Nokia were about to launch their first Windows phone, the Nokia Lumia 800. But they faced an uphill battle; dwindling market share, lowest brand awareness ever, and a Windows market penetration of just 3%. It was clear we needed to build scale fast.Research showed that the Lumia 800, with its Windows operating system scored 83%, the highest user interface satisfaction of any smartphone, including the iPhone. Our solution? Create the largest socially empowered advocacy programme ever. The Amazing Collective.Instead of handing devices to influential tech bloggers and praying they wrote something nice about us we decided to turn 1000 ordinary consumers into advocates who would share just how great the Lumia 800 is with their friends and family?Using outreach, Facebook ads, email and nokia.co.uk we drove 23898 people to apply via our Facebook app. Using their extended permissions we employed our social data analytics programme to profile their likes, interests, network size and potential amplification. In this way we were able to invite the 1000 most creative influencers from our pool of ‘everyday folk’ into the programme.Each member of The Collective was personally handed a Nokia Lumia 800 with a preinstalled app on it so that we could seamlessly manage the relationship and connect via Facebook.Each week, we sent missions through the app, challenging The Collective to create three pieces of branded content and share it with their friends. We showcased the most amazing on Facebook and rewarded members with spot prizes and exclusive experiences for participating.The results? Each piece of content shared has the potential to reach 1,687,933 people through the members’ networks. 64% of The Collective have created branded content through the app, helping to generate thousands of positive reviews. 87% of The Collective have said they would recommend the phone to family and friends. In fact, a recent survey revealed that they had already performed 2452 voluntary product demos to friends and family.With the success of The Amazing Collective, Nokia is looking to extend the programme by a further 1500 people in 2012.

Media space was booked on high-profile portals to help generate awareness. We knew people would be checking these websites to snack on news and entertainment during periods of office downtime.We leveraged the fondly recalled Nokia snake game to dramatise the phone’s striking tile-based UI.

The twist was, we had our snake gobble up entertaining videos and images from various webpages. Then, when the game had finished, you could watch all the content within a virtual model of the phone – putting the device at the heart of the experience.

After we screened 20,166 people, The Amazing Collective went live on 28 November 2011. The first brand evangelists were invited to Nokia Lumia Live (featuring deadmau5) to capture and share content on their new devices – the event was viewed over a million times on YouTube in its first week.67% of The Amazing Collective are currently creating three pieces of content a week and spreading it through their social networks.Less than a month after launch:– the program is 1,990% over-subscribed– there are 150% more active users than predicted– 120% more content has been generated than predicted.