The BlackBerry team posted this update on their blog today, in response to all the criticism:
UPDATE: We’ve noticed The BeBold Team has received a lot of attention over the last couple of days, and wanted to clarify – this infographic is just intended to be a bit of fun. On New Year’s Eve, we asked BlackBerry Twitter followers and their friends to submit their resolutions on how they plan to Be Bold in 2012. More than 35,000 resolutions streamed across Twitter®, Facebook®, and giant billboards in Times Square. As we looked at the resolutions and the data, majority patterns and categories emerged. We decided to organize the data and share it in a fun way, and the result is the infographic. This is not a new ad campaign.
So there you have it folks, it's not RIM's new advertising campaign. These aren't new mascots, Research In Motion isn't trying to draw in the elementary school demographic. Sometimes an infographic is just that, an infographic.
Source: Inside BlackBerry
Reader comments
Be Bold infographic clarified - It's NOT an advertising campaign!
Everybody's missing the point; RIM needs Don Draper.
don't know what is the fuss about it..just a fun piece of thing. this goes to show our world is full of hostile people and people who can't see the lighter side of things
The original article mentioned "infographic" not advertisment. Either people aren't reading the article or they don't understand the meaning of infographic.
But it would be a good advertisment to bring in the superhero demographic. Imagine seeing celebrity sightings with Batman with his Red Bold 10000, being Bold, which looks just like what Bruce Wayne had in previous sightings...Hmm?
Explanation of why people reacted:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/01/31/research-in-motion-bebold-superh...
OMG people, please let it go, it only a cartoon. Whats silly is all the complaining over this. All I have to say.
The Purple girl is kind of sexy!!!
Seriously people, take the sticks out of your rear ends and lighten up!!!!!
There is a side to RIM that has been completely overshadowed by the senseless media negativity. RIM has heart. They support projects that do not add to their bottom line. Last week CrackBerry featured an article and video by a radio station that identified some of the ways RIM gives back to their community. The Be Bold infographic was a way RIM gave back to their BlackBerry community. It was a positive idea, displaying the positive ideas of its fans in a playful way. This would be understood by those who participated in sending the tweets to RIM. I love BlackBerry products, but it is RIM's heart that inspires my most protective instincts for their products.
I just registered and logged in just so I could write this. It is absolutely stupid and idiotic to make something out of this piece. It clearly stated that they asked people to tweet how they would beBOLD in 2011 and they showed a very clever (i must say) info-graphic chart showing the result of that survey. How for Christ sake is that a campaign. I find this level of ignorance amazing.
I fear that the freedom of expression the internet allows is only breeding this generation of f**ls who can't seem to think about anything at all before they speak. How is this a campaign in the eyes of you people without even a picture of their phones. How hard is it to ask people to think with their brains and not with their feet.
This is probably a fallout of the eye-candy, out-of-the-box and turnkey environment we now live in (not thanks to the other fruit company). People can't even have the presence of mind to read anymore. It is alarming that somebody even suggested that they add a disclaimer stating "This is not an Ad Campaign". Soon we'll ask them to also add on playbook packaging "Though this is Blackberry packaging and it is obviously just January, this is not the BB10 phone we promised will come out in September, It is instead a BB Tablet" or some crap like that.
We may never know the truth of the matter, the response must have been huge for RIM to make an issue out of it.
What's to say if no one sent comments in this would have been the new direction for BlackBerry Marketing?
Not only is this NOT an advertising campaign, but its NOT at US Cell either! D#$&iT!
Not only is this NOT an advertising campaign, but its NOT at US Cell either! D#$&iT!
I and many other BB faithful understand that this is not an ad campaign. But that doesn't matter! RIM should be smarter than this and think ahead about how this MAY be (and in fact was) interpreted rather than how they WANT it to be interpreted. This 'iconographic' comes around the same time RIM is promising a big marketing push and uses the same 'Be Bold' slogan that they mentioned for their upcoming ad campaign. No, it's not stupid to assume that this is their ad campaign the first time you see it. At the very least, RIM should have put up a disclaimer/preamble that they responded today with in the original posting yesterday. RIM desperately needs a new marketing chief.
This. Exactly this.
Ok its an advertising thing. Yes a lot of people on the forum dont like it.
Qu: how many of the negative posters on here took part in the campain. probable ans: zero.
Guess what you negative nancys if you didnt participate then it wasnt your idea of fun. Obviously some people did participate. The likelihood is that they are not tech followers or crackberry addicts just peeps who were just having fun on New Years Eve...... Having Fun. Lighten up it is fun and it is quirky.
Or maybe your jealous cause you missed out.
Guess what, I LIKE IT
Maybe it is not for me but It shows that RIM is not just a corporate tool. And if the people who took part are still usomg their BB to follow the fun then there are no deserters. To be perfectly honest ever single person who has nothing positive to see in this piece of fun needs to pull their collective heads out of the sand return their BB devices and leave cause I love the idea that my BB os a fun cool tech device that people of all ages from 10 - 110 can use and enjoy.
RIM bring your fun to the UK and leave those stuff old Americans alone, we will party with you and bring the whole family to.
PS 35000 followers.... thats some party vs the 200 negative nancy RIM trolls on these posts. Sorry to be blunt but your wrong and your opinion clearly flawed.
AGREED 100%
I didn't bother to look at the infographic when it was first posted and just saw it now, to see what all the hub-bub was about.
It's a great way to summarize data. It works.
ITs for fun why everyone so serious?
But it isn't really even an infographic. How would anyone look at that and get that it was to graphically represent new years resolutions? This is another mistake from RIM and just highlights why they need to get a CMO hired ASAP and probably rebuild the entire marketing/media groups from scratch. And anyone saying that people are whining, realize that this did nothing to help with the perception of RIM as an inept company. RIM talks about fighting for the US market but things like this just make it look like they are bring rubber knifes to a gun fight.
What a crock of shit. An infographic?? Hmmmm. With characters??? Complete with character profiles??? Yeah right. So what does long walks on the beach have to do with relaying information? Whatever they meant or didn't mean to do the fact is they Screwed the pooch on this one. RIM is a laughing stock.
Man, reading all your whiny comments something as trivial as this is hilarious. Really, it's a graphic, there was nothing stated about it being a commercial. Can companies not do anything fun anymore. It's all you people who react to every little thing negatively. You know, you could die tomorrow and that's the last thing you want on the internet, your whiny comment about a graphic. Everyone out there believes they're an expert...if that was true, i guess this world would have no dummies.
Anything visible by your clients or potential clients is marketing, aka a commercial.
I agree, so take it as what's it suppose to be. Adults don't need to be anal 24hrs a day. Relax and chill out. But then again, maybe it's a perfect marketing strategy. Put something up which they knew would annoy all the analtard to get people talking. People bash them for doing the same thing and then people bash them for doing something totally odd. Like I said, if all you were so smart, this world would be perfect with no failures. So start your own RIM.
It is an advertising thing
RIM and the BlackBerry brand need to become aggressive in their efforts to contain the nonsense that comes from the news / blogs or anyone else.
This innocent info-graphic that was simply just intended to organize data in a fun way (we get it guys)... was just blown out of proportion. Even though its purpose was cleared up, the damage is done. It makes two things clear;
1. All eyes are on RIM and its EVERY little move, no matter what it may be.
2. A story regardless of how negative or positive - still sells, which means the people who make a living off selling garbage stories, will continue to sell garbage stories at anyone's expense.
RIM needs to come out with BRASS BALLS and PROTECT its image. The media and these useless tech writers are having a field day at any given chance. DON"T LET THESE GUYS WALK ALL OVER YOU RIM!
Sue the shit out of some people, go kick some ass and take names, become a bully if you have to. Take your own advice and BE BOLD! If there is any fight left now is the time to fight.
PROTECT YOUR MESSAGE, PROTECT YOUR IMAGE!
+1
Next they will add them into a Happy Meal as the free toy! How many 3-4 year Olds own a BlackBerry? Then again, my 2 + 4 year olds have an iPad each...
I read peoples comments on the original news about this and was somewhat puzzled why they were so angry... I guess they were retarded was what initially thought
bad. taste.
Sadly, the overreaction on the part of so many to something so trivial is typical of what is becoming more and more frequent on this site. It prompts me to spend less and less time each week reading the forums.
+1
Okay, so in your perfect world only some have a right to an opinion?
Passionate posts show they care, what be worse is they don't care at all.
No, in a perfect world people would think before whining again. Really, it's a cartoon, made to be fun. But of course, cynicism and overreaction is the norm of the internet.
Opinions matter, usually most of these whiny posts and other tech sites fail to ever comment and post on anything truly useful.
My gawd. No wonder this company is the laughing stock of the tech world.
I started to read the original post yesterday, but after the first couple of comments I quikly closed my browser, I had assumed it crashed and sent me over to "negativenancyberry.com" by mistake. after reading a few of these I am once again reminded that common sense is not as common as it should be.
Wonder what Apple's CMO was thinking ... http://www.alphr.com/news/internet/239556/what-the-banned-iphone-advert-...
While we're on the subject of ad campaigns, is the Saturday morning cartoon crowd too young to be targeting? I mean, that's a whole new demographic that is so far untapped.
Just sayin', that's all.
(Please don't waste your time with disrespectful comments.........I'M JOKING!!)
Switched to the Galaxy Nexus, not looking back. Point being they missed a character, "The Defector."
It took me a while to really get used to the GNex but now that my Blackberry separation anxiety has passed I can tell you that it's an amazing device. Probably my biggest concern with leaving Blackberry was the issue of typing speed and email composition. I figured those things would be a shortcoming of the GNex, something I would simply have to deal with in exchange for a brilliant screen and amazing web browsing etc. To my surprise I can type faster on my GNex than on my Bold, it's more comfortable to type, and because of the screen real estate, composing emails is a much more pleasant experience. Seriously, browsing the web, this thing kills my Playbook, flash and all, kills it.
And back to the original topic, since when are inforgraphics not marketing?? Please, it might not be a full on campaign, but it's still a marketing play, a failed one at that. What a joke.
These infographics were goofy and lighthearted. But I guess Rim's not allowed to bake up anything fun, like Christmas cookies or frozen dairy treats.
The only bad PR is no PR.
@dunaway
What they said:
UPDATE: We’ve noticed The BeBold Team has received a lot of attention over the last couple of days, and wanted to clarify – this infographic is just intended to be a bit of fun. On New Year’s Eve, we asked BlackBerry Twitter followers and their friends to submit their resolutions on how they plan to Be Bold in 2012. More than 35,000 resolutions streamed across Twitter®, Facebook®, and giant billboards in Times Square. As we looked at the resolutions and the data, majority patterns and categories emerged. We decided to organize the data and share it in a fun way, and the result is the infographic. This is not a new ad campaign.
What they meant:
Holy crap! We screwed up again. We tried something we thought was cool, and yet again got slammed across the globe. Ok, we're pulling it. Sorry for all the blunders. Please stop leaving us. Pretty please???
What they really intended to say was: We can't believe people are stupid enough to think this was an ad campaign (including you apparently).
To be honest, I didn't know either way. But the way that RIM handled everything sure had a lot of people thinking so. And even if it was "just a bit of fun", they certainly shouldn't have bothered judging by global reactions.
Well, the sheep will like it no matter what, but RIM doesn't need to worry about you guys anyway.
You make no sense. You call us sheep yet this was clearly NOT an ad campaign and was for existing RIM fans or people who tweeted/follow RIM. Is that so hard to understand?
No, I get what you're saying. I do. But my point is RIM has no need to go after their blind followers. They have them in the bank. They need to reach out to current non-RIM owning individuals.
Oh it's amateur hour alright, on the part of those media and other twits that interpreted this any other way. If they had actually the original posting of the information in it's entirety instead of the typical modern habit of reading he headline or first couple of lines and jumping to conclusions. Not unlike too many comments posted on CB's comment section.
Just another case of some people are stupid and can't read so "it must be RIM's fault". While I'm not normally one to be so cynical, I just run into this same situation on a daily basis in IT.
Uhm WTF!! I like it. I wanna be the Blue one! :)
Chill out everyone... learn to be children sometimes and not take everything so damm seriously all the time.
I am glad it is not an ad campaign as well.
Good !!!
the bold comercials on tv are good imo.... I'm glad that these characters are not part of any advertisments.......... 1st post , new member, new playbook owner and bought alot shares not too long ago......... ( love the playbook)
As if the general public will take notice of this at all, some of you are acting like you have to hide inside because it's "so embarrassing" and "silly". Tsch, I'm glad it's not a marketing campaign, but jheez.
"Share it in a fun way"
Share it in a dumb way is more like it. RIM is fighting for its survival, yet their Marketing Droids find a way to screw up even the simplest of tasks by choosing an infantile, not too mention unhip mechanism for presenting statistical data. I believe the individual (s) responsible for this brain fart would be much happier writing ad copy for chocolatey breakfast cereals...
Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. And it's not the ad I'm talking about, it's the crazy overreactions…
Agreed... You really want to b--ch slap some of the people on the other sites... both the writers and the commentators.
If multiple media outlets run with it and RIM is forced to issue a press release hours later to clarify their intent, it's a mistake. Amateur hour....
I can't believe everyone is all aflutter about this. It's not an ad campaign, it was someone at RIM wasting a day on an avatar app. Move on.
And if there really was any problem it was more that they wasted the day making the characters, not that they released this. It was joking, gimmick type of thing. Being all "super" with new years resolutions. The fact that they put a blackberry spin on it makes it suddenly "bad marketing". Well interestingly enough all of you have taken the time to comment and pay attention to this. Even if it had been an ad campaign it isn't turning out so badly.
WTF was RIM thinking when they gave the green light to come up with this??!! Seriously!!! I was a huge Blackberry fan, but now I'm almost embarassed to see a Canadian company come up with tripe like this.
If RIM desn't get its poop in a group real quick like, we'll be saying "remember when BlackBerry was around years ago"
Someone needs to fire the ENTIRE marketing group
Again, it's not a campaign. It's an infographic, made for their blog. Was never intended to be used as marketing.
Regardless, making those silly characters public was just asking for bad press.
This goes to prove that no matter what RIM does, people will always whine and complain like babies. It's sad that RIM had to even acknowledge all the whiners complaining and b!tching. How the heck would you confuse this with an ad campaign?
+10000 chill out everyone....
Correction, not "people" but assholes on Crackberry. Yes if you posted a diatribe on here about this thing you are officially a Crackberry asshole, congrats!
I didn't give this a second thought until it was posted on here.
Marketing, advertising, or just a blog post - it's retarded.
But it is marketing. They spent time to compile data, get results and put it to the tune of 4 Cartoon Network characters.
That's marketing. RIM is just being very literal (I know there's another word for what they're doing, but I can't think of it) by saying it's not their new ad campaign.
It's is marketing. It also shows that the top brass in the marketing department have no idea how to market their brand to younger people.
It is an ill-conceived extension of the "Be Bold" marketing campaign.
Sorry Michelle, this was a bad idea for a professional company with RIM's demographic. It took seconds for the CrackBerry Nation to realize this, it shows me they don't understand what their strengths are, who their customers are and most importantly what their clients want.
Ohh, and by the way, everything visible to your clients or potential clients should be viewed as Marketing.
You want to complain about something? Go complain about Apple's use of child slave labour in their Chinese factories and stop worrying about RIM's cartoon characters that were intended to be fun.
+ Is it possible for RIMM to do anything without having it torn down with criticism? Apparently not?
If you would have read the original post you would have noticed that the characters were just what they said they were, a "characterization" of the tweets and facebook posts received during the New Year's Eve Bash.
The only tripe is the outrage by those who can read, but have the inability to understand what they read. Get a life, man!
RIM is back-peddling. 8)
I can't wait for all the critcs to claim "back-peddling" on Blackberry's part. In 3... 2... 1...
It was still widely reported and rather embarrassing for them. RIM should realise that they are in a bad space and any news is bad news until they actually get something right.
Silly little campaign that.
let's get CMO soon!!!
That's for the ipad commericals to have kids adding up their 1+3 math and playing the piano. Blackberry is a different demographic.
It's still silly.
Take note RIM. You had better hire an amazing marketing firm to kick butt. This reaction and general bad press is the result of you letting the competition and everyone else tell your story as they see it. If you don't take control of that message in a big way and overcome what has taken hold, it can kill you.
Think of weeds (bad/negative press)in a garden. You can plant all the healthy food you like that is good for you, but if you let weeds take over, it's doubly hard to overcome. Rumours and the wrong story, like weeds, can kill an otherwise good plant (product). Get out the rototiller and "take care" of those weeds! :)
I was about to post the same thing, but with not as nice of a word as "silly"