Nokia’s Unlocked Campaign
There’s been much fanfare on the intertubes lately about Nokia’s "new" Unlocked campaign. First off, it’s not new. It’s been going on in NYC for a while now. I believe I reported back on it in May. It’s only expanding to San Francisco and Los Angeles now. So what’s it all about? It’s about finally doing what I’ve suggested Nokia do for a while - educating the American consumer.
Education is a hard thing to do through marketing, especially when it’s educating against someone else’s marketing (carriers, Apple, etc). I believe that the US market is prime for Nokia’s Nseries devices. The craving for a device that can offer more than a regular phone is shown by the success of the iPhone, and the recent massive surge in music phones offered by the carriers. One Nokia employee summed it up to me like this: Nokia focuses on music because it reaches EVERYONE. There’s not a single person on the planet that doesn’t like *some* type of music.
That’s going to be the key to Nokia’s music store. They
emphasized at the London Go Play event that the Nokia Music Store’s
purpose is to be able to eventually offer every music track on the
planet. That’s a lofty goal, but it’s right in line. They want to help
you get to anything and everything.
So anyways, this unlocked campaign. It’s obviously a big play on the
word "unlocked." For one, as you can see on the Nseries website, it’s
unlocking phones and partnering with retailers to sell the phones
without a contract, and without being tied to the carrier at all. Just
like buying a CD player. For retailers, it’s an awesome program to get
into. Their entire listing is shown on the Nokia Nseries website, which
is advertised heavily in the New York Times and USA Today. That’s big
stuff.
For consumers, they’re conveying the cool things you can do once you’ve
unlocked the potential of your "mobile phone." This part is tricky,
cause they’re not talking about Nokia handsets. Nokia’s trying to shift
people’s minds from getting a "mobile phone" to unlocking the
capabilities of what these devices can do. It’s a paradigm shift for
most consumers, to really open up to the idea of checking email on your
mobile phone. Or getting location-based search results. Or taking
pictures that you’d be proud to print off. Or taking videos that rival
most cheap video cameras.
For other manufacturers, Nokia is unlocking the unlocked handset
market. It’s always been there, though up till recently, it was limited
to ebay and those shady mall kiosks hawking phones. It most certainly
was not a mainstream activity until lately. For Nokia to succeed,
they’re going to need other manufacturers to help with the education
process, as well. Apple has inadvertently done so with the iPhone.
They’ve also shown how ruthless a manufacturer/carrier relationship can
be. Nokia is stepping in to say, "Hey, it doesn’t have to be that
nasty. Let’s unlock the potential."
One thing that I’ve said and heard said all over is that technology
should enrich and enable our lives, not hinder it. I mean, that’s what
even the simplest mobile phone is designed to do, right? It’s designed
to enrich our lives by giving us contact with anyone and everyone,
wherever we’re at. It’s designed to untether us and allow us to live
our lives without sacrificing any connectivity with others. Mobile
phones, since the original bag phones, have evolved to do those same
tasks of enriching and enabling, for other functions in our lives.
With cameraphones, our lives are enriched because we can easily capture
and share moments with anyone, anywhere in the world. The same for
phones that can take videos. I know that I use this feature on my N95
at least 4-5 times a week. Rather than send someone a boring text
message, I’ll shoot them a quick little video. It’s only 30 seconds,
but it’s much more fun to get that than it would to get a cold bunch of
text.
Moving into music and gaming, it’s more of the same. We’re able to
enjoy things we enjoy, without being tethered to the wall. This is the
idea behind Nokia’s "Fourth Screen" video that gives me goosebumps
everytime I see it. As someone who has lived this lifestyle for a few
years now, it’s amazing to see it stylized and targeted towards other
than just fanboys and geeks. That’s why I’m so excited about this.
Enter Ovi. Ovi is part of Nokia’s unlocked plans, and a vital part. Ovi
is going to be the bridge that will help people move slowly from being
tied to their desktop and all these different destinations to a single
place where they can connect and share. The most important part of Ovi
is that you can use it to pull in destinations you already have.
Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, whatever else. Ovi allows you to connect all
those. Actually, more accurately is that Ovi is supposed to let you do
all that. I suppose I shouldn’t say it does until I have seen it with
my eyes. As of right now we only have PR hype.
So let’s recap. Nokia’s unlocked campaign did the best thing first, and
that’s go to the most tech-savvy and image-conscious markets in the
country - NYC and LA/San Francisco. Brilliant. I realize that I was
calling for an all-out nationwide blitz, but this is, admittedly, MUCH
better. Second, they’re *finally* thumbing their nose at the carriers,
but only for their high-end Nseries lineup. I’m ok with that, really.
Those non-S60 phones like the recently launched 6555 need the carrier
backing to compete in the marketplace. Nseries don’t. At all.
They’re unlocking the potential of these multimedia computers in the
minds of consumers. When I tell people the things I’m able to do easily
on my N95, they’re astonished. Astonished, but also excited, because
typically, they want to be able to do the same things! It’s awesome to
see this sort of thing really taking off. A year ago, when I started
dating Christina, she had a Sanyo 8200, which she knew only as her
Sprint flip phone. The biggest thrill of that phone, to her, was the
stupid little polar bear that roamed her screens. She now knows that
she used to have the Nokia N73, and now carries the N75. She uses her
phone as an MP3 player when she runs, and using iTunes Agent, puts her
own music on there. She takes pictures, and sends me video clips
randomly. Tonite, I’m setting her up with Nokia Maps, so she won’t call
me for directions anymore. Such a short time, and she’s learned so
much, and asks me all the time what else this little phone of hers can
do!
I was talking to Ollywompus recently and he said he’s never been as
excited about what a company is doing than he is about Nokia right now,
and I think that’s absolutely true. Nokia is moving from a handset
manufacturer to a lifestyle, and I can’t wait to help more people live
it.
i don’t disagree with anything you said, but we really have to wait until the end of this calender year to see if these ads had any impact at all.
Unless they can start charging subsidized prices for phones, this isn’t going to matter one bit.
People see phones as commodity items, and I’m glad you mentioned music. It wasn’t until MP3 players became affordable that people really started buying them in large quantities. The most popular iPod? The Nano. The reasons are obvious.
Only a very select few are going to drop 700 on a N95… a new computer costs that much! Nokia desperately, dearly, somehow, someway has to come up with a good low to mid end phone that’s affordable. And to date, they just haven’t been able to nail that formula.
JC - That’s the thing. Nokia’s NOT targeting everyone with this campaign, or with their devices. Those people that are price-sensitive can still pick up a 6555 from AT&T for $30. No big deal.
This campaign is targeting high-end users, techies, and other people who aren’t afraid to spend a little dough. There will be crossovers, but that’s not who this is targeted towards.
Price isn’t a concern to this section of the market, and that’s obvious by the number of iPhones sold. I’m NOT comparing the N95 to the iPhone. I’m saying that there’s a PHONE that people were OK with dropping $5-600 on. So there’s obviously a market for it.
Nokia’s not trying to sell a massive amount of S60 devices with this campaign. They already sell PLENTY. They’re trying to move the Nseries brand and lifestyle to the top level of consumers, those movers and shakers that other people eventually watch and listen to.
Nokia’s not looking for massive sales. They’re looking for inroads, and I think they’ve nailed that formula head-on.
Ricky,
If I’m a high end user, why wouldn’t I purchase a N800 (arguably better than any S60 device out there) and pair it up with a very nice feature phone with a good camera?
I’d still end up with hundreds of dollars in my pocket for beer and pizza. And that’s a good thing.
I’ll say it again, Nokia needs to either lower the prices on the high end stuff, or make the low end stuff more compelling.