Nimbuzz has been adding a lot of partnerships to its dossier lately. Techcrunch reports that the free messaging app has 150 million users globally with a strong presence being registered in Asian countries, including India as well as Saudi Arabia.
Nokia has also jumped onto the Nimbuzz bandwagon by coming up with its own smart bot app, called Nokia Lucky Sunday. With Nimbuzz boasting a large number of Indian users, it seems clear that Nokia wants to get some of its users back in a market where Android is now doing exceedingly well.
Nokia, starting from June 30, will be running a series of marketing campaigns over four weeks on the free chat app. The Finnish phone maker will host a quiz via the dedicated Nokia Chat Buddy, which gives India-based Nimbuzz users a range of questions dealing with technology, movies, history and sports, with winners getting Nokia-centric prizes.
Nokia launched a Nimbuzz lucky Sunday app to tempt phone users. (Image credit: beekays)
Users who do well with the quiz stand a chance to win Nokia products as well as accessories. The Nokia chat app will rank users on a nationwide leader board that is tabulated using the number of correct responses. Each Sunday, Nokia will hand out a free smartphone to the Nimbuzz user who is on top of the chart at the end of each quiz.
The interactive marketing campaign is funded by Nokia, according to TNW. While Nimbuzz has avoided mentioning just how much it is making from the deal, this is not the first time that brands have used the app to get across to specific segments and users on the service.
With the increase of mobile penetration in the country, apps like Nimbuzz can now be used not just as a messaging service, but also as a platform for marketing strategies. And this quiz app lets Nokia reach out to users on other devices as well, because Nimbuzz is available on all major platforms now.
Nokia is clearly trying to get feature phone users interested by offering them its own smartphones. Another segment that it seems to be looking at is users with other low-range or mid-range smartphones who want to get a premium Nokia model. Nokia’s Chat Buddy, which hosts the quiz, has just been launched, so it may take a month or so before the success of the strategy can be computed.