The Challenge: Nokia typically competes against mobile phone manufacturers such as Motorola and Samsung on qualities such as hardware design and ease of use. Nokia has led these competitors in mindshare, value share, and marketshare for the last 10 years. Nokia’s services and software, including the popular but little-known S60 brand meanwhile, have struggled for mindshare against new competitors such as Microsoft, Apple, and Google. How could Nokia compete in a new market?

The Solution: Build a network of Ambassadors to spread buzz about Nokia software and services through both on and offline channels.

The Process: With the help of Finnish Agency Satama, we built a website/landing page at at which our fans could register to become product Ambassadors. The website provided Ambassadors with three incentives to sign up:

1) Be first to know about new products and services
2) Be ranked according to their level of engagement with Nokia
3) Be given rewards such as Nokia accessories for achieving top rankings in a number of different categories.
We told potential Ambassadors about the website through online message boards, blogs, e-mails, and a series of events called “An Evening with S60”

Once they signed up, Nokia Product Ambassadors were encouraged to talk to friends, families, and neighbors about their involvement in the Ambassador program, and the products that they’d chosen to promote. They reported to Nokia about what they said, with whom they spoke, and the reaction to what was said. Ambassador Engagement specialists read and replied to every report sent to Nokia.

The Results: Within 4 months, over 5500 consumers had signed up for Ambassador program. The conversations they’ve generated have helped Nokia take its software and services story to over 134,000 consumers.

Client: Nokia
Agency: Satama
Budget: 150,000 USD
Date of Campaign: March 2008 to present