Congratulations Nokia, your Keynote was epic, your product was awesome and your people were fantastic.
Today feels like a blur. Did what happen really just happen? I’ve expressed my opinions sporadically on the blog and on twitter but I thought I’d quickly share some of my thoughts before splurging on all the hands on demoes/galleries etc.
You know how much Nokia marketing has irked me. You know how much I will rant endlessly about Nokia’s effectiveness, or lack of it when communicating to an audience via adverts or keynote. I love Nokia’s products, their devices are filled with so much innovation. But I feel let down sometimes when Nokia fails to let others know just how awesome they are. First impressions are important and with most product launches, that first impression comes from your keynote.
We say this many times on the blog, whilst we praise Nokia when they’re doing great things, we also aren’t blind to when things aren’t so great and we make sure we try to let Nokia know. We are Nokia fanboys. We love the things Nokia do, but we also want to see Nokia improve in areas where we feel they could be better.
With the expected launch of the Nokia 1020, I brought some of these concerns and suggestions up in a recent post, wishing Nokia to do what seems to be almost impossible. Make a keynote that does justice to the blood, sweat and tears of the effort, ingenuity and innovation of the teams that make your product.
As I said, it’s all become somewhat of a blur but the gist of the post is that, Nokia achieved that impossibility. I will have to watch the keynote again to assess what bits I really liked, why and other areas to improve to be specific, but man oh man was a great job done today on your presentation. I’m not sure if it’s online yet. Hopefully you got to watch it on the livestream to know what I’m referring to.
Finally! It was rather emotional actually. And it seems I wasn’t the only one.
It almost felt like a great underdog story, and overcoming adversity – at least when it came to the challenges in communicating through keynotes. It means so much more because it’s a topic we’ve called Nokia on time and time again. The disappointment of watching one poor keynote after another understandably gave fears that history would repeat itself yet one more time.
The introduction was superb. We had the same guy who had been narrating the previous videos that took us by surprise and also impressed a lot of our readers. It felt like it was done in the same humble, honest tone that really gave that trust back into Nokia.
http://mynokiablog.com/2013/07/04/nokia-impresses-with-the-latest-lumia-925-zeiss-lens-adverts/
The next bit I remember was the 3D CGI explosive demo of the interconnected parts inside the Nokia Lumia 1020. It just looked epic and it was really impressive. It instantly reminded me of that warm feeling when I first saw the Nokia N900 Maemo promo video which was filled with a huge sense of awe and wonder.
OK, so the intro was done. But who is going to present it? We need the right person for the right job. In the past presenters have been hit or miss. Mostly a miss. Whilst they maybe great in their day to day job at Nokia, presenting needs a different skill. It needs some charisma to be believable, some genuine but appropriate level of enthusiasm, and a manner about them that makes you believe they know what they’re talking about and you can trust them. We’ve always wondered why Stepehen Elop, who is great at talking in interviews, answering Q&As, and presenting to the public about Nokia directions, wasn’t the one presenting Nokia’s major product launches?
Another tick box for Nokia as Stephen Elop appears on stage. But wait, he’s not there in person. Quite impressively he’s there as a 3D hologram of sorts. Very cool.
But why isn’t Stephen there in person? Where is he and who is he going to hand the stage to so that they could introduce the 1020 in person? Uh oh.
Thankfully, the real Stephen Elop emerged on stage.
I’ve lost track of precisely what he said and how he said it but it was extremely well received.
Great delivery, credibility, nice insertion of humour every now and again too.
I’m running out of time as I have to head back down for the after party so I’m going to rush possibly the bits that also deserve to be talked about.
Each feature that Nokia talked about regarding the imaging was presented in a way that the audience could connect with. And boy did the audience wow and applaud. One after another just when I thought Nokia was done, there was that ‘one more thing’ feeling.
As we said before, it’s not merely about chucking words into the air and spouting features. It’s about making the audience understand
- why the feature is there, what problem is there to solve?
- What new added benefit is there to the user?
- How effective is your product at doing it?
- How awesome is it that yours is the only one in the world that can do that!
I felt like it was one of the best keynotes ever. Not just by Nokia standards but by anyone.
It made me feel really proud of Nokia that they seemed to have listened and taken on board where they had flaws and did something about it that exceeded my expectations.
From the xenon flash demo, to zooming in to various parts of the picture, to reframing, to the camera pro demo to the long exposure session to the availability (holy moly, the same  week you can preorder and the same month from announcement you can buy it!!!! Ride the highs of the hype), each bit delivered on explaining clearly and coherently what it was, why it’s here and why it’s awesome (Great work from Juha and Kristina, being the experts on the scene).
Despite the Nokia Lumia 1020 being leaked to the full with hands on videos, pictures, samples from senior execs and full tech specs, I was thoroughly amazed by how Nokia didn’t let that ruin their party. I feel that they still managed to amaze by sharing the experiences that can be had with the imaging on their new kid.
Elop concluded the presentation on a high note. The stage background split in half and almost like a movie (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to be precise) and you saw the Nokia product managers and the Nokia teams in their booths (with servers in the middle with champagne and food and whatnot) with the central line appearing to mimic the layered section of the camera of the 1020.
The folks on the demo areas were fantastic. i’m sorry I cannot talk about them in more detail but you will see when I upload videos (or you can watch videos made by others) that they did a great job there too, in exhibiting first hand what the presentation was talking about.
 
Bravo Nokia, Bravo. Onwards and upwards! Moooar please!
I’m so
About the Author (Author Profile)
Hey, thanks for reading my post. My name is Jay and I'm a medical student at the University of Manchester. When I can, I blog here at mynokiablog.com and tweet now and again @jaymontano. We also have a twitter and facebook accounts @mynokiablog and  Facebook.com/mynokiablog. Check out the tips, guides and rules for commenting >>click<< Contact us at tips(@)mynokiablog.com or email me directly on jay[at]mynokiablog.comSubscribe
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