all the other Nokia customers that just re-signed contracts and have a different handset?)