O2 blueroom

as posted by Laurence-Hélène on ‘blog till you drop’

I have been an O2 customer for years, and every year around upgrade time, I start looking into the different types of mobile phones on the market.

I have to say that advertising is very influential because it’s very difficult to escape ads on the Tube! In addition to advertising, I usually browse the O2 website as well mobile phone reviews sites hence the importance of viral marketing especially in the case of O2 who do not advertise their phones.

I had a little look at the phones available and the Cocoon is currently featured on the front page under the phones section – so far, so good!

However when I clicked on the picture of the Cocoon to get more info about it, I felt the description on the site was letting the phone down – what about the alarm clock feature, the nest, the map of the O2 arena? In addition, I could not find a link to the Cocoon’s blog or the Cocoon’s webpage!

Can someone point me in the direction of these links?
Why did O2 set up a webpage for the Cocoon, a blog as well as sending a free phone to bloggers if they are not going to clearly advertise it on their site?

James Cherkoff writes:

Considering that my last post was called Why Free Sells, it’s timely that O2 have given me one of their new Cocoon phones to do a little test run. (It’s also timely because I smashed my Sony-Ericsson in car door a few weeks ago under pressure from the anti-terrorist squad at Euston station, but that’s another story). Unlike some bloggers I am more than happy to be showered with free stuff on the understanding that I can do whatever I want with the goodies in question. On this occasion I decided to conduct a little experiment…

…and count how many people I naturally (ie without meaning to) introduced to the phone last week. The Cocoon is very nice and compact and does everything you’d expect well. But it has one particular feature that gives it a little show-off-ability aka social objectness. Rather neatly, the outside casing has a hidden pink, neon-scrolling display that presents messages about who is calling, as well as the time and other such stuff, and it’s quite big so you can read it from the other side of the room while the phone sits on a shelf in its little nest. I have been playing with friends and associates by getting them to call me and then watching their names scroll across the side of the phone. Quite groovy. The results were that last week…

…I did this with five people, including a journalist on a national newspaper, all of whom have been pleasantly entertained for a couple of minutes and then asked to have a little play around with it themselves.And now I am writing about it on a highly Google-juiced blog. What’s that worth to O2? A darn sight more than the cost of getting in contact and popping the phone in the post to me. And if the phone had been problematic they would have got an early heads-up about the issue. As Neville says here, it helps that they did it well.

Of course, there’s nothing new here. Ironically, in fact, it’s the terrifyingly straight-forwardness of this approach that has big brands scratching their organ-o-grams. It’s just becoming more relevant and do-able. That said, innovations in measuring the effectiveness of such networked media campaigns are new and potential gold dust.

For more on the subject of products as conversations as markets, listen to David Weinberger here discussing his latest thoughts on The Cluetrain - one of which is that he hasn’t read it for about six years!

(you can view James’ original post here)

Created by Nate Hulley

 Written by Di Overton

I have had the phone for almost a week now and actually enjoy using it. This cannot be said of other mobiles I have owned. It is tactile, good looking and the basics are easy to understand.
Photographs and videos are crisp and clear though I cannot for the life of me find a way to get them onto my computer I am still trying understand the instructions in PC Suite which I have to say is full of words that I would imagine only O2 employees may understand.

As a writer of a design blog I tend to go for good looks, ease of use and clever design - the Cocoon ticks all the boxes here but I think it needs to have KISS (keep it simple stupid) instructions.

Last little moan - I played a sample tune and couldn’t turn it off or even turn it down whilst it was playing so I put the phone in the hall until it finished

Written by Amelia Torode

Hi, Amelia here.

I am one of the guys who came up with the idea of doing a pre-release blogger program. Excited that so many of you have agreed to take part!

Like you, I have just received my Cocoon. I’ve been playing around with it last night. One of the things that I really like about the phone is the LED alarm clock functionality and the little “nest” that it lives in. I think that it actually looks pretty nice next to my bed.

Has anyone else started to use their one as an alarm clock?

Candy bars and clam shells, that’s what we expect our mobile phones to look like. And sure occasionally there have been attempts to get us to buy into something new: phones that look like rocks, lipsticks, have more buttons or get rid of them altogether. But on the whole we like it simple.

Enter the O2 Cocoon with a letter saying ‘give it a go’. (more…)