This past fall, consumer tech was all about "you." Between September and November, Yahoo, Microsoft, and HTC introduced campaigns intended to make consumers feel like their products were designed specifically with them in mind. All three companies used different tactics to drive this point home, but their effectiveness ultimately hinged on whether these mass marketing campaigns felt personal to consumers.
In October, HTC launched "Quietly Brilliant," its first major brand awareness effort. The mobile-phone maker first seeded the campaign with ...