Nokia launched a real time marketing campaign in Mexico and Indonesia to take on Blackberry and demonstrate the limitations of the popular Blackberry handset compared to the Nokia ASHA 303.
Nokia: Qwerty Me-Indonesia from we are fallon on Vimeo.
Case study summary
• Nokia launched a real time interactive campaign in Mexico and Indonesia to break into the market that Blackberry had dominated
• The QWERTY me interactive campaign demonstrated that the Nokia handset was more socially influential than Blackberry
• Over ten days 13,500 challenges were submitted by users for the main character in the advert to carry out
• Brand awareness grew to 40% amongst the population equally Blackberry.
The challenge
In Mexico and Indonesia Blackberry Messenger (BBM) was a symbol of social status for teens. Blackberry had the coolest handset and was synonymous with the QWERTY keyboard. Nokia wanted to break into this market with the release of their new mobile Nokia ASHA 303. The challenge was to boost brand awareness and demonstrate using the new Nokia phone and open messenger platform What’s App rather than the closed BBM platform (only available to BB users).
The solution
The solution was to highlight the limited social status you can achieve through BBM compared to the mass social influence gained by using What’s App alongside Twitter and Facebook on the Nokia handset.
Nokia created a real time demonstration of its new phone as “open” and the most socially influential handset in the market with an interactive campaign – QWERTY me. Credibility with this young audience is key so including them in an interactive social media challenge was the centre of the campaign.
The campaign was a social game where users could to send challenges for the lead character in the adverts, if the challenge was chosen the users had the opportunity to take part in making the challenge happen. Users communicated with the QWERTY me team via SMS, Facebook, Twitter and What’s App challenging the lead character to increasingly ridiculous stunts.
The best challenges were bought to life in online films which were uploaded on social media in a matter of hours as the campaign developed. Out of these the top challenges were broadcast on TV which gave the challenger social influence on a national scale.
The results
The response to the campaign was amazing. 13,500 challenges were submitted via Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp in ten days, resulting in 40 pieces of content being filmed and uploaded to YouTube and aired on TV over a three week period. Brand awareness increased to 40% in Mexico – the same as Blackberry. The value of Nokia in these markets rose by €20m in less than two months.
