From Legacy to Leadership: Nokia’s Network Narrative

Nokia, a network technology titan hidden behind a phone-shaped shadow, needed a powerful reintroduction. Our strategic solution: illuminate Nokia’s role in shaping tomorrow’s technologies, directly addressing the ambitions and challenges of enterprise decision-makers.

Enter The Exponential Era, a content series designed to unveil the invisible force driving innovation: networks. We focused on sustainability, industrial digitalization, and quantum technology – themes resonating deeply with our audience. Through compelling narratives, we demystified complexity, showcasing Nokia’s expertise and positioning them as the driving force behind progress, powered by advanced network solutions.

For Nokia, choosing the right platform was paramount. Our data, gleaned from Global Business Influencers, pointed unequivocally to Bloomberg. Reaching a staggering 77% of their enterprise audience, Bloomberg wasn’t just a media outlet; it was a technology company in its own right, constantly pushing the boundaries of innovation. This inherent credibility with tech-focused leaders made them the perfect partner to tell Nokia’s story. Together, leveraging Bloomberg’s deep insights, we crafted a cross-platform strategy, delivering content in the formats enterprise leaders craved: immersive video, insightful podcasts, and engaging interactive experiences. It was a partnership built on shared values and a mutual understanding of the audience, ensuring Nokia’s message resonated powerfully.

The Exponential Era wasn’t about hype; it was about showcasing Nokia’s real-world impact, deep expertise, and bold ambition. Just like Nokia itself, the campaign was engineered to lead the way forward, rewriting the narrative and establishing Nokia as the architect of the future.

The Exponential Era: Seeing the Future, Powered by Nokia

To truly shift perceptions, we brought the future to life. The Exponential Era immersed enterprise decision-makers in a vivid, data-driven vision of how Nokia’s networks are already shaping tomorrow’s world.

Hosted by acclaimed mathematician and broadcaster Professor Hannah Fry, our custom video series featured in-depth interviews with Nokia Bell Labs experts. Set in a bespoke futuristic virtual environment created with Unreal Engine, the series offered a dynamic and engaging way to communicate complex technological innovations. By using immersive visuals combined with expert insights, these videos not only captured attention but also educated audiences on cutting-edge solutions that could transform industries.

Content include:

• Thierry Klein discussed how Industry 5.0 can transform jobs, enhance workplace safety, improve work-life balance, and boost business resilience.
• Liana Ault explained how digitalization accelerates the decarbonization journey.
• Michael Eggleston highlighted quantum technology’s potential to revolutionize drug discovery and data security.

Premiering during commercial breaks of Bloomberg’s Emmy-nominated The Future which was also hosted by Hannah Fry, the branded content aligned seamlessly with editorial programming, creating a unified narrative arc across both worlds. This blurred the lines between entertainment and thought leadership, amplifying Nokia’s story through Fry’s cultural credibility and global reach.

Beyond television, the campaign extended across digital, social, and on-demand platforms. Each theme was explored further through targeted LinkedIn content, long-form videos on YouTube and audio micro-casts.

Our videos were also further supported by a series of data-led digital articles. The written content, such as “Quantum Technology is a Threat to Data Security. It’s Also Part of the Solution” and “How the Grid is Helping Industries Shift”, helped cement Nokia’s position as a thought leader in network science, offering valuable technical perspectives for those looking to understand how emerging technologies could impact their enterprises and industries.

We also brought the narrative into the physical world. As a headline sponsor of the Bloomberg Tech Summit in London, we held a fireside chat with Professor Hannah Fry and a Nokia executive, curated an editorial breakout session, and launched Exponential Connections, an experiential game. This immersive installation allowed decision-makers to explore real-world applications of next-generation networks through a competitive and engaging game.

The creative solution was driven by data and powered by storytelling, to build trust and understanding. It gave Nokia a new voice, positioning the company not just as a technology provider, but as a visionary shaping the next era of business, society, culture, and the planet.

Amplifying Nokia’s transformation required a unified media approach that delivered consistent messaging across every environment where enterprise leaders engage. We built an integrated media ecosystem that combined premium content, editorial alignment, high-impact advertising formats, and real-world experiences.

At its core was a strategic partnership with Bloomberg, enabling full-spectrum distribution of our custom videos through the Bloomberg Video Everywhere network. This ensured Nokia’s story was seen by influential business audiences across linear television, over-the-top platforms, Bloomberg.com, the Bloomberg app, and curated social channels. Our sponsorship of The Future with Hannah Fry embedded Nokia within trusted editorial content, reinforcing credibility and extending the campaign’s resonance.

To broaden the impact, the campaign content was repackaged into channel-specific assets, including high-visibility Ad.Apt Play video units, native display formats, interactive Storycards, and contextually aligned touts across Bloomberg’s ecosystem.

We mirrored this approach across social platforms, deploying dynamic social formats such as carousels on LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as leveraging strategic audio extensions through radio placements and podcast sponsorships. This omnichannel strategy was designed to reach technology leaders where they spend their time and in the formats they prefer.

To drive traffic to a dedicated Bloomberg microsite, we employed a smart mix of audience and contextual targeting. First-party data from Bloomberg’s subscriber base enabled hyper-targeted delivery, while channel-level contextual targeting ensured that Nokia’s message appeared within relevant, high-attention environments.

Live activations at the Bloomberg Tech Summit extended this amplification into the physical realm. Onstage dialogue, curated networking, and the interactive Exponential Connections installation created shareable, high-impact moments that attendees further amplified via social media, linking Nokia’s physical presence to digital momentum.

We continuously optimized performance in real time by analysing engagement data across platforms to refine placements and creative executions. This iterative approach ensured we reached our audience with the right message, at the right moment, in the right format.

By combining owned, earned, and paid media, we created a flywheel effect in which each element reinforced the next. Nokia’s transformation story did not simply reach decision-makers; it resonated, compelled, and drove action across every touchpoint.

The Exponential Era delivered measurable brand transformation and exceptional engagement across all key metrics.

The campaign generated 14.2 million video views and 82,161 article views, resulting in a total of 2,420 hours of brand exposure. The average video completion rate was 84 percent, which was significantly higher than the industry benchmark of 61 percent. The content successfully captivated this high-value audience.

455 In-Person attendees were exposed to our Nokia messaging, fireside chat and experiential space at the Bloomberg Tech Summit with 30 highly curated executives also attending their lunchtime editorial session.

This engagement translated into powerful brand lifts among global enterprise decision-makers:
• +23 pts in brand awareness (spontaneous and prompted)
• +26 pts increase in selecting Nokia as a preferred supplier
• +30 pts in likelihood to recommend Nokia to peers
• +28 pts in consideration of Nokia for future enterprise needs

Nokia also rose from seventh to fourth place in its competitive set—an exceptional movement in a B2B category where perceptions typically shift slowly.

Brand attribute perceptions soared:
• +25 pts increase in agreement that Nokia is “a brand I trust”
• +29 pts in “a leader in networks”
• +32 pts in “has a clear vision for the future of networks”
• +34 pts in “is a technology innovation leader”
• +31 pts in “is an enterprise network provider”

Creative diagnostics showed extraordinary persuasion levels: over 90% of exposed respondents said the content made them more likely to consider or recommend Nokia. Even more compelling:
• 95% said Nokia is influential
• 96% viewed Nokia as expert
• 96% considered Nokia reliable

The Nokia-Bloomberg partnership earned a 9.3/10 fit rating, validating its strategic value.

The Exponential Era didn’t just communicate a message; it rewrote Nokia’s narrative, setting a new benchmark for B2B brand transformation and solidifying their position as a leader in the enterprise future.

The Exponential Era