Between 15-27 February, there was a 797 per cent increase in online searches for the Nokia 3310 in the UK – with more Brits caring about phone cases than Snake.

According to London-based digital advertising search intelligence firm Captify, which analyses 30bn online monthly searches, 40 per cent of UK consumers were searching for phone cases associated with HMD Global’s take on the iconic device, as opposed to 25 per cent searching for Snake, 18 per cent for camera and 17 per cent for battery.

“Nostalgia is incredibly powerful for consumers and the renewed interest in the Nokia brand, as highlighted by our data, is clear proof of this,” said Dom Joseph, CEO and co-founder of Captify. “However, to really understand consumer interest in a product, brands need to look to online search data to determine real, concrete intent to purchase, instead of just general interest and nostalgia, which can soon fade.”

Captify also found that UK consumers were also searching for mobile networks in conjunction with the Nokia 3310, despite the device not being available until Q2 2017.

EE saw a 97 per cent increase in searches related to the reimagined classic phone – while O2 (one per cent), Vodafone (0.9 per cent) and Three (0.1 per cent) all saw minor searches for the device.

Joseph added: “The genuine consumer interest in the Nokia 3310 is borne out from our data which shows a huge spike in the public searching for actual network carriers, despite the product not being available until the second half of 2017. It demonstrates that people really do want to buy the product well ahead of its release, and are already starting to make decisions about which network they’ll use too.”

We had a chance to talk Ming Li, product marketing at HMD Global, about how the new Nokia 3310 differs from the first time around at Mobile World Congress. You can watch the video here.