Case study: how Nokia taps into social media insight

The Social Buzz Awards judging recently took place during Social Media Week. The Drum takes a look at one of the nominated case studies, which details the background and strategy behind a social media insight solution for Nokia.

Nokia has a diverse range of mobile products, tens of thousands of employees and a huge customer base spread across most of the world. Nokia wanted a social media insight solution that was global, accessible, and actionable and could communicate top line information to prominent execs and key stakeholders. 1000heads built the Agora Social Visualiser to deliver social media insight at a global and local level to a brand of Nokia’s scale. The system takes all of the conversations consumers are having online about Nokia, analyses them and present them on large screens in Nokia HQ, on the web and on a mobile app. It has created a culture of listening to consumers within Nokia that will help the brand compete in a highly challenging marketplace. BackgroundMobile phones, devices, handsets, smartphones – however you refer to them – are one of the most conversational products manufactured by anyone in the world today. People talk about them – a lot. What’s your favourite app, who’s got the best contract, should I go for a blue one or a black one, touchscreen or keypad. The highly conversational nature of mobiles, combined with the rise of social media, has generated one of the largest, most valuable sources of data ever known to a brand like Nokia – the unprompted thoughts, feelings and desires of its existing and potential customers expressed online for all the world to see. Social media innovators at Nokia had already begun the process of tapping into this data and extracting insight from it; however, these were small groups of people, operating in silos in social media teams across the world. Key objectivesNokia’s global head of digital and social wanted to change this by opening up the world of online social data to the whole of the company. He challenged 1000heads to make it happen. The objectives were to raise the awareness of insight from social media listening within the company, to centralise the data collected and make it accessible globally, and to empower Nokians with positive stories direct from their customers. Strategy1000heads concepted, created, launch and managed a brand new social listening platform for Nokia. They named it after the ancient Greek word for a ‘gathering place’ – Nokia’s ‘Agora’ was launched in Q4 2011 at its HQ and spiritual home in Espoo, Finland. The key components in the Agora development and roll-out were:

• Build an online content management system that pulls together feeds from all of Nokia’s social presences on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube around the world.
• Mentions of Nokia’s brand or products in peer-to-peer conversation across the globe.
• Create an online destination that allows anyone at the company to immediately listen to and assess people’s perception of Nokia and its competitors.
• Build a physical manifestation of Nokia’s social persona to raise awareness of the programme throughout the company and install it at key sites around the world – primarily, Nokia HQ in the UK, Finland, California and Middle East.
• Create a mobile application that delivers on-the- move access to key social data wherever you are.
• Deliver social-media based insight to multiple teams at Nokia that innovates the way the brand approaches marketing.

Results

• Agora has so far been installed in five locations around the world – all in high visible social areas of Nokia buildings where staff from often disparate departments discuss the issues raised by the system.
• Bespoke installations have also been used at specific events – including Social Media Week in New York, Nokia World in London, Nokia Marketing Summits.
• The online version is now used by Nokia teams across different departments around the globe and has provided key impact benchmarks for top execs on product launches and major news announcements.
• The mobile version has delivered an easy access point to social data that did not previously exist.
• Product owners in services such as maps and music are now requesting and acting upon insight and analysis of consumer perception of their products.

The Nokia Agora Social Visualiser, created by global word of mouth marketing agency 1000heads, was nominated in the best use of insight/monitoring category. Winners of the Social Buzz Awards, in association with iomart Hosting and sponsored by Sheridans, will be announced at the awards ceremony on 28 November at the Emirates Stadium, London. To see the full list of nominations or to find out more about the Social Buzz Awards visit socialbuzzawards.com.