Table of Contents 6 2012 OVATION Awards Winning Entries

OVATION Awards Winning Entry
Communication Management
Media Relations with budget greater than $50,000 up to $100,000
AWARD OF MERIT
Entrant’s Name: Laura Jeffery
Organization: Nokia Canada and Ketchum Public Relations Canada
Division and Category: Division 1, Category 4b: Media Relations with a budget greater than $50K up to $100k
Title of Entry: Launch of the Nokia N8 smartphone in Canada
Time Period of Project: September 2010 – December 2010
Brief Description: In November 2010, Ketchum created and managed a launch program on behalf of Nokia Canada
to introduce the Nokia N8 smartphone to the Canadian market. The program consisted of a national media
relations strategy and a launch event, strategically targeting technology and lifestyle media, bloggers and social
media influencers and achieving more than 23,000,000 impressions within a two month period.
1. Business Need or Opportunity:
In November of 2010, Nokia was planning to launch the Nokia N8 smartphone. Globally, the Nokia N8
was being labeled as the company’s flagship mobile device. The Nokia N8 was positioned as an
entertainment device that boasted the best still camera (12 megapixels) and video camera (HD)
available in the market. The Nokia N8 was similar to many other smartphones in the market, but what
made it stand out was its sleek and stylish hardware, camera and video functionality as well as Nokia’s
proprietary navigation service, Ovi Maps.
While the Nokia N8 was the most anticipated phone to come out of the company in recent years, the
Nokia brand faced a struggle in the North American market. With Apple iPhone products gaining mass
appeal and the surging popularity of Android‐based mobile phones, Nokia’s once stable position as the
world’s leading mobile phone manufacturer was faltering. This decline in popularity was not unnoticed
by the Canadian technology media who had become increasingly skeptical about Nokia’s operating
system, Symbian. Although Nokia did not expect to change perception with the launch of the Nokia N8,
the company did want to use the launch to demonstrate its innovation and leadership in developing
hardware, imaging and navigation technology.
Ketchum leveraged consumer market research conducted by Nokia, which indicated that consumers still
viewed Nokia as an innovator in developing beautiful phones. While consumers had a negative view of
Nokia’s operating system, they still considered Nokia as the leader in developing hardware. Factoring
these insights into the program, Ketchum developed a media relations strategy that focused on the
phones differentiators: its sleek design, the 12 megapixel camera and HD video capabilities. The
program included a launch event and a national media relations campaign targeting national technology
and lifestyle media, bloggers and social media influencers.
The Nokia N8 launch program had a budget of $58,000 in fees and $39,250 in out of pocket expenses,
for a total budget of $97,250.
2. Intended Audiences:
Ketchum leveraged Nokia’s global segmentation research, which provides insight into Nokia’s 13 distinct
customer segments. Based on this consumer research, the Nokia N8 was targeted at technology stylists
and technology leaders. The research pointed to some common themes among both groups: