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Why the Nokia E72 Youtube video speaks volumes about Nokia’s comms strategy

I’m willing to bet that the new Nokia E72 — more details of which (in the form of a video) were uploaded to the Nokia Conversations blog today — on a Sunday — was not a mistake, or an oversight.

More and more Nokia have been going direct to the end user. That is, connecting directly with the people who matter — the folk who’re going to buy their products and the folk who’re going to tell the world about it.

Why bother submitting a product video to the likes of Reuters?

It’s not as if Reuters are going to take your promotional video for your gorgeous new handset and feed it out to the world, are they? Absolutely not. They’d charge a fortune.

They’ll carry the official release about it. But they’re hardly likely to distribute 3 minutes of a Nokia E72 commercial from Nokia.

Because the mainstream media isn’t interested.

But Nokia’s fans are.

And anyone else who’s half-interested in what Nokia are up to, wants to see that video.

So skip the mainstream media. Get it up on Youtube and the fanatics will do the rest for you.

I’m pleased to see this kind of transformation going on inside Nokia. The company has, for far too long, been run by grey-suited committees closed to anything other than the-way-we-always-do-things.

The fact they’ve released proper confirmation of the device on to the world’s second largest search engine (Youtube) on a Sunday indicates they’re getting increasingly comfortable talking direct.

A quick search for ‘Nokia E72‘ on Twitter will confirm that this strategy is the way ahead.

Here’s a screenshot of the E72 conversation overflowing on Twitter, for posterity:

Here’s the vid:

It’s similar to the lauded E71 — but it’s sporting a 5 megapixel camera. So reports Stefan over at Intomobile.

How many times have I — and the rest of the fans of the likes of the E71/E61/E62 — remarked how cool it would be to have a decent camera on a Qwerty keyboard handset?

Nokia delivers.

Here’s hoping there is more of this to come. Are you tempted? I am.

I know Jeb Brilliant is foaming at the mouth for one.

35 COMMENTS

  1. Nokia Conversations really is brilliant. The chap who made it happen, Charlie Schick, is leaving the company however. He took the voluntary resignation package I talked about in my Hello World Again post: http://www.intomobile.com/2009/06/11/hello-worl

    That aside, not firing on all cylinders at the right time is an embarrassment. There should have been a PR published that gets sent to the wire folks like Reuters, there should have been a tweet about it and a blog post about it, all within a few minutes of each other.

    This video making it online however, that fucked up an attempt at a swift execution by corporation communications.

  2. Nokia Conversations is a great move by Nokia.

    Sad to hear that Charlie is leaving !

    Do you think that these leaks are planned well ahead ?

  3. You can't mess around when you're a billion dollar company. Mistakes
    still happen. But for the most part, 'leaks' are usually carefully
    organised.

  4. excuse me Ewan… “Charge a fortune to distribute”… can you talk me through that one please… I think you may be mistaking Reuters for a PR, Advertising, or Media Buying agency, not a News agency.

  5. I tried commenting earlier, I am definitely foaming at the mouth. I might even be over the E55 at this point. There are a few things I still need to find out about, but in the big scheme of things it won't keep me from getting this device.

    I'm ready for it today and hope I can get a proto to play with.

  6. From a media and PR point of view it is interesting to see how companies can distribute messages to a larger group of people (althought early adopters and fans might be intended) WITHOUT using traditional media channels. In this case it was done bypassing the traditional media filter of information.

  7. Well written Ewan. Still I wonder if the same strategy of bypassing traditional media could ever work for a company which has not “fanatics” among their current client base. Nokia has long been in the market and has built reputation. Also their attributed with mobile livestyle. But what if you have to setup a brand from scratch?

  8. Well written Ewan. Still I wonder if the same strategy of bypassing traditional media could ever work for a company which has not “fanatics” among their current client base. Nokia has long been in the market and has built reputation. Also their attributed with mobile livestyle. But what if you have to setup a brand from scratch?

  9. Well written Ewan. Still I wonder if the same strategy of bypassing traditional media could ever work for a company which has not “fanatics” among their current client base.

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