The default ringtone on a Nokia mobile phone – the trademarked Nokia tune – is instantly recognizable to many people, certainly among the millions who use Nokia phones or have friends or colleagues who do.
Now Nokia wants to change the distinctive tune that the Finnish company first used in 1994, and launched Nokia Tune Remake on September 5, a global contest to find a replacement default ringtone.
Nokia Tune is one of world’s most recognized audio brand assets and is estimated to be heard over one billion times a day. Nokia is launching a global crowdsourcing campaign to find a fresh version of the Nokia Tune. This is the first time Nokia is inviting people to work with the iconic tune with the winning tune to be placed next to the standard Nokia Tune in a selection of the company 2012 product portfolio.
[…] You are welcome to create a truly new and unique version. Boy choirs, ukuleles, trash cans, opera singers, steel drums, finger pianos, dusty synthesizers… anything and everything can be used to create an interesting version of the Nokia Tune.
The company adds that it’s looking for a tune that is “fresh, expressive, original, and creative yet distinctively a Nokia Tune. In the spirit of ‘Connecting People’.” They’ve created a video to explain it – and give you a solid reminder of that distinctive Nokia tune and how it has evolved since 1994.
Whatever Nokia’s future may be in partnership with Microsoft in a market that’s characterized by rapidly-shifting consumer demands, increasing technological innovation and relentless competitive pressures, the idea of crowdsourcing something so closely connected to the very essence of a brand is an interesting one.
It presents the company with a terrific opportunity to not only keep brand awareness high at a global level – and no doubt in many of the individual markets Nokia would like to regard as its default – but also make the most of social channels to build and sustain brand buzz that would keep the Nokia name sustainably at the top of every search result related to mobile.
I wonder what effect that would have on Nokia’s fortunes in 2012 onwards.
The Nokia Tune Remake is open now for entries (read the brief and the rules) and the contest closes “four weeks later,” Nokia says. If you don’t want to submit a tune yourself, you can vote on tunes others have submitted.
A $10,000 prize awaits the winner, along with his or her tune installed on lots of Nokia phones.
If they get something magical, it could be a definite winner for Nokia.
