Wooing youth with rugby and music

By PETER GRIFFIN

Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips is going online to win the minds and hearts of New Zealand youths, using its sponsorship of school rugby to build a cyber community.

Philips has gone live with a website - djRush - which the company hopes will become the favourite place for youths to download music, hear of upcoming live music events and follow sports news.

In similar youth strategies under way throughout Asia, Philips has sponsored music and extreme sports events, recruited local pop stars and flown in professional skateboarders from the United States. In New Zealand, music and rugby are the youth focus.

The site, designed by Auckland advertising and web design company Walkers Interactive for a bit less than $50,000, was launched in May.

Philips New Zealand director Errol McKenzie said the web was central to the company's MP3 and CDR products popular with a youth market excited about digital music.

"We'll have around 20 internet-connected type products coming to market in the next 12 months," he said. "For youths today, these types of devices are becoming as common as a wristwatch.

"The internet is the medium. That's why we're not spending megabucks on TV advertising aimed at youths."

Already a collection of MP3 music files from emerging New Zealand artists, supplied by local studio Woodcut Productions, are available for free download with Philips paying the licensing fee.

The site also has rugby results, and profiles for the nine first XV teams that Philips sponsors around the country are available online.

The site draws on Philips' backing of the All Blacks, allowing web surfers to pose questions to their favourite All Black squad members.

But if the site is to be a true online community for youth, the rules of the game may have to change.

Students from the likes of Auckland Grammar and King's College are likely to relate well to what is posted online, but those from schools not as fortunate in drawing the sponsorship dollars of major corporates may feel left out.

Meanwhile, the site is drawing a growing audience, says Philips, with some unexpected side effects.

The "Shout it out loud!" chat room had to be closed down recently because of "unseemly conversations."

And as Philips products become increasingly portable with its 8cm Expanium MP3 player due for release here this year, the winding-down of its mobile phone division is unlikely to see Philips retreat to the living room, where the company made a name for itself with its televisions, stereos and video recorders.

Mr McKenzie said a joint venture with China Electronics Corporation (CEC) meant that company would take over the manufacture of the phones, but they would still carry the Philips brand.

The golden days of the mobile industry had ended, he said, pointing to the fact that seminal players such as Ericsson and Nokia had had to rationalise their operations.

"The mobile market has grown through hardware providers sponsoring the hardware.

"With new telecoms products that will become less and less the case. Phones will be a retail buy."

Philips will still work in the wireless space producing semi-conductors and components, but the restructuring of its mobile phone business comes with the loss of over 1200 jobs, mainly in France.

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djRush