RIM will be gearing up with more advertising in the coming months in hopes of showing off all that is BlackBerry to prospective and current consumers. I've never been a big fan of RIMs take on advertising as I always felt they could do way more to spread some BlackBerry love through TV and print ads. While cruising the forums this morning I found this thread that posed a great question: Just what do you think RIM should promote? Should they show off apps? Devices? Features like Mobile Hotspot and NFC? Let us know what you think in the poll above (you can choose up to 3 features), then hit the comments and let us know your thoughts on how RIM should step it up with some great ads.
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Reader comments
What BlackBerry features do you think RIM should be promoting?
it should add skype viber and all these applications so that we dont go buy a stupid iphone or an android.what are you waiting for????????
I saw the bicycle (Night Bike) commercial recently. Super well done change from the usual I see from BlackBerry. Immediately got my interest, and then at the end they showed the phone. People who want specs or technical details can look at BlackBerry.com or here. The average consumer wants a cool phone, or they want to do cool things with their phone.
Bbm music!!!!!! no one knows about it.
Most of the CrackBerry nation pays attention to the inner workings of the devices and expects them to perform. The general public want them to play the games and have the apps and shamefully, some want to be seen with the "it" phone. Turn the BlackBerry BACK into the "it" phone. Get it into the hands of top celebrities in commercials and get the new BB10 phones into movies as props like they do in the 007 movies or like BMW is doing with the current Mission Impossible movie. Make the BlackBerry the "it" phone again while at the same time delivering on the performance rivaling the other phones.
When I decided to get my first BlackBerry it was mainly because the warranty of communication. Great service anywhere, even when all networks are down. When the earthquake hit New York in the summer I was able to get in touch with all my family members because they all had BlackBerrys. Or am I just naiive?
RIM needs to just be Rim. You can't out apple apple & you can't out droid droid. RIM needs to figure out who & what they are. If they can do that then they will have a direction to go & can innovate in the industry. Focus on what RIM does better than anyone else. Improve those areas. Create add campaigns to let the world know. I can see it now. Add campaign with music being "Its A Small World" filmed at Disney World in the winter time. They have a contest and bring people in from every country that Blackberry is in. Shoot the video and have a conference at the same time. They come out ahead on multiple fronts.
Rim just promote the damn phones. Everytime I pop out my blackberry torch 9860 the ppl around look stunned by it. Most of them don't even know that this device exist.
people dont know about blackberry 7
they think Blackberry is like 5.0 freezing up, not compatible with anything Iphone is like sliced bread from a marketing standpoint sooooo Blackberry needs to come with a solid phone like the playbook Google compatible and ready to battle or else its curtains...
Ivan S. Harris
Ivansharris.com
whatever it is they need a strong NEW Innovative product and billion dollar marketing team...
Im not leaving Blackberry but GOODNESS i know we need something!!!
Ivan S. Harris
Ivansharris.com
THEY NEED TO ADVERTISE THEIR APPS!! A big reason people don't get BB is because they think there are no good apps. Get the Torch 9850/9860 and show off some good apps.
The quality of the screen and keyboard along with the web browsing because lets face it.. everyone knows about BBM... and their application and games are nowhere near the quality of iPhone so it'd just be a waste of time.
I found it funny how most voted for the same thing RIM has been doing for years... look where that's got them.
The should have an iPhone, droid touchscreen, and a bold side by side by side...and have them all type out the same message. See who does it fastest and with the least mistakes...
Or expand upon that and have them go through a series of 3 emails (or texts) to show who gets through them the fastest including receipt & transmit time (and of course it shows off the wonderful crackberry light).
Market it as a communication tool first and foremost not a gaming device or app fiend. You'll always lose out. Show what makes BlackBerry different than Apple or IOS like the freedom of choice and the security that goes with it.
The Problem with the one man think tank some old bloke in Canada method worked when North American and western Business men and women were all you needed to buy in to the product.
The adverts need to be location based Take the UK the blackberry is everywhere due to various reasons but the one price virtually unlimited messaging.
Explain BBM especially the new 6.1 features compare those to other OS messaging systems. Show the functions like they can send MP3's to their friend or voice notes to their BF/GF don't expect even those who have the Phone to know all the functions..
The battery life loads more people in the UK and Europe travel on Public transport /walk it seems compared to the US so not having a charger matters.
Why do the youth of the UK like Blackberrys, BBM, Battery life, easy to type on and one handed if your shopping or with your friends, durable, easy to customise and make unique, swap batterys and sims easily. The security most kids value privacy so show them how well they can be locked down.
Also like others have mentioned show how easy they are to back up and restore if you lose. Show how easy it is to keep all your contacts, messages and pictures/mp3's as they were on your old phone.
Use the famous people that use them to promote them it matters to young people.
Show how little data they use while the webpage looks the same most of the time as a android or Iphone. The 9860 Show off how compact and nice to hold they are compared to some Andorids.
Show how with BB services enabled you can budget your costs easily wheter your on pay monthly or PAYG.
This is a big issue not just in the West its a massive issue in developing nations where their phone maybe there most used internet device..
Show the Facebook and twitter applications show how good they are the major part of the market still walks into a phone shop or rings up to renew their contract or buy a PAYG they don't read detailed reviews or care about phones for the rest of the year.
Show how easy it is to communicate, send pictures, short videos, songs, voice notes and feel closer with BBM wherever your loved ones are..
KS-BB showing if you need to USE your phone 24/7 then get a BB if you want games and use your phone now and then go and get a ...
The one thing Business people and Young people need to do is be in communication 24/7. Concentrate on certain markets you can't convince all...
Some Apps do matter
Maybe Google will not assit with google plus but with other social networks or Killer Apps/services such as Path or Dropbox or Evernote (which has really improved recently) offer them as much help as you can to develop applications or services. Imagine dropbox or evernote with BBM integration. Help these companies see and enable applications which have unique qualities..
Simple:
0. Best communication device, with the critical apps that you want to use
1. Show three BB's: Torch, Torch Slider, and Bold
- show great keyboards (if you want them)
- show big touchscreens (use the 9810 and 9850 - many people do not think that it has touch screen)
- show website: browsing (need to show pinch to zoom).
- show games: (something like Zombie Attack and/or Nova)
- show Music: (Pandora, Tunein Radio, and BBM Music)
- show social: Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare clients)
- show business apps: (Bloomberg, Weather, and Etrade)
2. Then show GPS: Show Garmin on the 9850.
You could do this all in a 30 sec spot.
The fact is, I know that a lot of us love the small screen and keyboards of the Bold series - but that is not what consumers really want. They want awesome screens, entertainment, social, etc. And, people need to realize what OS7 and the new models can do.
AND - Blackberries can do them. That is what is so annoying to me. Most people are equating BB's to the days of old.
My personal fav is the 9810. The best combo keyboard/screen on the market. They are not doing this justice at all.
My opinion:
First thing they need to do is complete the Google integration with BIS. Still no native task sync! I can't believe this is still missing. And half the time it takes ages for web-google changes to show up on my BB, and vice versa. This needs to be practically instantaneous. Like BES/Exchange.
Then they need to tout the keyboard BlackBerry as the best communication device on the market. A BlackBerry isn't the best mobile device on the market, but I think it's the best communicator, and until they have one that actually competes with the Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4S and so forth, they should stick to what they do best. Communication devices.
If they ever get around to building an actual iPhone/Nexus/Razr/etc killer, then they can start marketing to directly compete with those. Until that happens, they should stick to what they do best.
RIM needs to advertise more full stop.
Seriously people....BATTERY LIFE. Not even a choice??
Several (10+) people that work together getting up at 6am for work and pulling their Androids, iPhones and one, just one, person with a BB off of their charger.
Flash later - Blackberry user looks at his watch...its 3pm...looks over to a friend and says watch this:
All of the sudden, Android and iPhone users running around in a panic trying to find a place to charge their phones. Total chaos..
Blackberry user laughing in the breakroom, sending a quick e-mail with 50 to 75% of the battery left on his 9900 with a huge grin on their face and says "Happens every day".
I like this idea for an ad very much, although RIM will have to make sure to issue OS upgrades on the 9850/9860 and 9900/9930 phones that addresses their less than stellar battery life. It's not horrible (I've been to dinner with several Droid friends whose phones are dead at 6:00 pm and mine still has life) but there have been some white-knuckle times with my 9850 that I never had with my Storm2.
What BlackBerry needs is one or two apps that iPhones and Droids don't have (not necessarily games) that are remarkable in some way.
I'm not sure if any of you have used BlackBerry Travel much, but it is an incredible app that I'm not sure the competition has. RIM can enhance it to include real time reservations at restaurants and movie theatres and integrate traffic and GPS guidance, etc. to get you there as a "one stop shop" for getting around locally not just for far away travel. Tie it in with Foursquare. Maybe add a one-click "call a cab" button. The possibilities are out there.
RIM however needs to make it INCREDIBLE, not just "pretty good".
so basically 90% of you shouldnt go into the marketing/advertising bizz
why market things that people already know/can see
whats hot right now is apps, and most people dont know blackberry for its apps, thats where they should focus the marketing. more marketing on software features (apps/games)
No no no. Just no. There is no way RIM could focus on promoting apps. BlackBerry has the weakest set of apps compared with the competition. They would basically be saying, "Look at all of our apps", and the audience would say, "um, where's x, y and z that we use on our iPhone/Android?".That would be throwing money down the drain. Actually, throwing money down the drain would be better. This would be spending money to make your competition stand out!
They have to focus on what they BEAT the competitors at: Communication.
Functionaliry ease, communication device and keyboard. All the hardcore fans know that blackberry has the best keyboard but mainstream doesn't. My daughter loves keyboards and would try to make fun of me for having a blackberry. She got a taste of the sexy 99xx and loved it. She didn't want to stop typing.
Maybe this will be the year they're going to make that Super Bowl commercial... even though last year would've been prime for a PlayBook one.
Most people I know who stay with the Blackberry do so for one main reason: the keyboard. Okay they like all the other features, but they really like the keyboard. And I think even the most devout iOS and Android lovers just put up with their touch screen keyboards.
So RIM should promote the keyboard and the buttons. Buttons are Cool. Show people sending text messages with one hand without even looking at their phone.
But they could also promote the fact that this makes the phone easier to use. Buttons in iPhone apps can be anywhere. The Send To button never seems to be in the same place. But on the Blackberry, you always know where to look for a function. Because it has buttons, it is always in the same place.
By the way, I also like the fact that the Blackberry goes silent when it goes in its holster. No other phone I've seen does that.
What BlackBerry features should RIM be promoting?
EVERYTHING!
"Playbook: Official tablet of the NFL"
Sponsor a Research in Motion: Blackberry Bowl for college football.
I like the current commercials, but need to see them more.
More product placement please.
Google Budweiser 'Epic Toast' and see the youtube clip.
"Stand with me and raise your blackberries high!"
The NUMBER ONE thing RIM should be doing is advertising their security features and secure data transfer of their devices. Use fear to show just how insecure iPhones and Androids are. What's funny here is they don't have to lie or stretch the truth one bit, just paint the picture like it is.
We can start with:
Step 1: Fire whoever was in charge of their advertizing
Step 2: Concentrate on the features that have made BlackBerry popular such as the keyboard - avoid embarrassing typos with the best QWERTY keyboard on the 9900, PUSH email and alerts, BBM - show it as an exclusive feature! Show exclusive apps such as BlackBerry Traffic, BlackBerry Protect, BlackBerry Travel!
Step 3: Show the enhancements made in recent time such as the drastically improved browser, touch screen experience.
Do it all in a subtle way that shows BlackBerry as THE phone to have.
If anything we need apps and games.
Before I even think about features I WANT genuine BB ear phone set, my torch came with these cheap earphones like they just came from the Dollarama, they can not even stay on the ear, like WTF? I am so P**** off I am DONE with Blackberry, to think that I have vowed to remain faithful to my Canadian brand and get ripped off on stupid ear phones. Furthermore, the new phones dont come with a memory card nor a pouch, I mean what the hell happened.My husband and son's contracts are over in March and I will be damned to get them Blackberry. I want my earphones and I want them now!!! REALLY BITTER
Wow... And to think all RIM had to do to garner your support was supply better ear buds. You're easy to please - lol
Are you serious? I can understand the memory card omission getting you mad, but the earphones in any product (no matter what it is) are always crap and are included just to "get you by" until you upgrade to a good pair. I never even took the ones for my Torch 9850 out of the box because I have a great portable set and a Bose noise cancelling set to use with all my audio equipment.
Besides, I think it is the wireless phone company that makes the decisions to include accessories and memory cards, not BlackBerry.
They need to spend $50 million of that money and invest in app startups (don't have to be bb exclusives) that get early access to the BB10 tools and have them start developing apps. Then spend another $10-$50 million on getting web app developers to make a icloud and Office 365 competitor that can access all your webmail, contacts, task, cloud storage, and BBM online. Then expand BBM so that it is more of a niche social network tool (i.e. Path) but with online web format to match which allows for easier friend discovery.
All of these are things they can do between now and the launch of new hardware. It will give them something meaningful for consumers and businesses to talk about and get the Company on the offensive.
Most importantly, these app developers and cloud team should be based out of SF or New York. It will give RIM a meaningful US presence and real representation in the States.
They should do a "co promotion" with ATT and highlight the Torch 9810......They should forget about promoting their first decent touchscreen aka 9860 and, by all means, do not mention the best qwerty keyboard on the planet aka 9900.......Oh, they have already taken my advice on this.....NM
The apps that should be promoted should be the RIM-developed apps:
* BlackBerry Protect
* BlackBerry Travel
* BlackBerry Traffic
* BlackBerry News
* BlackBerry Podcasts
* BlackBerry Social Feeds
* BlackBerry Management Center
* MVS
plus - BlackBerry Bridge
This could potentially harm developers wanting to create applications for the platform - if there are any left. They'll never win in the applications game in my opinion because that's what Apple and Android promote. What they need a dose of is why they're different/better than the competition, not the same.
There was talk of RIM discontinuing the BlackBerry line to save the company. They cannot talk about use with Playbook since it was a colossal failure in the eyes of the consumer (see sales data to back opinion here).
I think it could be interesting if they stole some of Androids sauce on attacking fanboys of other devices, maybe along the lines of "BlackBerry users don't have time to wait in line for 13 days to get the latest phone, likely because they have their secretary ordering and setting it up for them." Not those words but you get what I mean I think.
Another angle would be battery life. BlackBerry's are pretty darn good on the juice, whereas my iPhone (yes, I have both and willingly pay for the latter while work picks up the tab on the former), leaves much to be desired on battery life (see recent issues with iOS5 for more here). I'm assuming Android is on par with Apple barely eeking out a full day with moderate use - god forbid you're traveling and don't have access to a charger.
I do hope the company makes a turnaround here but things certainly haven't gone well the past 12 months to say the least.
The fact that RIM develops good apps doesn't take away from the other great developers out there. The key advantage here is that these apps come free and often prepackaged with the device. Yes, there are a lot of teenagers and techies that sift through the vast app stores to dig out their preferred apps. However, there are also a lot of 30-plus-year-olds that don't have the time or interest to go sifting through thousands of apps to find the perfect one. The fact that they know they are getting these great apps already with the device is a selling point and reduces the total cost of ownership.
One more I forgot to add to the list: Docs to Go! An amazing free productivity app, especially the spreadsheet app.
I don't disagree with your point that they have some good native, non-junk, applications. My point was not to oversell that so people are turned off when a version of (blank)ville isn't immediately announced for BB at the same time as iOS and Android.
An expanded thought on the "no time to wait in line" idea I mentioned earlier. What about filming this outside the new Apple store in Grand Central Terminal with 2 BB-using characters (army vet and business dad) passing through on the way out for a last minute meeting, then back again next day (all on one battery charge) through same station while Apple fans are in line. Tag line "Let BlackBerry guide you home in time for the holidays." Include some kind of travel app, some hotel reservation app or whatever else they can come up with all while staying in touch with friends and family for plans through BBM. If RIM marketing guys are reading, you're welcome.
I still own a blackberry (given the other choices out there), pretty much only because of the keyboard.
I like a BlackBerry because of the keyboard. I must have a physical keyboard. A phone now a days has to have the "Cool Factor". I do not understand why BlackBerry doesn't get some star power behind them. I wait every Monday to see the celebrity sightings. Judging by the comments so do other people. If Justin Bieber has a purple BlackBerry (which he does) wouldn't that make a bunch of little girls want a purple BlackBerry? And lets face it, like the Kardashians or not, they can sell stuff! They all have BlackBerries....Why are they not in a BlackBerry commercial? There are ton of movie stars that have BlackBerries, professional athletes have them, even models have them......A BalckBerry is not "Un-Cool"..it's just not promoted enough by the right people.
BTW, why are all the crackberry team on google +. Don't you know that is a failure and Google is going to shut it down?
They should focus on:
-The big beautiful Bold keyboard (no more typos! lol)
-The new Touchscreen on the Bold (old form factor thats updated!)
-Low Data Consumption (u can buy the cheapest data plan!)
-Long Battery Life (no longer chained to your charger!)
- New Web Browser (u can finally load a webpage w/ pinch to zoom!)
-Push Notifications (instant updates to email and social media!)
-Customization (Sound Profiles, Themes, BEDSIDE mode lol)
-Blackberry Protect ( never worry abt losing your data!)
RIM Hire me for your Marketing team :)
That is a good list but sadly none of these things are really uncontested in the market any longer.
- Like it or not, the fixed keyboard is becoming a dinosaur.
- The Bold touchscreen is small and redundant.
- Sure, data consumption is low because no one wants to use the BB browser or apps!
- Battery life is probably the BB's only advantage, but really who doesn't have a charger with them anyway?
- The browser is new but still behind the competition.
- Every phone has push notifications now.
- I'll give you this one, but most BB users probably can't figure out how to customize the sound profiles because the interface is horrible.
- iCloud, etc...
I looked at the vote and apps were pretty low on the list, while people said security.
I don't think so. People that care about security already have a BB if you want to sell I think you need to get the message out that RIM has most of thetop apps.
Unfortunately they don't have THE tops apps like angry birds and words with friends. They should take 1 million of the 100 million they plan to spend and write versions of those games.
Angry Birds might just be too hard given graphics limitations but Words with friends or whatever the hell it's called should be doable.
Show and Ad that features 8 out of 10 of the top apps.
I'd be like "Everyone knows Blackberry is the top email and instant messaging device but did you know it has all these apps too, then name the 8 of the top 10 or 15 of the top 20.
If they indeed do not have 15 of the top 20 then I guess I'd just hire a bunch of top celebs to say they use the phone.
Funny, as of today Angry Birds is available for Playbook, RIM listened to you :)
And Words with Friends works nice on OS2.
P.S. I'm not a fan of either games but hopefully others will like them
BROWSER CAPABILITIES
Many people have no idea its A Webkit now and think the browser is still the OS 5 browser
Simple ad showing web browsing would do wonders
I like this ad. Definitely more ads like this and more frequently
Agree, frquency has a lot to do with it.
It almost seems to me that they should have been doing this beforehand. Build up the 'want' factor and interest and then keep it going in the peak of the sales. The 9900 has been on for a couple months which is years in tech times. Its a good phone but this should have been happening months ago.