Results and Effectiveness

“Nokia Indiafest” accomplished the unprecedented feat of bringing together 2400 colleges! Over 50000+ college kids registered on the official website and 24,000 downloaded the customized mobile application. Novelty of the RFID wrist-bands created huge excitement among college students and they used it continuously to update their Facebook resulting in 59,000 Facebook updates from 6000+ participants in 2 days of the event. Assuming an average of 300 friends per participant on the friend list, the multiplier effect was to the tune of 18 Million! Brand preference in the 15-24 age bracket grew by 5% (Source:TNS)

Creative Execution

“Nokia Indiafest” combined the best of real and virtual worlds! Talent competitions were held across 2400 universities in 28 cities from which 700 participants were chosen. Others were given the opportunity to be a part of the fest through an exclusive ‘Nokia Earn Your Right’ program through which points could be earned through various contests and purchases made at Nokia retail and online stores. 4200+ youth assembled in GOA for the event! Unique RFID technology enabled wrist-bands captured the Facebook details of each individual at the event, allowing instant posting on their wall feeds through electronic receiver boxes at the event. These receivers were pre-loaded with descriptions of each event. The moment a participant swiped the wrist-band on the box, his/her Facebook status would be updated with the event update! For instance “Kingshuk is watching Skazi perform @ Nokia Indiafest!” or “Mausumi is digging into Prawn Balchau @ Nokia Indiafest”.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Nokia was perceived as boring and outdated and its relationship with youth was deteriorating. The biggest challenge was to get Indian youth back to the Nokia fold. Paid media doesn’t operate in the ‘hub and spoke’ model of sharing and is often preachy so it doesn’t resonate with youth. To identify a suitable platform, Nokia undertook recourse to Focus Group study among youth to study platforms that drive persuasion/motivation. While SPORTS were high on recall & MUSIC on entertainment, both lacked the ‘motivation’ which was largely driven by platforms where youth can carve their own identity. Among Indian youth, college festivals are the biggest stage to showcase their talent and create their identities and Facebook the yardstick to measure their popularity and gain social currency. Nokia created a platform combining the power of college festivals and Facebook to create “Nokia Indiafest”, the biggest on-ground college fest transmitted LIVE to Facebook.