Nokia’s first TV commercial – will it convince the masses?

By Tom Warren, on 27th Oct 11 4:26 pm with 57 Comments

Nokia’s first TV commercial will start to air shortly, but will it convince the masses?

“The Amazing Everyday” is Nokia’s grand focus on its massive marketing campaign this holiday season. Its first TV commercial will air in the UK shortly and is aimed at those in their twenties. The handset maker has been teasing its Lumia series of Windows Phones for the past couple of weeks on UK national TV. Nokia has now started to take over websites, newspapers and TV screens in a massive advertising blitz. Nokia appears to be spending Microsoft’s £20 million ($31 million) of funding wisely to promote their new Windows Phone 7.5 devices. The colorful and enticing adverts are a stark contrast to Microsoft’s first attempts to woo Windows Phone customers last year (video) which failed to impress average consumers.

London independent agency Inferno Group is behind Nokia’s launch campaign for its Windows Phones. The company is producing materials for Europe whilst Nokia searches for a U.S. marketing team in preparation for a launch in early 2012. Ad Age managed to obtain a copy of the brief where Nokia is focused on an “Amazing Everyday” marketing approach. “Hidden away in the everyday landscape are billions of little adventures,” the brief says. “And the new Nokia with Windows Phone makes it easier to find them, to take part in them and to share them.” Nokia’s approach brings a cool feel to Windows Phone and will drive a strong awareness amongst smartphone customers this holiday season.

Do I think it will convince the masses? Maybe not initially but the awareness it will create and the “cool” factor could see more people consider Windows Phones this holiday season. It’s going to be a difficult proposition against already established iPhone and Android devices, especially given the similar prices points, but this is just the beginning of a marketing campaign that will run globally and that Nokia hopes will allow it to win over the U.S. market. The important thing that Nokia brings to the Windows Phone table is the impressive reach, brand and hardware. The marketing campaign has no chance of failing either way, awareness is a powerful thing.

  • Anonymous

    its never a difficult proposition when a market is already saturated with androids and iphones.
    natural human instincts would push some people to try something new and different…

    thats only if they know there’s something new and different out there (hint: ads )

  • http://twitter.com/JoshMartin7 Josh Martin

    I like the swishiness of the first half of the commerical. Same feeling from Windows Phone UI as I switch from app to app.

  • http://twitter.com/eldiablopotato eldiablopotato

    Really different video (in a good way).  Microsoft should hire Nokia’s video marketing team.

  • Guest

    I have no idea what this advertisement is about.Is it about making ham and eggs?Is it about rowing on a chair at work?Is it about cleaning?Is it about sailing?I just don’t know.

    • Anonymous

      The ad is about doing things different. Sort of like: “Don’t be another average person doing average things. (read: stop buying iPhones and Android that you see on every corner). Do something unique, something special. Windows Phone 7 on Nokia is different from others. Buy different. Be different.”..

      Sort of like that.

    • Penta2100

      I want to own a windows phone so I can be the first at school with something new

  • J A

    These commercials are more of the same rubbish commercials that Microsoft seems to dish out. Ads that do not show any of the phone’s everyday user experience. If I did not know WP, this ad does nothing for me to know it especially since the phone only shows up at the end. Can’t they just leanr from iPhone ads, why is it so hard?

    • Tuxplorer

      Maybe geeky people on this website who don’t care about human emotion won’t like these ads, and are only interested in Gigahertz, Megapixels and Gigabytes. REAL people in the REAL world want to see how a product will affect their everyday lives. These ads capture that pretty well.

    • Anonymous

      It’s similar to the ipod commercial showing shadows dancing and about the only thing you saw of the product was the wire from the headphones. Still showing a few people using the product would have been nice.

  • Anonymous

    Again, with the stupid series of people doing stupid things and in the end we see a phone.

    If I wasn’t on this site and saw this on TV, I would have no idea what it is selling, beer for all I know. JUST SHOW THE PHONE, SHOW A FEATURE = SALES. JESUS, ITS NOT THAT HARD.

    • http://profiles.google.com/carlosrfonseca Carlos Ribeiro da Fonseca
    • http://twitter.com/goofbox Ramanan

      awesome ad! :)

    • Brad

      Looks like they catered for both audiences: the tech lovers and the average consumers :P

    • Anonymous

      It is completely pointless to show features or specs, for us geeks it’s normal to see specs, all we want to see are specs.  But average consumer will find that kind of ad boring, that consumer needs something unique, something fun to watch. Do you ever see Mercedes or Audi show an ad with specs, features and safety specs? NO. You see these cars driving around, driver doing some stunts, etc. They never show any specs of the car. This is the same here.

      Showing an ad only with specs will not work on average consumers. Your average consumer doesn’t give a crap and doesn’t understand what 512MB RAM means, he doesn’t know what Carl Zeiss is, therefore these consumers need flashing lights, fun music and strange videos.

      If they show the phone, consumers will see it and lose interest. But if you give them just a glimpse, that consumer as any other human being will become interested to see the phone completely so he will go to a store and this is where sales people sell it down his throat. It’s all about getting a consumer into a store.

      This is marketing at its best.

    • Anonymous

      Let’s Hope So.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KTAHVKS2RNDWTQPHQEJALLRNEQ Adam Paris

      You have been owned.

    • Anonymous

      I agree with Visionov on this one.  He wasn’t talking about showing specs like 512MB of RAM.  He was talking about showing off the beautiful UI and show how easy it is to do stuff, like take a photo and share it on Facebook.  People will respond better to that than a nonsensical collage of life.  This commercial made no sense to me.

    • COlden

      It’s far more important to create an emotional attachment to the product and brand. You’re not in marketing that’s for sure.

    • Anonymous

      @1ffa968833eca3cf6976e9efdc0a9b15:disqus Oh bull shit.  MS tried that emotional attachment crap before and it didn’t produce diddly squat.  For Windows 7 they changed direction and showed the OS and its features.  Guess what.  Windows 7 is the best selling OS in history.

    • Anonymous

      And no I am not in marketing.  I am rather proud of that because 90% of commercials I see make no sense and are a huge waste of money.

    • Anonymous

      Forgot to add, In those car commercials, its obvious its a car commercial, with me seeing the car over and over again driving around in circles even. Now compare your analogy to this commercial again, side by side.

    • COlden

      Car commercials are all about stirring emotions, because driving from A to B is not an accomplishment. You want people to feel for their products! They have to associate the product with something positive and that’s what Nokia is doing here! You probably don’t get people in general.

    • Anonymous

      I agree, it is an awesome ad, this is what Microsoft has been failing to do, connecting to people, without being silly. Money worth spent imo. Kudos to Nokia.

    • Anonymous

      I agree.  Very few specs are in Android ads.  Instead I almost always think I am watching some new movie trailer with the chick sword fighting, etc… and those ads appear to be working very well.

    • Anonymous

      Couldnt have said it any better. The target audience we are shooting for is the avergae individual that doesnt know what the specs mean within the device. Package a solid LOOKING device and most people jump over backwards for it as a must have. i for one enjoyed the commercial and thought it was different. That thought of difference carries over to the visual of the OS and the hardware they flash at the end. Builds intrigue.

    • Guest

      I assume that will come. The first goal has to be to lay the groundwork that iPhone/Android=the herd, while Nokia/WP7 = those who want something different. This ad did a credible job of that until the lame voice at the end. It’s not brilliant, but it’s okay.

    • Anonymous

      The ad is meant to sell the lifestyle.

    • Anonymous

      my man you are wrong!

    • ChimpSafari

      European advertising and American advertising are very different. Judging by the ads I saw in the US, what you’re saying works over there but it certainly doesn’t over here. You really have to sell a lifestyle in Europe, some sort of joy and happiness that you think you’ll get because you felt it in the ad. Compare an American-made car ad where they show a car and detail some specs, to a European made ad like the Nissan Juke that’s totally surreal but tugs on some emotional strings.

      I know this ad will work because one of my macbook toting non-techy friends told me about the new phone he was getting (the Nokia Lumia 800) even though he couldn’t tell me anything about it. At least we can be assured that the phone experience lives up to the marketing.

    • Syrious

      oh you mean like the shitty JayLo fiat commercial, sure chicks dancing on cars works to sell them. /sarcasm

  • Anonymous

    I like it.. I think that its doing what Nokia wants, attracting the young adults (even the youngster in the oldsters). And with the in-store displays that they showed yesterday, they are going to get attract attention. When people see the 800, they are going fall in lust on the spot; especially the people that love having cool looking stuff, and when people find out the quality of the WP7 software it’s going to just increase demand.

  • Adam

    cant wait to see what apollo will bring, hopefully this
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuu7ZnyWrJA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

    • Collins

      Loved it! Thank you. Microsoft has always been a lot more innovative than we give them credit for.

  • OMG55

    Just posted the following at @belfiore on twitter, “What was that Nokia commercial about? Because I had no idea it was about a phone…..Another one bytes the dust….I could have done better

    “C’Mon man” Joe Belfiore, you’re the manager for WP7….This is rediculous; Get real marketing geneous on this thing. Didn’t we hire some guy from Disney????? Hi-Ho, They must Go” (current marketing firm). Is it me or do you thing they confurred with Nokia on this? you would thing that he had some input. If so, he may have good vision on the OS, but not marketing

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KTAHVKS2RNDWTQPHQEJALLRNEQ Adam Paris

      You people are so funny. MS is not responsible for any advertisement. So stop asking Joe Belfiore. And i think this ad is very good. 

    • OMG55

      He’s in charge of the device and wouldn’t have any say at all in how it’s marketed? I don’t think so, he’s the one who know what message he wanted the device to convey to people when they see it. So IMO he should have plenty of input on how it’s marketed to ensure the proper message gets out.

    • Guest

      He does product def and design. I don’t think he has anything to do with marketing directly. The person you want to tweet that to is either Andy Lees (the overall person in charge) or Brandon Watson (the evangelist guy). But I think you’re jumping the gun a bit. As an ice breaker to *start* the conversation, I think this works. Nokia has to recast itself with the public. You don’t just jump into that with a product demo.

    • OMG55

      Okay, I looked a the commercial a couple more times and see their point. It”s the message MS has been pushing, “Put People First”. It showing people doing things and end the end, its the put into the phone where if you have a WP7, you can keep up with what your friends, family, etc are doing. But we must also show the productivity side of the phone. Maybe it will be a series of commercials that will deliver a different message about the phone each time. Anyway has anyone heard the good new??? Nokia score one of WebOS to developers for HP…..This means he becomes and asset to work on future WP7 improvements…….SCORE!!!!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/travisbrowny Travis Brown

    I absolutely love it. It grabs my attention. To those saying “just show the phone and what it could do,” keep in mind that Android began becoming popular with the masses only after the subliminal Verizon ads. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9u8gMWrzUs

    • Anonymous

      I guess you have a point there.  The Droid commercials never showed off the crappy UI, other than shots of the HTC Sense home screen.

  • http://techin5.com Jubbin Grewal @Techin5.com

    What’s annoying is they never say new Nokia Lumia WITH Windows Phone (7). They need that word out, otherwise people will just start saying, hey that’s a new Nokia phone and have no idea it’s a WP7 device. Probably think it’s Android or something. Ignorance is not bliss.

    • ReturningToNokia

      @jubbin grewal…They don’t need to say new Nokia Lumia WITH Windows Phone.  Nokia is a brand – all they need to say is the new Nokia Lumia.

      People are going to pick this up, if for nothing else, because of the Nokia name; getting the Windows Phone OS is just icing on the cake!

    • Anonymous

      Honestly, that may be a plus, at least right now. A lot of people seem to have a VERY negitive view of Microsoft, and if you hit them in the face right off the bat that its “Windows”, a number are going to glaze over the fact that its Phone and not Mobile. Windows Phone is unlike anything that Microsoft has ever produced, people just need to see how good it is, and this will help a lot.

  • http://twitter.com/oolong2 oolong2

    I’m convinced.

    Sincerely,

    The Masses

    • http://www.winrumors.com Tom W

      haha :)

  • Todd

    I think this was an amazing ad.  For those that are seemingly displeased about it (Visionov, J A, Guest), you have to understand what it is to market.  To simply show a phone (as one suggested) along with a feature would bore us to tears.  That is so old-school.  This is not an attack, but defense of what I think is a good ad.Look what they did… they show unusual, non-everyday actions by people trying to be non-ordinary.  Then they say “who says everyday has to be so… everyday?”.  Then they show all of the amazing things we think are fun to watch (I do anyway).  Then they put all those amazing experiences into Windows Phone tiles and show the phone, saying “Experience the ‘amazing’ everyday.  The new Nokia Lumina.”  They are implying you can have the “extraordinary” with this new phone.One has to look at what sells.. people want to do the fun things that were shown.  At least, they want to do the extraordinary.  To be different.  To show a phone and say “tada!  here! a cool phone.. lookie the features!” would simply be boring.  I can read about the features online or go into the store and see it.  That is the goal.. to get you up and into a store to see it.. and buy it.  They want to pique your curiosity.To Nokia regarding this ad, I say.. brilliant!

  • Anonymous

    This comercial grabs peoples attention what is this Nokia phone etc then they look it up and go to the website and all the phone features are there. I bet the goal for this comercial is to get people to find out what the Nokia Windows phone is and search it up

  • Anonymous

    Great commercial. I had some issues with earlier WP ads but lately they have been more concentrated on the human element. Like Apple they focus on the features and the human element. Android, they are all over the place especially Verizon Droid ones, some of those are down right spooky and make me want to watch a Sci-Fi flick.

  • Anonymous

    somebody who is into marketing answer me. has the IQ of the profession dropped to the point these people don’t even understand that they are trying to sell a product, not create a short film?

    The reason apple marketing works is because they don’t make movies, they make ads to sell things.

    this is hopeless.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KTAHVKS2RNDWTQPHQEJALLRNEQ Adam Paris

      Apple doesnt make any Ads. Apple just sells because of its name. 

      ANd you clearly dont understand anything about marketing.

    • Anonymous

      If you’re into marketing and you’re defending this ad, you prove my point :) . If you’re not, then whatever ;P

  • Anonymous

    I really like the tag line – The Amazing Everyday!  And I like this commercial too – it has people doing a lot of cool and different ’effects’, and you WANT to watch just to see what they are doing!  I like the other ad too – with the flashing tiles.

    Personally, I think it would be cool if we could see these spots in the U.S. as well when the Nokia WP devices launch, but they would have to trim them down to 30 seconds.

  • Anonymous

    love it… MS needs to focus on more feature specific ads… the combo would be great…Frame a problem question to the user:”Do your friends want you to play Xbox but its date night with the wife?”Then solve the problem in a way that only MS has to offer:

    “With Xbox on Windows Phone you can take your games and friend with you! *Husband and wife sit in a movie theater with popcorn between them. Husband coyly checks his Games Hub notifications. Takes his turn. Puts his phone back in his pocket in between his wife watching the movie and reaching for more popcorn*Basic sales… which I think MS forgets that is what advertisements are about… I think MS believes they are about company image… partly true… but also very much about. you have a problem you didn’t even know about and we can solve it for you

    • OMG55

      It would be comical yet appealing…great idea, now put it into action like Brandon Foy; put on you tube and let it go viral.

  • Bradders

    What’s the music!?

    I personally like the ad and I think it makes a nice aspirational point and ties WP7/Nokia to being ‘extraordinary’; but more than anything I loved the music… any ideas what it is?

  • Anonymous

    If the phone’s great ….. yes

  • Dalgarven

    Orange sell phones, but have you ever seen an Orange ad that featured a phone? Nothing wrong with this Ad, just some peoples attitude towards it.