2011 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

The MENA region has one of the highest mobile penetration rates in the world at 200% and climbing. That’s an average of two mobiles per person. It was into this highly competitive arena that Nokia was launching its new phone, the Nokia N8. Its target audience was young, early adopters of new and emerging technologies who were big on social networking. Our strategy was to engage them on Facebook where they loved to spend time and get them to interact and experiment with the Nokia N8.

Creative Execution

45% of users in the region access the internet using their mobiles, with 34% using it for social networking and mainly for posting pics. But there was no app available to help them add a personal touch. To edit a pic, they had to use an external application, then save the image and upload it to Facebook. The fact that they could now personalize their Facebook pics with Nokia N8 PikFlik helped created a niche for the Nokia N8 in a region where smart phone usage was escalating. It also reinforced Nokia’s brand positioning: Connect. Create. Entertain.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We knew our target audience loved to take pics on their mobiles and upload them to Facebook. They tagged, commented and ‘liked’, but after that there wasn’t much they could do. They couldn’t turn their Facebook photos into personal expressions by writing, doodling or adding their own touch. We gave them our solution: Nokia N8 PikFlik, a state-of-the-art app with photo-editing features to change color, add emoticons, speech bubbles, draw with different brushes and write messages. With Nokia PikFlik, users could now manipulate pictures and share them with friends. The app was promoted through web banners, SEM and Facebook ads.

Results

Within two weeks, we had more than 147,000 interactions, 11,369 users, 9,179 Likes, 3,379 Wall shares and 44 feedbacks per share. And the app now has an average base of 6,000 users per month. It reached out to people across the region from Saudi Arabia to Sudan and went beyond the scope to countries like Afghanistan and Iran. Not only did it spark off conversations on the internet, but the Nokia N8 flew off the shelves and was out of stock in the region. And with the app still online, it’s taking pic-posting on Facebook to a whole new level.