Mktg - Nokia's new campaign

Nokia India is using a combination of online media and on-ground activities to promote N78, its new handset model, which comes with a location tagging feature. The location tagging feature allows users to create their own trail on Nokia Maps, locating each place they visit. They can also tag the location in their photos and upload them directly on photo sharing websites.

The campaign, Nokia Nseries Fusions Challenge, kicked off in July and is being implemented in two phases. The first phase was carried out online. Each participant had to register a team at the campaign site, www.nokia.co.in/fusion. The teams play an active role in the second phase. On the site, the team leader had to play a game of locating certain places on a map. Teams were also encouraged to promote themselves through YouTube videos and social media to create fans. The shortlisted teams were chosen based on their scores in the game and the number of fans they had garnered.

In an email interview with afaqs!, Vineet Taneja, head, go-to-market (GTM), Nokia India, says, "In today's fast paced and multifaceted environment, consumers are looking at their mobile devices as a tool to enable their personal lifestyles. While this was not possible till a few years ago, today, people desire to stay connected with the world even when they are on the go. Nokia Nseries aims to connect people with similar passions by creating a platform for them to participate and compete in."
The online campaign has been developed by Maxus (a part of Group M). Unny Radhakrishnan, head, interaction, Maxus, says, "The challenge was to communicate this to the consumer. Hence, the idea of an activation that helps consumers discover the offering for themselves."

The second phase of the campaign took off on August 9, with the first on-ground relay races held in Delhi and Mumbai. Races will take place in eight cities, the other cities being Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

Taneja says, "The Fusions Challenge will require these passionate youngsters and technology lovers to discover the most interesting places in their city related to various passions, click pictures on the route and create an interesting trail using them. Each team will be given a list of eight clues covering various passions such as food, music, art and adventure. The team has to find a place that fits the definition of the task and take a picture. The trail will be formed in a relay fashion – each member will cover one item, click a picture and then pass the N78 device to the next member."

For instance, some of the clues in the Delhi race included finding a dealer in vintage cars, a place which manufactures customised leather boots and a place which sells LP records of albums from before the 1990s.

The participants can use the sportstracker feature of the N78 (which will be given to each team) and upload their trails within four hours on the site. Taneja says that the winning team will be selected on the basis of the trails, places of interest and picture quality.

The grand finale will take place on August 23, and the two winning teams will race to win a trip to Turkey as well as their prizes.

The campaign is being promoted through online ads, social media and print ads. Taneja says, "We are promoting the campaign on the Nokia Nseries website and have also created separate communities on various social networking sites to build a buzz around the Fusions Challenge. We have engaged with bloggers, too, to talk about the concept in an innovative way."

An application has also been developed by Maxus in the form of a game on the social media site, Ibibo. Radhakrishnan says, "Every time a user plays the game on the site, his friends come to know about it and this creates a viral impact."

Nokia claims that the campaign site has received three lakh visitors since its launch and that 78,000 people have played the online game on the site.