Yesterday, Nokia released images of the fully-functioning song-inspired winners of the Nokia Music Almighty Headset Competition - an ingenious idea developed by Wieden + Kennedy London. The competition began last year, in which 6,000+ entrants crafted their Nokia Bluetooth headset around inspiring songs such as Daft Punk Robot Rock or Kelis Milkshake (one looking almost identical to an Astro Gaming headset was inspired by the Free Willey song by Michael Jackson). After the winners were chosen by online poll, the designers met with Nokia production teams to develop functioning models - thus giving the headset a real voice, and further positioning Nokia in the area of music. The winners will be on display at Nokia flagships stores around the world.

Inspired by R. Kelly song "I believe I can fly."

Inspired by Daft Punk song "Robot Rock"

This launch idea has crossed over many channels (digital, print, retail, PR) and worked on both brand and product levels. What I also love is that it focuses on experimentation with product design and ID, an area that often doesn’t receive the needed attention and forethought. While, a headset with wings certainly isn’t of the near future, technology inspired by the personality and passion in music is a good placed to start.

This competition gives Nokia some much needed buzz both for headsets and handsets. Once the leading brand of phone in the US, Nokia’s share of the market has dropped to about 10 percent.  Nokia hopes to get its phones in more American hands with its launch of the 5800 Music Xpress handset, which is rumored to include its “Comes with Music” (CWM) service. This service provides unlimited music downloads from the Nokia Music Store for either 12 or 18 months depending on the service agreement. This all will likely be offered by TMobile as yet another attempt to secure contracts in the carrier wars.