Nokia is doing an absolutely fantastic job using the power of the internet to promote their products. I’ve had the pleasure of partying it up with their word of mouth marketing team in London at the Go Play event, having a few beers with the Multimedia eMarketing Manager here in Helsinki and more recently I’ve been reading about the adventures and shenanigans that happened in Los Angeles a few days ago at a bloggers only event.
Something that got me thinking was the fact that the bloggers, in either public on their site or in private with me, have said they were disappointed that no new products were released even though there are rumors circulating on the net about the N82 and the next generation Internet Tablet. How you can be disappointed after being flown to an event in LA and get boozed up on Nokia’s coin is beyond me, but I can (barely) see their point. Why did Nokia bring them there?
Nokia wanted to say thank you to the people on the edge of the internet, the people who blog and evangelize Nokia products, but I challenge Nokia to take their efforts one step higher. Forget about an official press release, forget about a public event, why not invite these very same people who champion your products here to Finland. Get them in a room with a device and a few of the people who worked on it and let the bloggers break the news for you.
When rumors that Dell would release a Tablet PC leaked onto the net, guess what they did? Dell got the product manager of the yet-to-be-released computer to make a video and then post it on the official Dell blog. If that isn’t adopting social media, I don’t know what is. I challenge Nokia to do the same thing.
We all know a raft of Nokia products will be announced at both CES and 3GSM, the official press is going to be at both of these events. Why not let the bloggers get the scoop, let CEO Olli Pekka Kallasvuo stand on stage and introduce the products to the official press and then quote what we, the bloggers, had to say about it.
It may be unorthodox, but then again you forget that I’m nuts. I moved to Finland to make it my mission to connect the people who make Nokia products with the people who love (and hate) using them and are consistently expressing their views on the net.
[image is of Seth Godin talking about his “Flipping the Funnel” concept which you can read about here and download his free eBook on the topic here]
Update: Death of the Press Release, read it.