Motorola is on the hunt for South Africa’s next music sensation with the launch of MOTOROKR™ STAR.

I have had the priveledge of personally being involved in this campaign, where we developed the Mobi-site and mobile Multimedia components. Needless to say I am very proud of what we have accomplished and as such am posting the official press release on my blog.

The campaign is SENSATIONAL with Wyclef Jean and Fergie - teaming up to record and produce the winners track. Motorola have moved into the music scene with their Rokr range of phones as well as the incredible w230, which is a low end phone with multimedia capability and comes with a 2gig memory card - for R566. Mindblowing!

This campaign is well positioned with their strategy and is set to give local talent a step up to the international platform of musical stardom. If only I could sing!

US Superstars Wyclef Jean and Fergie team up with Motorola for SA MOTOROKR™ STAR

Johannesburg, South Africa – 14 November 2008 – Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today announced the launch of MOTOROKR STAR, a sensational competition to discover and promote new musical talent.

The competition, which will be judged by music icons and Motorola brand ambassadors Wyclef Jean and Fergie, gives one South African finalist the chance to experience the life of a superstar with an all expenses paid trip to New York. One budding pop star will then be chosen to win an amazing prize, which includes the chance to record a brand new song specially written by Wyclef Jean for the competition, vocal coaching by acclaimed singer Fergie and a recording contract with a major record label.

“We are so excited about the launch of MOTOROKR STAR,” said Andrew Morely, Vice President of Marketing for Mobile Devices EMEA, Motorola. “Our ROKR products give music fans a portable way to enjoy their music; twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. This competition is going to be a fantastic way to unleash a new breed of musical talent for consumers to experience.”

The MOTOROKR™ STAR COMPETITION

Entry

Participants can submit entries in three ways:

Mobile Submit a video audition to www.motorokrstar.mobi

Web Submit a video audition to www.motorokrstar.com

Live From 1st Nov 2008, the MOTOROKR Star Audition Booth tour will visit six major shopping centres across the country to allow participants to record and upload their entries in a recording booth.

Voting

Members of the public can log onto www.motorokrstar.com and vote for their favourite entries.

In January 2009, the 100 most popular tracks will be judged by a panel of music industry experts to find the top 10 entries for South Africa.

Finalists

The top ten SA finalists will be announced and the South African winner will be selected by Sony Music and Wyclef. The SA winner will receive an all expenses paid trip to New York to participate in the final leg of the competition and the nine runners ups will each receive a MTN Exploded Management program.

Winner – THE MOTOROKR STAR

An expert judging panel, which will include Wyclef and Fergie, will then choose the ultimate winner. The MOTOROKR STAR will receive:

• A recording contract with a major record label*

• Vocal coaching by Fergie
  

• A 12 month management deal* with Maximum Artist Management, whose clients include The White Stripes, Eva Longoria and Elisha Cuthbert
  

• The opportunity to record a song specially written by Wyclef Jean for the MOTOROKR STAR competition
  

Celebrating the ROKR range

The MOTOROKR STAR competition celebrates Motorola’s ROKR™ range of mobile phones.

MOTO W230:

Lose yourself in Music with the MOTO W230’s onboard MP3 player, stereo FM radio and dedicated music keys for quick access to and control of your music. With up to 1GB expandable memory, upgradeable to 2 GB you can store up to 500 songs for your entertainment. RRP R566

MOTOROKR™ E8:

The flagship ROKR product, the E8 uses Modeshift™ technology to seamlessly shift between talk, music and pictures. The haptics keypad technology and the Fastscroll navigation wheel make for the perfect combination of style and function.RRP R2499

MOTO™ EM30:

One moment ROKR EM30 is a mobile phone. The next, it transforms into your favourite music player. It uses Motorola’s innovative ModeShift technology to illuminate the keyboard — red keys illuminate in music mode and a brilliant blue keypad appears in phone mode — to take users from talk to text1 to complete music immersion at the touch of a button. With colourful cues that let users know exactly which mode they are in, the ROKR EM30 connects the sounds that matter most: family, friends and favourite artists. RRP R1999

MOTO™ EM325:

The EM325 offers a genuine music-player experience with immediate access to a stored music library or built-in FM radio with Radio Data System technology. The EM325 includes up to 2GB optional removable microSD storage, which gives users plenty of space for their music. RRP R 999

* Subject to individual contracts being signed

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications. The company develops technologies, products and services that make mobile experiences possible. Our portfolio includes communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility solutions, digital set-tops, cable modems, mobile devices and Bluetooth accessories. Motorola is committed to delivering next generation communication solutions to people, businesses and governments. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and impact, Motorola had sales of US $36.6 billion in 2007. For more information about our company, our people and our innovations, please visit http://www.motorola.com.

About MOTOROKR STAR

For terms, conditions and further information, please visit www.motorola.com/motorokrstar or SMS ROKR to 39066.

Motorola Rokr E8

I have been making a lot of noise about Mobile Media on this blog and yet have not given much consideration to the devices that are the foundation to all that I have presented thus far. So the direction of this blog is changing somewhat but I guess that's what life is about - isn't it...

Everyone is talking about the new 3g Apple Iphone which admittedly is a beautiful piece of engineering.. So I've decided to turn my attention to the new Motorola "Rokr" series instead.

I have to admit I have never been a big fan of Motorola.. Having toyed with the Razr and a couple of earlier 3g editions. I found the whole user experience a bit backward as compared to Sony Ericsson and Nokia. The menu structure and functionality of the phone just never felt right. Sending a text was always a mission for some reason and the quality of the audio was horrible to say the least. Save to say I’ve been pretty loyal to Sony Ericsson – up till now – but that’s an entirely different discussion.

Recently I was handed an EM30 to play with and to my pleasant surprise I have been bowled over by the phone. It's probably one of the sexiest phones on the market - the look and feel is really funky. Although it is designed as a music phone it facilitates all the functionality I required for accessing the web as well as my Gmail account. It is exceptionally easy to use - and it works! The phone has clearly been pitched at a younger market where music, pictures, blogging etc are important as it has all these wonderful features built in. The audio has been improved dramatically with their Crystal talk function which allows you to talk and hear in any environment as Motorola's new technology filters out background noise.

What I did struggle with initially was the setting up of MMS and WAP but after some manual intervention got the phone working. Another small issue for me is the screen size.... great width but a bit short for my liking.

So the question is have they done enough to entice existing users of Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung and Nokia to make the switch?..... hmmmmm

What you think of the new phone and or your experience with Motorola?

Technical Stats