"HEROES" Creator Tim Kring and Nokia Launch Conspiracy for Good

ESPOO, Finland, June 22, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- "Heroes" creator Tim Kring and Nokia (NYSE:NOK) today unveiled Conspiracy For Good (CFG, http://www.ConspiracyForGood.com), an inaugural movement that blends online and real-world tasks to effect social change through audience participation. CFG combines Kring's original storytelling (http://www.ConspiracyForGood.com/about) and Nokia's Ovi platform (http://www.ovi.com) to create a dramatic, fictional experience using interactive theatre, mobile and alternate reality gaming (ARG), music and physical participation to do good in the world. Participants will become part of the plot development and will find the necessary tools and clues to move the narrative forward and into the real-world, ultimately creating social and educational change for the Chataika Basic School, located in the village of Chataika in eastern Zambia.

"I believe that storytelling has the power to create positive change in the world. Audiences today want to be more involved in stories," said Tim Kring, 2010 Digital Emmy Pioneer Award winner for transmedia storytelling. "Our goal with the Conspiracy For Good is to entice, engage, and inspire the audience to drive real-world change through their participation in a narrative."

The Backstory (Fictional Plot)

Over the decades, members of Conspiracy For Good have been reputed to be quietly and effectively doing good in the world's most troubled areas. But CFG is not without enemies, and it is now under fierce attack by Blackwell Briggs (http://www.blackwellbriggs.com), a London-based multinational company committed to advanced infrastructure development and security services. For help, CFG turned to Kring, a master storyteller, to share their story, recruit new members to read the signs, and bring down Blackwell Briggs.

Joining the Conspiracy For Good

Participants enter into the story, which fuses reality and fiction, through http://www.ConspiracyForGood.com, where they will join like-minded thinkers, artists, musicians and causes, creating a unified voice to fight for social and environmental justice. The audience can take action within their own comfort zone and level of engagement to meet new people with similar interests online and in person, and have some fun too. Participants who join CFG will be able to solve mysteries online, play casual mobile games or be a physical participant in the London events that will take place from mid-July through early August.

CFG brings to life many of the experiences that Ovi, Nokia's Internet service platform, offers to people that use its devices. CFG participation on Ovi occurs through a series of existing and upcoming apps including casual games like "Exclusion" (http://tiny.cc/4ujaw) and "Mainframe Liberator" (http://tiny.cc/r9qfx) that unlock codes to confidential websites, Ovi Maps (http://www.ConspiracyForGood.com/map) to guide characters through the story, and Ovi Music where hidden information within songs can be deciphered to advance the story.

In the UK, participants will be able to download a special edition app called Conspiracy For Good: DeadDrop powered by Nokia's Point & Find service. Available in the UK Ovi Store (http://store.ovi.com) in mid-July, the app will allow players to point at objects and images in the real-world to discover clues and participate in challenges during the series of upcoming events in London.

"Tim Kring has truly realized the potential for Nokia's Ovi platform as an additional distribution channel to once more advance storytelling through interconnected services and active audience participation," said Tero Ojanpera, executive vice president, Nokia. "Conspiracy For Good is Nokia's most powerful example to date for how content owners can blur the lines between the online and real-world to connect people to change."

How to Join ConspiracyForGood.com

Anyone is welcome to join the conspiracy from any country. For those who live in or plan to visit London later this summer, event participation is free, registration to http://www.ConspiracyForGood.com is required and no purchase is necessary.

About Tim Kring

Tim Kring is one of the Hollywood creative community's original transmedia storytellers, who works seamlessly across mediums, including viewing screens and delivery devices such as film, TV, broadband, computers, mobile devices and the printed page to engage audiences around the world in narrative and immersive story arcs. For four television seasons, Kring served as the creator and executive producer of "Heroes," NBC's Emmy(R)-nominated epic saga that chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities. An estimated 76 million fans viewed "Heroes" every week around the world on TV and via interactive online programming.

About Nokia

At Nokia, we are committed to connecting people. We combine advanced technology with personalized services that enable people to stay close to what matters to them. Every day, more than 1.2 billion people connect to one another with a Nokia device - from mobile phones to advanced smartphones and high-performance mobile computers. Today, Nokia is integrating its devices with innovative services through Ovi (http://www.ovi.com), including music, maps, apps, email and more. Nokia's NAVTEQ is a leader in comprehensive digital mapping and navigation services, while Nokia Siemens Networks provides equipment, services and solutions for communications networks globally.

About Ovi

Ovi is a family of internet services for use on Nokia mobile devices that keeps people connected to the people and things that matter. Ovi services include Ovi Maps with walk and drive navigation and premium travel content; Ovi Music with millions of music tracks; Ovi Mail for email and messaging; Ovi Share for sharing content; and the Ovi Store, filled with thousands of apps, games and media from the content industry's biggest names along with independent developers. Content publishers are invited to distribute and monetize their content through Ovi by visiting http://www.publish.ovi.com. More information is available at http://www.ovi.com.

http://www.nokia.com

SOURCE Nokia Corporation