Nokia no longer with global Ad Agency, Wieden + Kennedy

Yesterday morning in the tabco post, our readers noticed that Wieden+Kennedy, Nokia’s global advertising agency since 2007 as headlines have parted ways.  (Note, you’re seeing this on Saturday as I have to even out the loads on the server 😉 ) Nokia was W+K’s largest client amongst the likes of Nike, Honda, Aiwa, Cravendale, Lurpak, Yakult, Visit Wales and more. More being the awesome Old Spire guy! (That’s not the full list of course)

The first source brandrepublic.com suggested the work would instead be picked up by Fallon (who have carried out an excellent Alice in Wonderland campaign for NBC much like the TabCo folks, no? Also see their slogan, “We Are Fallon”)

The most recent work was just  this Thursday – Nokia Gulp – the largest stop motion shot with a Nokia N8 to which our Sergejs reported on whilst he was on set. We met some folks from W+K last year when they shot (in secret – prior to announcement) clips for Nokia N8 adverts for the campaign, “It’s not technology, it’s what you do with it”. We passed that off as nothing at the time and pretended not to know about the N8. I can’t believe those shots are just from my trusty N82.

I think the Nokia adverts have been OK. Some great ones, but quite a few that left you feeling, well not very much (Success is what you make it? -_-). I’ve often complained about the state of Nokia adverts, lacking directness, too artsy farsty. I’m sure not all can be attributed to W+K.  As Harangue commented, “Nokia’s advertisements were just bad under Wieden Kennedy. They weren’t badly produced or made with a bad idea in mind, but they were too soft and didn’t capture the imagination or interest of people.”

To be fair, they also did well given the handsets they were given. Er, N97.

Here’s a link to some work done by W+K for Nokia.

• http://www.wklondon.com/ourWork/client/9-nokia
• http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/thework/news/1056886/…

Managing director of W+K London,  Neil Christie said, “We leave this partnership with tremendous respect for the Nokia brand”.

Adage reports that Nokia is a top 100 gobal advertiser, with 278.6M USD spent in 2009. As you know there’s a 6 month 130M USD (80M GBP) budget for their “brand repositioning campaign” as Nokia tries to get back on its feet with their new strategy and new portfolio. With Verizon’s Jerri DeVard at the helm of marketing, full force is going to regenerate the Nokia brand. Ovi named services that remain, such as maps have and will transitioned back to the Nokia brand. Nokia’s naming  conventions have been changed again too, with the death of Nseries/Eseries/Xseries/Cseries, returning instead to just numbers.

Who ever is taking charge, I want more boldness again. I want wow. I want this. (BTW, what agency did this ad?) This is just all phone. It takes up most of the ad time. Though this isn’t a TV ad, this looks brilliant.

I get annoyed every time I see Maemo 5 from 2009. 2009. Nokia was already this awesome in 2009. What happened.

Category: Nokia