Results and Effectiveness

“Nokia Indiafest” accomplished the unprecedented feat of bringing together 2400 colleges! Over 50,000+ 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. 6000+ 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 has been a laggard in terms of introducing product innovations, being the last entrant for all the product innovations in recent times. Youth want the latest and coolest as they fear losing their social currency among their peer group. Nokia was perceived as boring and outdated and youth had moved out of the Nokia fold. The biggest challenge for Nokia was to get youth back to the Nokia fold. Youth want to create distinct identities for themselves and stand out. 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 “Indiafest”, the biggest on-ground college fest transmitted live to Facebook, empowering Indian youth to carve out their identity. It integrated the on-ground festival with the virtual world of Facebook.