University junior Ryan Nguyen started off the year with a bang, organizing a “freaks and geeks” party at Sigma Phi Epsilon, his fraternity. But he wasn’t just throwing a social gathering. He was doing his job.
Nguyen’s party was a promotional event for Helio, a relatively new phone company that is using campus representatives like Nguyen across the nation to spread exposure of its company and products.
Helio, LLC first opened its doors in May, and though its products haven’t yet made a significant impact in Eugene, the business is taking a unique approach to marketing itself to the college demographic.
The University was selected as one of 21 universities across the nation that is a part of Helio’s “Helio On Campus” campaign, which designates one student to be a brand ambassador at each school.
The campus representative’s job is to get the word out about Helio, but instead of simply advertising or handing out flyers, University representative Nguyen has organized tours and promotional parties for Helio. Pictures of these events are then posted on Helio’s own social networking Web site, oncampus.helio.com.
The site also includes pictures of similar events held at the other 20 universities in the program.
Helio currently offers two cellular devices, the Hero and the Kickflip. Both offer users several multimedia features, such as constant Internet access, music, videos and games, along with the basic phone service that is provided through Sprint.
Helio’s devices also allow users to access MySpace accounts, a heavily promoted feature.
“Helio devices are multimedia powerhouses,” Helio spokesperson Courtney Carlisle wrote in an e-mail. Carlisle said curious potential users should not be deterred if they don’t have a MySpace account.
“Actually, we realize that several students use Facebook, not MySpace,” Carlisle said. “MySpace on Helio is a neat feature because we are the first carrier to offer it; however, it’s one of just many ways that Helio helps our members stay connected.”
The Helio products are not currently sold at any stores in the Valley River Center, and employees at Radio Shack had not heard of the company at all.
Digital Duck in the University Bookstore began selling both devices just last week, and Digital Duck employee and University student Alexander Hongo said he had not yet sold any of the products.
“It’s the first cellular device we’ve sold,” he said. Hongo added that he had not personally experimented with the new Helio products, but the idea of putting multiple functions on a single device hasn’t always worked in the past.
He said some products don’t always follow the UNIX philosophy, which is to focus on one feature and do it well. He referred to the Motorola ROKR phone that had limited compatibility with iTunes and ultimately ended up unsuccessful.
“When you combine devices, you create compromises, and the consumer doesn’t always benefit,” Hongo said.
Hongo said just about any product has an inherent focus anyway.
“What someone really needs is to make an iPod I make phone calls on,” he said. “When you make something that is first a phone and second everything else, that’s what you get.”
Carlisle said that by providing so many extra services, Helio adheres to the desires of its younger target demographic.
“We understand that our members’ lives revolve around being connected to their friends, and we want to make that as simple as possible,” she said.
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