HTC it set to retire the "Quietly Brilliant" tagline from its product ads, in an attempt to freshen its image and kickstart a new, bolder marketing campaign, according to the company's marketing chief. Acknowledging that the company hasn't "been loud enough" in the past, HTC CMO Ben Ho told The Wall Street Journal that's all about to change as HTC gears up to fight both Apple and Samsung with the release of its new HTC One Android flagship.

Bold, authentic, and playful

Despite using its "Quietly Brilliant" tagline since October 2009, HTC will introduce a new marketing campaign for the HTC One using the themes "bold," "authentic," and "playful." According to Ho, "bold" demonstrates that HTC will be more aggressive in the marketing of its new products, "authentic" is said to reinforce its focus on innovation, and "playful" is meant to reference HTC's development of features that are based on consumer demand. Battling declining sales revenues and falling market share, HTC CEO Peter Chou has already said that inadequate marketing led to disappointment last year, and vowed to inject some more money into the promotion of HTC's products. Ho today backed up Chou's remarks with some figures, highlighting that HTC will boost its digital marketing budget by 250 percent and doubling its traditional media marketing spend.

Ho also confirmed that HTC One shipment delays were as a result of camera supply shortages, although HTC's marketing chief puts that down to the One's exclusive 'Ultrapixel' camera design, which meant "production cannot be ramped up so quickly.” Earlier reports said that the phone was delayed because component suppliers no longer considered HTC a "tier one customer," though Ho denies that this is the case. This might explain why HTC has been particularly bullish in its attempts to derail Samsung's Galaxy S4 launch, after the delays ensured that the two flagships will go on sale in the US at roughly the same time — at the end of April.