Nokia tries to win back customers with fancy holographic ads

By Joshua Pramis March 12, 2013

Once the undisputed ruler of the mobile world, but now struggling to stay relevant, Nokia has shown us that it’s not going to give up without putting up a fight. First, at this year’s Mobile World Congress, it debuted its newest series of budget-friendly smartphones, which may end up selling for less than $200.

Now, as reported earlier by Ubergizmo, the company has launched, at least in one location, an innovative new advertising installation. Set up inside a mall at some unknown Eastern European location, and meant to help promote the Nokia Lumia 920, the campaign starts by decorating the mall’s elevators – traditional and snoozy – and then steps it up by throwing a hologram into the mix.

Yes, that’s right. A hologram.

It’s a pretty brilliant stunt on Nokia’s part and, based on the video (which we’ve embedded below), really drew passersby in. They could have easily plopped down a display case with an actual model of the phone, but something tells us that wouldn’t have gotten the same reaction. Let’s be real here. How many times have you gone out of your way to bypass the pushy salespeople at mobile kiosks? Even the biggest tech enthusiast won’t stop unless actually in the market for a new phone.

But throw in a 3D holographic rendering of the phone — and ditch the salespeople — and it’s a whole different story. There’s just something about a hologram that lures a person in. It could be a nostalgic throwback to childhood shows depicting a future chockfull of them. Or maybe it’s just a nod to Trekkies that the holodeck may actually be on the horizon.

Whatever it is, it worked. Nokia’s going to need a lot of holograms to take back its number one market position from Samsung, though.

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Nokia’s Lumia 920 replacement, codename Catwalk, could be supermodel thin

The Nokia Lumia 920 is a great looking phone, and thanks to its solid construction and hefty weight, it could easily double as the type of hammer that would make Thor a bit jealous. However, such devices aren’t for everyone, and in a market where most other manufacturers are continually working towards thinner and lighter phones, its robustness could be seen as a disadvantage.
According to sources speaking to The Verge, this could all change when Nokia introduces its next Lumia range, as the company may move away from using polycarbonate and adopt aluminum instead. This would enable it to make the phone considerably slimmer than before, and for the device to shed more than a few grams in weight too. The report specifically mentions the Catwalk, which could be Nokia’s codename for the Lumia 920 replacement, as being the prime candidate for an aluminum chassis - a name which hints at the potentially incredibly svelte dimensions of the device.
Nokia has used aluminum to construct phones in the past, so it has some experience in the matter. However, when Apple transitioned from the glass iPhone 4S to anodized aluminum panels on the iPhone 5, it caused the company several headaches, including complaints the material scratches too easily.
While the outside of the phone sounds like it will undergo a considerable change, the internals are said to remain virtually identical, meaning the 920’s sequel could still have the same 1.5GHz dual-core chip, 4.5-inch HD touchscreen and 8-megapixel camera. As the Lumia 920 has only just gone on sale, it’s unlikely we’ll see its successor just yet, despite Mobile World Congress being just around the corner. Instead, a separate event closer to the Lumia 920’s first anniversary is more logical, except, if we’re only talking about a visual redesign, there’s a chance it could come sooner. Also, when - and indeed, if - it does arrive, it’s rumored to be accompanied by another two Lumia phones, presumably to replace the Lumia 820 and Lumia 620.

Mobile

Nokia ad takes a swipe at the iPhone for, of all things, its lack of color options

nokia ad takes a swipe at iphone for of all things lack color options lumia 920

We never really believed that availability in a range of colors could ever be the deal breaker when it comes to choosing a new smartphone, but according to a new TV ad from Nokia, it appears to be the case.

The Finnish mobile maker has just launched a new ad for its recently-unveiled Lumia 920 smartphone that takes a swipe at the iPhone for its lack of color options. Seriously.
The 60-second animation, viewable below, is, until about halfway through, a rather downbeat, colorless affair (yes, it’s all very deliberate), with its nighttime cityscape setting and solemn soundtrack. A line of identical-looking people enter what is obviously meant to be an Apple store, hand over their cash and receive a smartphone with a large number “5” showing on the screen. When one customer hesitates to take his new phone from the Apple employee and utters a guttural “color?”, all hell breaks loose, with the employee looking like he’s about to smash up his own store and attack everyone inside it (though he doesn’t, of course).
We then cut to the scene outside – yes, the music livens up and suddenly the ad is awash with color as lots of people walk by using their colorful Lumia 920 smartphones.
Could it be the case that Nokia based the ad on the results of market research? Did it discover that more than screen size, battery life, photographic capability, app availability, weight and dimensions and overall user experience, it’s the color that matters most? Or perhaps this is just the first in a series of ads from the mobile maker, each one picking on a different aspect of a rival device.
It’s certainly an altogether different kind of ad in terms of style and content to Samsung’s Apple-bashing ones for its Galaxy S3 smartphone. But will it be effective? Do you know anyone that bought a smartphone because “I couldn’t get the iPhone in red”?
The Lumia 920 was unveiled in New York last month. The Windows Phone 8 device comes with a 4.5-inch screen, a dual-core 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S4 chip and 32GB of onboard memory. It also sports an 8.7-megapixel PureView camera capable of shooting 1080p video, a forward-facing 1.2-megapixel camera, and is capable of wireless charging. But here’s the important bit – it comes in yellow, red, gray, black and white.
What do you think of Nokia's approach to marketing its new phone? Persuasive?

Mobile

Nokia ad takes a swipe at iPhone ahead of Lumia 900 launch

nokia ad takes a swipe at iphone ahead of lumia 900 launch

With the launch of Nokia’s eagerly awaited Lumia 900 smartphone almost upon us, it seems that the company is wasting little time in trying to persuade consumers that there is indeed an alternative to Apple’s iPhone.
A humorous ad campaign, which despite any direct references to Nokia nevertheless appears to be the work of the Finnish smartphone company, features three videos, all of which indirectly but rather obviously target the iPhone.
The videos begin with a voiceover: “If you ever thought that maybe your smartphone wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, that’s because it wasn’t. In this recently obtained, never-before-seen footage, we go behind the scenes to get the rest of the story.” On screen we see a pixellated smartphone that looks remarkably like the iPhone.
In the Death Grip video (check it out below), we find ourselves in a small office, with three people sitting around a desk. It’s 2010, and one of the guys at the desk is wondering why all the signal bars on his phone have disappeared. “That’s because you’re holding it wrong,” says the other guy, in a clear reference to Apple’s so-called antennagate episode. “Shouldn’t I be able to hold it however I want?” retorts the guy with the phone. “Use the approved grip,” the woman shoots back.
The second video has the same guy saying that the phone’s screen washes out in the sun. “People can just stay inside,” the woman says dismissively. The phone’s fragility is the subject of the third skit — a study in 2010 appeared to show that the screen of the iPhone 4 was more likely to break than its predecessor, the 3GS.
The videos appear on The Smartphone Beta Test website, which also has on its main page a video showing former Saturday Night Live comedian Chris Parnell sitting restlessly in a chair, waiting for something….the launch of Nokia's new device, perhaps?
The launch of the Lumia 900 Windows Phone handset later this week marks Nokia’s big return to the US high-end smartphone market, and it’s evidently keen to get in early as far as taking a swipe at the competition is concerned.
For Apple, it’s not the first time it’s been the target of a rival’s ad campaign. Late last year Samsung made fun of Apple devotees in an ad for its Galaxy S II device.