PHOTO PHONES STAR IN HISPANIC MUSIC TOUR PROMOTION
Verizon Wireless Promotes Spanish-Language Song and Ring Tone Downloads
By Laurel Wentz

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Verizon Wireless is benefiting from the latest craze among concert goers: shooting pictures of the live performer on their phones and e-mailing them to friends. Verizon photo phones played a major role in the Alejandro Sanz tour promotion.

Phones instead of lighters
"If you stand at the back, all you see is everyone's camera phone," said Nicholas Montes, associate director of multicultural marketing at Verizon Wireless. The company sponsored the just-ended 15-city U.S. tour of Spain's Alejandro Sanz in an integrated promotion that encouraged Verizon users to download Mr. Sanz's popular songs as ring tones and save his picture as wallpaper. "It's exciting because it's the first time a wireless carrier has promoted Spanish-language applications with a Hispanic artist," Mr. Montes said. Verizon Wireless worked closely with Time Warner, which previously owned Mr. Sanz's label, Warner Music. Time Warner's People en Espanol and AOL Latino promoted the Alejandro Sanz tour and ran ads. Both Mr. Sanz's tour and his new album are called No es lo mismo ("It's Not the Same"), a line that was woven into print and TV ads by Verizon Wireless' Hispanic agency, Interpublic Group of Cos.-backed GlobalHue. Spanish-language print ads featured pictures of Mr. Sanz on cellphones and copy such as "It's not the same without Verizon Wireless."

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