Before visiting Research In Motion's headquarters in Waterloo this past Wednesday afternoon to check out the BlackBerry Bold 9790, BlackBerry Curve 9380 and Porsche Design P'9981 from BlackBerry, that morning I attended the We Day festivities that we're taking place.
We Day and RIM: If you're not familiar with We Day, it's an initiative of the non-profit organization Free the Children, and RIM is a big sponsor of We Day and believer in their mission. We Day brings youth together in an unparalleled setting to show them that they are not alone in their journey to make a difference in the world. We Day encourages youth to Be The Change.
Representing RIM at We Day was the company's former Chief Operating Officer, Don Morrison (no, he's not returning to RIM - he's just passionate about the initiative and was eager to take part in this year's We Day). You can watch his presentation above and you watch until the end you can also learn the We Day dance by the instructor of the day, Shawn Desman. The energy of the youth in attendance was amazing - oh to be young again!
Like We Day on Facebook and $1 will be donated to We Day by their sponsors: If you want to contribute to the We Day cause, all it takes is a click. If you visit facebook.com/weday and click the Like button, $1 will be donated to We Day by their sponsors. It doesn't cost you anything (it costs the sponsors!), so go there now and do it! Do it now CrackBerry Nation!
The notion of "We" in the BlackBerry experience: Having visited Waterloo twice now and also taking in We Day, it's become apparent to me that the concept of "We" plays a major roll in everything BlackBerry does and will do going forward. It's all about Community, Connecting and Collaboration. Look at services like BlackBerry Messenger, BlackBerry Messenger Groups and the recently introduced BlackBerry Music. More than putting an "I" in front of the word phone, RIM's philosophy is about putting the "We" into the phone. It's about connecting people and allowing them to do more together.
Moving ahead, I think the notion of "We" could be a brilliant marketing strategy for RIM. Think about it. Apple has the "I" phone, or ego phone as I like to call it. How do you compete against a portfolio of I products? With a portfolio of products that focus on We! There's definitely something in this notion for RIM to work with... I'll be curious to see how We manifests itself in future BlackBerry products and marketing in the months and years ahead!
