Submitted by Pulse AdvertisingAgency IPI Score 41/100

OnePlus Nord CE: The Gen Z Phone in Europe and India

Influencer Marketing

Pulse Advertising activated 25 influencers to launch the OnePlus Nord CE smartphone to Gen Z audiences in Western Europe and India, and reports 14 M impressions.

14MImpressions
124Content pieces
25Influencers

Case in 60 seconds

OnePlus launched the new Nord CE smartphone with brand awareness as the main goal, while the audience it wanted to reach was non-tech Gen Z in Western Europe and India who were unfamiliar with the product.

The campaign appears to turn on the reading that a non-tech Gen Z audience responds to fun, engaging creator content rather than to feature lists, because people unfamiliar with a phone have little reason to watch it being specified.

Pulse Advertising set out to position OnePlus Nord as the Gen Z phone in Europe and India, which placed the audience at the centre of the Nord CE launch and handed the storytelling to creators.

Pulse Advertising activated 25 influencers across Western Europe and India, who produced 124 content pieces of fun and engaging audiovisual work aimed at Gen Z audiences who were unfamiliar with the Nord CE smartphone.

Pulse Advertising reports 14 M impressions for the Nord CE launch, produced through 124 content pieces from 25 influencers, which is the only performance figure the agency attaches to the awareness goal.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Gen Z audiences in Western Europe and India, specifically non-tech audiences who were unfamiliar with the OnePlus Nord CE.
Based on the available evidence, a smartphone launch aimed at non-tech audiences unfamiliar with the product could not rely on the category's usual technical conversation, so the Nord CE needed a route in that did not assume interest in specifications.
OnePlus is positioned as the Gen Z phone in Europe and India, which reads as the brand claiming an audience identity rather than a technical lead.
The brief for fun, engaging audiovisual content suggests the agency judged that Gen Z attention for an unfamiliar product is earned through entertainment rather than through specification.

Creative & Execution System

Partners

  • Pulse Advertising (lead_agency)

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
Impressions14 Mimpressions
Content pieces124content_pieces
Influencers25creators_count

Why Pulse Advertising's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A launch aimed at non-tech buyers appears to gain from creator content built for entertainment rather than for product explanation, because an audience unfamiliar with a product has to be interested before it can be informed.

  2. 2

    Framing a phone around the generation it is for, rather than around its features, gives creators in several markets one shared brief that each can adapt to the audience it already reaches.

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