Popular Wireless: Angelic Wireless

“Charlie’s Angels” has become one of the hottest movies of the holiday season, having grossed about $120 million by mid-December. And Nokia is getting in on the action with an extensive joint marketing deal.

Keith Nowak, Nokia media relations manager, said the film’s tech focus and Nokia’s goals were the basis for the mutually beneficial deal.

The movie’s plot involves both GPS location technology, voice-recognition software and, of course, lots of Nokia phones being used by the Angels. By combining these three elements, the bad guys hope to un-veil the identity of Charlie.

Throughout the action-packed movie, Angels Dylan (Drew Barrymore), Alex (Lucy Liu) and Natalie (Cameron Diaz) are constantly whipping out their Nokia phones to communicate with each other, Charlie, Bosley (Bill Murray) and their boyfriends.

But seeing the Nokia logo flashed on the silver screen isn’t all the company got out of the multi-faceted deal. In return for Nokia providing phones and service, Sony Pictures Entertainment included the company’s logo in many aspects of its marketing program.

There were the “Charlie’s Angels” commercials that seemed to promote Nokia as much as the movie. Circuit City and Best Buy electronics stores displayed cardboard cutouts of the Angels and offered an “Angel of a Deal” on Nokia phones. The promotions have extended into Europe, where the film is also doing well.

“This is pretty unique for Nokia,” Nowak said. “It is the first time we’ve taken (a movie deal) this far — with the product placement, the international aspect and the commercials, which turned out great because of the actual movie footage in them.”

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of the deal has been customer reaction.

“People are coming into the stores and asking for ‘The Charlie’s Angels phone,’” he said. “That’s always a good sign.”