The clients agreed it really set things up quite nicely in terms of anticipation for both the movie and the Communicator. Everything was going splendidly until Universal [UIP] basically decided to have their own Web site contest and pretty much, through a roundabout way, put the nix on all the sponsors’ (including Volkswagon) intiatives. Quite sad, but since Nokia had already commissioned us to do this project and liked the outcome, they decided to take my suggestion of removing all references to The Saint and simply making it our own spy story.

I altered the plot, the characters, the banners and renamed it The Engineer. Figured typical Nokia early-adaptors of such a fantastic device as the Communicator would be Engineer types who would appreciate the subtle puns and such in this little adventure.

It starts out with browsing through Usenet news groups for a nefarious job and ends up on a whirlwind journey. The contestant had to answer questions throughout the story by going through the Web site (my little trick to get them to appreciate the easy interface and to learn more about Nokia) and to creatively complete a formula. There were even dead-ends in the plot if the user answered the wrong (of four) Usenet message.

The responses were fantastic and very targeted. It has encouraged me to explore other creative uses of contests and not merely rely on a “Pick one answer from this simple pull-down list” method all of the time but to alternate them.