Scarcity is always a good tactic to employ to cascade a viral marketing campaign, and Nokia’s latest idea to generate buzz in the lead-up to the release of the Nokia N97, whilst not a new concept in marketing, is certainly going to achieve the desired result.

The prestige of being one of the first people to own its new N-Series phone is obviously not something to be scoffed at, especially if you plan on getting some media exposure out of it. That aside, let’s spell out what’s involved:

There are several N97’s scattered in different countries across Europe & South-East Asia.

Clues released via various blog sites will gradually unravel the cryptic clues, which are being released in stages up until the official release date of the N97 in the USA (2-5 of June according to various sources!)

Once you have all the clues, you still have to find the N97.

If you live in the UK, here’s a clue I found this morning (originally posted here):

Search for th N - teaser clue 1

…make of it what you will: more clues coming soon

Here are the links for the participating countries:

• United Kingdom
• Singapore
• France
• Netherlands
• Malaysia