Centrefold magazine uses Nokia for 10th anniversary issue

Following the Oscars we know that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 can take a good photo, but just weeks after that filmie was taken the Nokia Lumia 1020 is already proving its worth.

Let me explain. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of fashion magazine Centrefold, all photos within the special edition have been shot using a Nokia.

This partnership has taken the phone brand to the next level, demonstrating that a Nokia boasts top camera qualities including: precision, depth and class. And the PR the stunt is generating is brilliant too.

Protein, an inspirational media agency, is behind the stunt and it plans to exhibit the unique fashion shots in London next week – which will open up the Nokia brand to an even bigger audience.

But, to sustain campaign momentum, and position itself as the leading camera phone, Nokia could do one of three things:

You can’t go wrong with a comp
Run a social media competition offering the chance for a customer to have professional photos taken on their phone, and run them in an advertorial placed in a fashion magazine, with behind the scenes content. Social media tactics, combined with traditional print media, will ensure the brand generates plenty of ‘OTV’ (opportunities to view).

Don’t worry, be appy
Nokia has created some strong content through its partnership with Centrefold so it should make the most of it by making a photography app for customers to download. Packed with top tips and advice on capturing the best ‘still life’, ‘people’ and ‘landscape’ shots, it can also include basic editing software – beyond Instagram – to help fans enhance their images.

Get on the curriculum
There must be hundreds of photography courses running across the UK, so if you can’t beat them – join them! Encourage and equip lecturers to use Nokias in class to inspire students to think outside the box when it comes to imagery.

So, there you have it. A good idea which could be made great if it is extended.

What do you think? Would you have guessed these were phone shots?

And the winner is… the ‘filmie’

It was a straightforward ceremony last night at the Oscars… until Ellen DeGeneres got her phone out to take a selfie with a group of Hollywood stars – which crashed Twitter.

*That* picture – featuring Lupita Nyong’o; Meryl Streep; Jared Leto; Brad Pitt; Jennifer Lawrence and many more – was retweeted more than 1.7 million times in less than an hour. Needless to say it’s a social media record. Not even the President can win this race, following his re-election tweet in November 2012.

So, with all the coverage pick up Samsung has secured – including in The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph and Sky News – how will it use the stunt to its advantage?

This is a marketing opportunity that doesn’t fall in brands’ laps very often so it has to go in hard. If it doesn’t then its PR team will also win a title: Oscar-winning idiots.

I’m surprised that the @samsungUK or @samsungUSA Twitter accounts haven’t directly tweeted about the photo to further promote the fact that it was taken on one of its handsets. Glancing through their accounts and searching through the social media site, they’ve not even tried to effectively lay claim on this global achievement. Don’t get me wrong, lots is being said but it’s the fans that are doing the hard work. If I was in charge, I’d be maximising brand presence by encouraging those late to the party to retweet.

What I’d like to see is Samsung use the image, in some form, across a reactive campaign that implies that the Galaxy Note 3 model ‘fits all your friends in’ or ‘never misses a prize moment’ – to allow new customers to really interact with the brand.

Going one step further, Samsung could attempt to coin a new phrase. Selfies may have been the Oxford Dictionary’s ‘word of the year’ in 2013, but perhaps the mobile and tablet division could use the term ‘filmie‘ for the first time – an image packed with famous film stars.

What do you think? Is it a trend that will catch on?