stedavies.com - communications consultant

Like quite a few others, I’ve been given a new O2 Cocoon, a cool looking mobile phone built by network operator, O2. I was given it from Amelia Torode who writes the excellently named (and exellently written) blog, Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it. Beuller … Beuller … Beuller (anyone?) Amelia is head of digital strategy at VCCP and I had the pleasure of meeting her when I was in London a couple of weeks ago. O2 is a client of VCCP if you haven’t already guessed.

I haven’t had a chance to give it a proper review yet (probably at the weekend) but my first impressions are I like it. A lot. I mentioned to Amelia that I probably won’t be delving into the technical aspects of the handset but will probably focus more on the coolness, ease of use and design/aesthetics side of things. The geek gene isn’t strong in this one unfortunately.

I reckon the Cocoon is going to be a consumer hit given its cool looks (reminds me of the iPhone a bit), ease of use and added goodies (internet, 2GB internal memory etc). Camera’s not so great though. The only thing that might lose the handset its edge is when you see everyone in the highstreet with one. But, hey, that’s the measure of success.

Anyway, more on that later.

From a PR point of view it’s very interesting to see how O2 and VCCP are going about this. As Amelia says: “We decided to launch the phone in the Blogosphere before any advertising started. The fact that you’re reading this blog probably means that you understand the power of digital advocacy…” Cool.

Again from a PR point of view , what’s equally interesting is that an online tactic (blogger outreach) that’s been claimed by the PR industry is being used by an advertising agency. And being done very well by the looks of things.

It’s got me thinking. It’s got me slightly worried too. Maybe that’s for another post.

Check out the O2 Cocoon blog and here’s a video of the phone I found on YouTube made by T3 Online.