• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, March 21, 2011

Nokia's recently announced alliance with Microsoft to help take on both Apple and Google in the smartphone market won't produce jointly developed phones until next year. Until then, Nokia is still pushing its latest Symbian-powered smartphones, like the E7. 

To that end, the company kicked off a global campaign for the device that began shipping last month and is aimed mainly at business users with a slide-out keyboard and Microsoft Exchange pre-installed. While previously billed by Nokia as the "ultimate business smartphone," the new campaign created by Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam promotes broader consumer embrace of the phone.

Built around the tagline "Success is what you make it," the TV spots launching showcase a variety of E7 users, from a young female commuter in what looks like Hong Kong to a pair of male-bonding Finns at a rustic alpine sauna to a group of young game-players using the device's HDMI input to play a car-racing game on a large living-room screen. These and other scenes are set to a jangly rock soundtrack provided by English indie band Lovvers.

The message: the E7 is young, hip and fun, and accomodates a variety of uses. The campaign launches with a series of 15-, 30-, 45- and 60-second TV (and in-cinema) commercials that will expand with a two-tier print effort. The first set of print ads will highlight the features of the product through headlines tied to the E7 and different definitions of success. A second group of print ads will feature different lifestyles, "focusing on small human success stories," according to a Wieden + Kennedy release.

Avi Greengart, who leads consumer device research at Current Analysis, said Nokia has always built its top phones for both consumer and business users. "And the E7 is their flagship device for now, so they have to sell it as broadly as possible," he said.

Working with the agency's Amsterdam office on the E7 effort were R/GA London (digital), 1000heads (word-of-mouth), Hyper happen (activation), KLP (retail), JWT (adaptations) and Wunderman (B2B).