LG, Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment have entered an eclectic marketing co-operation for the commercialisation of a new film adaptation of the comic “Iron Man”. The co-operation idea is to relate the technology of LG phones to a symbol of technology coming to life: Tony Stark alias Iron Man. With this co-operation approach LG aims to “align with some of the most admired and established global brands in entertainment”, while Paramount and Marvel get the chance to introduce the new movie on LG’s technology platforms. 

The partnership started off with a quite unique and attention-grabbing announcement on January 7^th at this year’s CTIA, the largest wireless industry trade show. At the show, the original Iron Man suit was on location to protect Iron Man’s very own mobile phone, the limited ”LG Shine Iron Man Edition”, a handset developed by LG and decked out in solid 18 karat gold.  

Limited LG Shine Iron Man Edition

There is no information on whether this phone is going to be sold, I snapped up unconfirmed information that it will only be sold in the United States with an AT&T contract and for about US$ 2000 – if so, it will be an item for real fans only. The joint microsite http://www.lg2win.com/ does not give any information on this neither – in contrary, it only contains a flash intro and a sweepstake for winning LG solid steal consumer electronics (see screenshot below). No word about the solid gold handset. But the latest announcement of a second joint microsite InsideTheSuit.com to be launched on April 15^th set an end to the rumours. The website will offer visitors exclusive behind-the-scenes content and the chance to win the gold phone by participating in a marketing contest.  

Microsite “LG2WIN” 

But these are only the first pieces of the marketing package that the co-operating partners will wrap around the movie to be released on May 2^nd. So far, it is known that they are going to market across multiple media platforms with traditional, online media vehicles as well as key technology industry initiatives. I’m curious what this “marketing contest” is going to look like. Let me know if you find out anything else about this partnership!