Microsoft now promoting non-Nokia Windows Phones on Hollyoaks

In May 2012 Nokia struck a deal with UK Channel 4 and Hollyoaks’s production company Lime Pictures to feature Nokia’s range of Lumia handsets in various product placements on the popular soapie.

Research found that the placement was a great success, with Hollyoaks viewers seeing Nokia Lumia handsets as being best for social networking, photo sharing and apps. Eight in 10 Hollyoaks viewers (78 per cent) agreed that the product placement fitted in well with the show, and seven in 10 viewers (73 per cent) claimed the product placement made the soap more realistic.

It seems with the Nokia/Microsoft deal the mantle has now passed on to Microsoft, and from the above screen shot above it seems they are now using it to promote more than Lumia handsets, with the Huawei Ascend W1  showing in the show this week.

Microsoft is pursuing a vigorous strategy of product placement as part of their plan to normalize having a Windows Phone, believing  by having celebrities endorsing the handset it will give buyers on the fence permission to try out a device which their real-life friends are not using yet.

Given the great bounds in Windows Phone market share in UK this does seem to be working.  Do our readers agree? Let us know below.