Smartphone launches are usually the preserve of CES, Mobile World Congress or a glitzy venue populated by a who’s who of celebrities, unless it’s Apple, when it's a conference in Cupertino. International mobile phone firm CUBOT selected Kenya’s coastal town, Mombasa, to debut its Note S smartphone on 14 February.
Billed as the launch event of the year, the much anticipated Cubot Note S global launch took place during the Valentine's week on the Churchill show Mombasa Edition. With a large audience of more than 7,000 in attendance, it lived up every inch to its billing delivering a memorable experience. Watch the Video.
A Memorable entry
It’s 6:30pm, a cool breeze evening in the coastal town of Mombasa, a winding streak of cars is making its way into the Flamingo Beach Resort. A young attractive lady knocks on my car window, I slide it down, she welcomes me to the Churchill show and tells me she has a gift for me as she hands me a car freshener. Naturally I smell it & just as I am about to ask for another she moves to the next car behind mine.
What a pleasant surprise, it has a phone design at the front and a Calendar at the back. It’s the Cubot Note S, Interesting! I think to myself as I hang it under my rear view mirror.
Being the Exclusive distributors the Car Freshener idea was a stroke of genius, big points to the Kilimall marketing team. Not to mention the QR code under the calendar, which once scanned takes you straight to the Cubot Note S web page. This had definitely set the tone for the evening.
The Launch
A few checks later and I was seated ready for my dose of laughter for the evening, that’s what we Kenyans have come to love about the Churchill show. True to its style, the comedians do not disappoint, off on the laugh train we go. Then there was the seamless transition to the Cubot Note S Launch.
In wafted the Chakacha tunes the coastal region is acclaimed for followed by the female dancers, then in came the Cubot Note S in a Treasure box carried by heavyset African warriors, with heavy African drum beats in the back ground akin to entries of African royalty. As soon as it was set on the stage, a contemporary dancer moving to the beats of the changing music popped open the box and produced the Cubot Note S in an all-white box.
He was joined on stage by Churchill with a youthful group of dancers who moved to the beat of a Lingala song as they mimicked selfie moments with the Cubot Note S. This was a true first of many, a classic act for the first Smartphone Global launch in Kenya & the first smartphone launch on the show with a jam-packed audience of more than 7,000 Kenyans.
The Cubot global Chairman Mr. Richard Meng who had jetted in just for the launch, came on stage accompanied by Kilimall’s marketing manager Mr. Mungai Charles. He spoke about his experience at “Masa Maria” referring to “Maasai Mara” and crowd went burst. He shared about Cubot’s philosophy of Trust & Simplicity.
It was time for the price launch which had been the question in everyone’s mind since news of the phone’s launch in Kenya began.
Churchill introduced the phone features to the audience, who were keen on the camera specifications, after which came the price launch of Ksh.8, 888.
“Kilimall’s e-commerce infrastructure means that brands can now eliminate middlemen from their go to market channels, who tend to make handsome profit margins on products. By giving these profits back to the customers, brands can not only engage with their customers directly online but can also sell their products at affordable rates,” explained Mr Charles.
Good Luck Charm
Then came the magical moment where the audience was treated to a surprise under their chairs. There were six lucky winners who took the Cubot Note S home, four pieces for the two ladies and one man who won the dance competition and the final one going to the best comedian of the night.
The Cubot Note S
Together with the classy custom made African designed phone covers, the Cubot Note S is a high specs super budget smartphone. It packs a high performance Quadcore 1.3GHz CPU, with a RAM of 2GB and ROM storage of 16GB.
Its 5.5” screen has a 720P 2.5D glass display, features Android 5.1 (Lollipop), a rear camera of 8MP and a front camera of 5MP. Its Dual-SIM, has OTG, and works with 2G & 3G networks. It has a two-day 4150 mAh battery with dimensions of 15.230×7.720×0.880 cm and a light product weight of 0.163 kg.
You can buy it exclusively on www.kilimall.co.ke today & enjoy great battery life, a large display & a good build all for the great price of Ksh.8, 888 and have it delivered to your doorstep anywhere in Kenya.
