Meet Jan Bonnevier, our resident Social Media genius from Ovi MarComs

Last Monday we had our very first weekly Ovi People Interview with Michiel Maandag from our Ovi Product Marketing team. For this week I managed to snatch Jan Bonnevier from the Marketing Communications (Marcoms) team for an interview. If there’s anything you’d like to ask Jan (or any of our future interviewees, we already have [...]

Last Monday we had our very first weekly Ovi People Interview with Michiel Maandag from our Ovi Product Marketing team. For this week I managed to snatch Jan Bonnevier from the Marketing Communications (Marcoms) team for an interview. If there’s anything you’d like to ask Jan (or any of our future interviewees, we already have a big bunch of people lined up from all around Ovi!), please leave your question in the Comments section or send it to me via email to niini (at) ovi (dot) com

Also, feel free to continue to let us know how we’re doing with these interviews Even the Finnish Diane Sawyer needs feedback…

How long have you been working at Nokia, Jan?

I’ve been working at Nokia for 5 years. First as a Marketing Trainee in 2004, then with Developer Relations in 2007 and starting from 2008 with Marketing Communications (Marcom) within Ovi Experience.

What do you do at Ovi/Nokia?

I work as Senior Marketing Communications Manager and my job can be divided into 3 areas: driving online marketing and social media activities within the Marcom team, subject matter expert of Ovi and Connected Entertainment focusing on Ovi Store and Games and last but not least strategic and global events.

What other projects have you been working on at Nokia?

I started working at Nokia with the N-Gage developer community, working as a Technical Consultant for many N-Gage titles such as Bounce Boing Voyage, Dirk Dagger and the Fallen Idol, Star Wars: Force Unleashed and more. Within Marcomms I’ve been the interface towards the Go-To-Market organization, doing internal marketing during the global roll out of Ovi. Working with the global events team we’ve ensured Ovi comes to life at various events such as Mobile World Congress, CES, CTIA (ed.note: check our CTIA post here), GDC, Web 2.0 Summit, Le Web and more. I have also been a spokesperson for Ovi services at various events. Lately I’ve been shifting my focus into online/ digital marketing, working with Nokia’s social media and online experts to participate in the conversations online.

Which Nokia office do you work in? What do you like/dislike about your Nokia office/location?

I’m based at the Nokia House in Espoo, Finland, even if I travel quite much and therefore work remotely a lot. It’s a wonderful campus right next to the Finnish archipelago. The thing I like most about the office are the people working there and the friendly atmosphere. Nothing beats sitting down with a nice colleague on the terrace on a sunny August afternoon to have an ice-cream and a coffee. What do I dislike? It must be the winter weather in the southern parts of Finland. This year was exceptional, very cold and a lot of snow, but usually it means 3-4 months of darkness, temperature around +1 to –3 degrees Celsius and ice and slush – and I mean a lot of it

What did you do before you joined Nokia?

I come from an entrepreneur family, which has given me sort of an entrepreneurial spirit. I studied services and relationship marketing at Hanken – the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration where I did a Master’s degree. Then after my internship at Nokia I spent half a year in Zaragoza, Spain, learning Spanish and joined thereafter Rovio Mobile, where I did key account management and ultimately headed operator sales for their mobile games before re-joining Nokia.

What do you like about working at Nokia?

I am kind of a gadget freak and what better place to work at than Nokia. I really like the fact that there are so many opportunities to do just what is of one’s passion together with like-minded people. My family lives abroad, so working with Nokia I’ve given the opportunity to balance my work and private life. I’ve lived and worked in New York, become friends with very funky Nokia people and together been changing Nokia from an manufacturer into a services company. We are currently living in the midst of probably the most exciting times of Nokia’s history.

What makes you passionate about Ovi?

Nokia has a vision that I love and believe in: Connecting People to what matters to them. From the Ovi perspective, this means making sure this happens from an online/ internet services perspective. Enabling a person to be connected to another person or thing, be it music, games, one’s social networks, email, IM – whenever and wherever they are. Sure, this is something that cannot be built in a day, and knowing that the way people use the internet is still evolving so must companies. But working and living on the cutting edge of this development is something that gives me the kicks.

What word is the first word that comes to your mind when you think about Ovi?

Connectedness. This means more than being just connected. It’s more of a feeling of being connected, when one knows that he or she is part of something more than oneself. I know this sounds very religious. But this is something I know that we are ultimately building when we concretize Nokia’s vision.

What’s your favourite thing you’ve downloaded from Store? Why?

Due to my job I download a lot of apps and games. Some that are my personal favorites are Gravity, Shazam and Hi-N-Bye for my N97 mini and Angry Birds for my N900. Gravity is a great Twitter client, Shazam has helped me very often to find new artists when I travel and Hi-N-Bye is a cool little app making use of the sensors of the N97 mini to control phone calls, like put myself on mute by shaking the phone. Angry Birds is a great puzzle game where you use… yes, angry birds to get even with bad pigs. Sounds surrealistic, yes, but it’s extremely fun. And try explaining the plot of Super Mario Brothers to someone and you notice that it too sounds quite surrealistic.

So I gather you now use the N97 mini and N900.

That’s right.

What was your very first Nokia phone?

I think it was my mom’s Nokia 2110 in 1995 and very my own first was Nokia 3110 that I got in 1997.

What were you trying to find the last time you used Maps?

I actually just became a member of a new gym club and used Ovi Maps to find and bookmark the closest locations to our new home.

What are your top three favourite blogs/websites?

Ovi Blog, Nokia Conversations and Ovi.com and Nokia.com of course LOL Seriously speaking, when I open up Firefox my fingers automatically open 3 tabs: Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader. My Google Reader folders are filled with feeds around the following topics: Comics, Gadgets, Games, Marketing, Music, Social Media, Nokia and Ovi to mention a few. Some feeds that must receive a special mention are Mashable, The Inspiration Room and the Nokia related stories and viewpoints from @ZOMGitsCJ, @Aas, @nokiaAddict and others (I have a few dozen Nokia/Ovi related blogs that I keep up with)

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I love to hang out with friends and family and have long lunch, coffee and dinner conversations, exercise and go to the gym, ski and snowboard, play guitar and make music, travel and discover new places, read books, listen to music, watch movies and play video games… I’d say I have a quite normal spare time without any really cool hobbies like base jumping or muscle boat racing

What kind of music/bands/artists do you listen to?

It really depends on my mood but one thing is for sure – I could not live without music. I love waking up to the morning radio show, run, snowboard and ski to grunge and alternative rock such as Pearl Jam or Red Hot Chili Peppers, cruise to electro and German techno, dance to uplifting house and trance music like Above and Beyond, and calm down to mellow chill out music like Zero 7 and Air or acoustic guitar music such as José Gonzales. And a morning when you just don’t get out of bed can result into a Massive Attack Morning TM.

What’s your motto?

“Do what you like – like what you do” and “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” knowing that I haven’t always been living up to these mottos, but I do try really hard.

Is there anything you’d like to tell our readers here at the Ovi Blog?

Thanks for taking the time to read through the interview and thanks for all of your wonderful feedback and suggestions over the years. It is very often that with the help of your comments we make the right decisions. Thank you! So if any of you have questions or comments about Ovi, you can find me on Ovi Blog posting under my real name and Twitter under @ovibynokia (using initials JB when I remember) or @inspirito (my personal account).

Source : http://blog.ovi.com/2010/04/19/meet-jan-bonnevier-...