T-Mobile USA Inc.’s chief marketing officer, Mike Butler, has resigned.
A spokesman for the wireless carrier said Butler was in route to the T-Mobile USA-sponsored NBA All Star Game in Las Vegas and could not be reached immediately for comment. The spokesman declined to discuss the reasons for Butler’s departure. He said a successor has not been named.
“Mike Butler is leaving T-Mobile and his creative horsepower will be missed,” said T-Mobile USA in a statement. “Mike’s contribution and leadership in building a strong national brand has been instrumental in driving our rapid growth and
establishing our most recent new positioning behind ‘Stick Together.'”
T-Mobile USA said Robert Dotson, the carrier’s CEO, will take over the “chief brand officer” position.
Butler inherited Catherine Zeta-Jones as a celebrity spokeswoman when he joined the company in January 2004. The carrier parted with Zeta-Jones in September 2006, a move that coincided with the introduction of the carrier’s new “stick together” tagline. The tagline replaced its previous “get more” line.
T-Mobile USA’s most recent move in the U.S. wireless market was the introduction of its My Faves plan, which allows unlimited calling to any five phone numbers. Alltel Corp. offers a simialr service to 10 numbers.
T-Mobile spent $522 million in 2005 and $405 million in measured media for the first nine months of 2006, according to TNS Media Intelligence; its agency is Publicis in the West, Seattle.
Alice Z. Cuneo is a reporter for AdAge, a sister pubcliation of RCR Wireless News. Both publications are owned by Crain Communications Inc.
