Philips puts £1m into music tie-up

by Daniel Rogers, Marketing 08-May-03

Electronics giant Philips is embarking on a pan-European youth marketing campaign this summer and has signed a deal worth more than £1m to be a partner for the Isle of MTV 2003 dance music tour.

Philips plans to use the two-month, 12-date European club tour and youth TV extravaganza to launch a range of portable products linked to music.

It wouldn't be drawn on the precise products, but they are likely to be MP3 players, portable CD players and phones aimed at 18- to 34-year-olds.

Isle of MTV, already sponsored by BMW's Mini and Unilever's Lipton brands, is the music station's biggest single sponsorship property.

The events, which take place from June to August, attract 30,000 clubbers.

Themed TV programmes will be broadcast to 110 million homes.

Frank Pauli, Philips' vice-president of marketing and business development for Europe, said Isle of MTV provided the company with a platform to connect with the "elusive youth audience".

"Music is a pivotal part of young people's everyday lives and MTV Europe is playing an important role in their lives," he added.

Philips, based in Amsterdam, is Europe's biggest electronics company, with sales of £31.8bn in 2002. It has recently followed a strategy of winning over younger consumers, and last year sponsored MTV's Station X dance event to launch the eXpanium MP3-CD player.

Isle of MTV, which began its life as a one-off event in Ibiza, has added up-and-coming cities to the tour, including Warsaw, Berlin and Budapest.

However the main event will be a massive open-air summer festival in France on August 7.