So Nokia have created a transmedia narrative for their latest global campaign:

Nokia is to launch a global ad campaign involving more than 3,000 pieces of content, from Facebook posts and text messages to TV ads, giving the public the chance to follow in real-time the mobile-centric lives of three twentysomethings.

The concept behind the campaign is that in a digital age a mobile phone can provide a window into someone’s entire life.

Content for the Nokia campaign encompasses Facebook pages on which the public can post messages; while fictional friends build the plot by sending text messages, posting comments and leaving video and voicemails. There will also be TV, press and outdoor ads.

Each of the characters also has their own website where people can go to see the interactions they are having with friends and family. The mobile numbers of each of the characters will be made available so those following the campaign can influence the direction of their lives.

At least once a week there will be TV ads, on youth-oriented channels such as E4 and MTV, that will round up the story so far. At the end of the six-week campaign, which aims to promote Nokia’s youth-focused range of Supernova handsets, the stories will end with the characters needing to make crucial decisions.

There’s no question they’ve built in some wonderfully rich depth into the story - e.g. Anna Randall is a model from/living on Fårö Island who’s leaing to move to London, her brother Lennon’s a surgeon, and she’s got a fashionista friend called Serena who has her own group on facebook (only 2 members so far!). And it’s great that users can interact with the characters as the story plays out.

However as rich a tapestry as they’ve created, the fact is that it’s still essentially a campaign, albeit a campaign with a cracking back-story that users can interact with - it’s not, as some users had hoped, an ARG that they could truly play along with

Which is a little surprising when you consider that Nokia are (as one of the posters on the unfiction.com boards put it) purveyers of vintage ARGs - since Nokia Game, first launched in 1999, actually prefigured The Beast and I Love Bees, traditionally cited as the progenitors of the genre.

Nokia Game incorporated pervasive play but did admittedly lack the narrative element we’ve come to expect from ARGs. However the genre’s moved on since then, brands have learned a lot, users have come to expect a LOT more - so it’s perhaps a little disappointing that Somebody Else’s Phone has incorporated the narrative element, but lost the pervasive play along the way.

I’m not trying to knock it, because it’s still terrifically exciting, and a hell of a lot more interesting than most digital marketing out there. And the insight behind the campaign, that “phones are now much more than just a means of communication… they hold people’s hopes, fears and dreams and provide a window into someone’s life” has undoubtedly given rise to an intriguing and involving creative campaign. It definitely ticks the boxes of true cross-platform entertainment - a story told across a variety of channels which wraps the audiences in a unique, immersive experience

But given that Nokia were the trailblazers of using immersive play to engage with consumers, doesn’t it feel like they’ve missed a bit of a trick here?

Update: my mate Tom has blogged a cracking riposte to this post - well worth a look. Probably the one point I think I’ve failed to articulate clearly enough is the fact that with ARGs there’s a reason for people to interact with the campaign - there’s a payoff: both in the thrill of the puzzle and in the ultimate prize. As a colleague observed, this campaign feels like it’s from the Kevin Costner school of marketing - build it and they shall come. The fact that they’ve produced “more than 3700 pieces of content” as part of the back stories is all well and good - but just because it’s there isn’t a good enough reason to join in - what’s in it for the user?

[ Somebody Else’s Phone via the Guardian ]