Just as I was putting up the poll asking CrackBerry Nation what they thought of the BlackBerry Australia's Wake Up ads, BlackBerry UK posted a sweet new BlackBerry TV ad to their youtube channel. Watch it above. This one, I like a lot.

BlackBerry People Do.

Yesterday evening I was speaking to a colleague of mine who said, "Kevin... you need to do something to get BlackBerry to stop this Wake Up campaign. It's horrendous." In case you missed it, you can check out the Wake Up website here.

I told him that it was a regional marketing campaign -- targeting the Australian market -- so even though I also wasn't a fan of the Wake Up slogan, that it probably wasn't that big of a deal to get bent out of shape over. BlackBerry has their global brand building campaigns, and they also have their regional advertising campaigns that they target to local customs and culture.  

From there we debated back and forth over it. The conclusion we reached was that we now live in a such a connected world that even regional marketing campaigns aimed at reaching a small and distinct audience have the ability to reach and impact eyeballs around the globe. And this is exactly what we saw happen with the Wake Up campaign. I'm not sure if the campaign has been successful in Australia so far, but I do know that in other markets and around the interwebz (where even regional is viewed as global) it's definitely coming across as a miss with a lot of people. And that's not good.

So what to do about it? RIM has a newly appointed CMO this week... addressing this can be one of the first items on the to do list. 

While we wait for BlackBerry 10 phones to hit the market, RIM has to keep pushing hard to sell BlackBerry 7 Smartphones around the globe. 

In the land down under, BlackBerry Australia is trying something a little.... ummm.. different with their Wake Up Be Bold campaign, that got off to a slightly *awkward* start with a flash mob at an Apple store gone weird. Though if you measure the success of a regional marketing campaign in terms of getting a lot of global attention, maybe it's actually doing quite well. Hit the link below. Sound off in the comments. I can't wait to read these ones. Lol.

While I'm not personally a fan of the Wake up concept, I gotta say I do like the notion of Do Different that they drop into the website's dialog. Who cares about Thinking Different? It's actually Doing Different that matters.

http://www.wakeupbebold.com.au/ 

While RIM may be placing their American advertising into high gear they certainly aren't leaving out the country in which they are located.  RIM is asking students from across Canadian colleges and universities to Be Bold and become their campus superstar, in a chance to win thousands in scholarship money. RIM is looking to hand out up to $4,000 to the first place student who can compete and successfully come out on top during two challenges, and they are:

Challenge one:  On-Campus Event #1 - Stand out from the crowd and get ready to make the boldest move yet on camera with the Spotlight Challenge from March 15th to March 23rd.

Challenge two:  On-Campus Event #2 - Throw the boldest party yet with the Bring Your Own BlackBerry Challenge from March 24th to April 8th.

All the 18 finalists will get $500 and one of the latest BlackBerry Smartphones and the top 10 will receive scholarships ranging from $250 up to $4,000. So if you're a Canadian student and would like to show BlackBerry that you can "Be Bold" on your campuses grab the link below and may the best BlackBerry fan win!

Signup to become the next Be Bold Superstar on your campus

Seriously, where did 2011 go? I know people say it every year, but I swear I blinked and 6 months flew by. The new year is just a few days away, which means everyone is getting set to party like it's 1999. (People still do that, right?) The biggest party of them all takes place in New York City, where since 1972 Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve has been held (with Ryan Seacrest as co-host since 2005). Along with performances by various singers/performers, the show provides live coverage of the dropping of the Times Square Ball in NYC's Times Square.

This is a big year for the show, as it's the 40th year it's been shown and since it's on a Saturday, the show will run for 5 1/2 hours including pre-show. This year, we are happy to hear that the show is being sponsored by BlackBerry! What better time and place to see the BlackBerry name? A new year, the new #BeBold slogan, and millions of viewers across America tuned in, ready for the fresh start that only a new year can bring. Word on the street is that BlackBerry will be running some Tweets on the big board in Times Square, so stayed tuned for updates on that as well.

How are you celebrating the new year? Will you be home watching Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest sponsored by BlackBerry (wow that's a mouthful), or do you have plans to go out? If you're brave enough to actually go to Times Square for the big event, be sure to snap some pictures and send them in!

Source: Inside BlackBerry Blog

I ran across this commercial for FedEx Office Print & Go today, and while it's not new exactly, I thought it was humorous as well as informative. Who can't use a laugh on a Monday, right? This ad features a couple of business men at FedEx Office, trying to print a document from their boss, using their BlackBerry Torches. It's a clever ad, and reminded me that I want to try this app out sometime. After watching the tutorial video for HP ePrint and seeing how easy it looks to print documents from your device right to the copier at FedEx Office, without ever having to wait for an employee to do it for you or rent the computers there to get to your document, I can really see how this would be a valuable application for anyone on-the-go that needs to print something quick. You can check out more information at the links below.

More information/download the HP ePrint App from BlackBerry App World
Read about HP's ePrint Mobile Printing
Read about FedEx Office Print & Go

Finally, a week after the PlayBook launched in the US and Canada, we start to see some advertising on televison in the form of commercials. The focus of this 30 second ad is the portability and power of the PlayBook. I'm sure this is just the first of many commercials we'll see for the device, though I for one still find it a bit odd that it took so long to even get this one out. Thanks to everyone that sent this in!

Following up on Kevin's post from earlier, here are two more BlackBerry PlayBook videos from RIM: Your Portable Life and Striking Power. I really like the one with the cowboys. ;) All this advertising lately is very encouraging to those of us waiting anxiously for any indication of just when the PlayBook will be released. Check out the videos after the break and make sure to stay close for more coverage from CES 2011!

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Never before in my life have I felt like more of a secret agent than I did today. Granted it was only for a minute or two, but it was pretty cool. While nothing more than a frack'n sweet commercial for AT&T and the Bold 9700, Stay One Step Ahead, lets you be a part of a movie (more like a commercial) featuring you, the Bold 9700 and of course "the network". In my opinion a very cool ad campaign, onestepaheadmovie.com connects to your Facebook account and runs through a short video that actually features you (it pulls info from your Facebook account). While connecting to Facebook may be a drawback for some, its actually pretty cool to watch the video (and kind of freaked me out when I saw my picture on the screen). So if you have a few minutes to kill this morning, you should definitely check this out. So what are your thoughts - marketing genius or total waste of time? Let us know what you think in the comments.

• Be a secret agent at onestepaheadmovie.com >>