Advertising Campaign For: BlackBerry
In the Internet age, technological advancement is crucial in Blackberry’s eorts to enhance its
appearance and interface so that modern day users of mobile phones are adopting the latest
technological trends. Moreover, with enhanced voice and data communications, Canadian consumers
are demanding more personal entertainment capabilities through wireless communication devices,
particularly, smartphones.
The wireless communications industry has undertaken initiatives in expansion of next generation ‘4G’
networks whereby consumers would be able to take advantage of high download and upload speeds. In
2012, there were 359 million subscribers of mobile device customers and the numbers continue to
increase. However, the Canadian smartphone market size forecast reveals a gradual decrease over the
period 2012-2016.
Advertising Plan
Advertising can be somewhat inexpensive if done right. But for a company like blackberry that is big you
can spend a good amount but not so much that it will hurt the budget.
Recently, most of the marketing clout was focused on the debut of the Blackberry Z series phones which
is their new touch screen phones that are more like androids. RIM launched a Blackberry ‘Be Bold’ ad
campaign but it did not make a great impact as was expected. RIM also made an eort to use
expressions or taglines to out-execute its competitors such as ‘I’m about action, not distraction’ and ‘we
need tools, not toys.
By the end of 6scal 2012, the Blackberry subscriber base grew to 77 million users globally and the
company became a leading brand on prepay positions in countries such as the United Kingdom,
Netherlands, Spain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa, Nigeria, Indonesia and Latin America. Furthermore,
the Blackberry developer pla>orm was enhanced and Blackberry World application exceeded 2 billion
downloads. That is according to the Blackberry Annual Report in 2013
The global BBM consumer base were approximately 55 million active users as of March 3, 2012 with
more than 325 socially connected Blackberry applications which were downloaded close to 60 million
times. RIM also launched BBM Music service for social sharing.
The advertising expenses which included media, agency and promotional expenses totaled $925 million
(March 3, 2012 – $864 million; February 26, 2011 – $1.1 billion) which is included in selling, marketing
and administration expenses.
The Blackberry brand appeals to a larger number of customers between the ages of 21 to 50. However,
market segments are clearly defined by age category and Blackberry oers phones which would appeal
to the markets which include younger persons and also businessmen and women. However, in the
analysis of Blackberry’s market segments, it is clear that the challenge occurs where customers were not
using Blackberry services to activate high-value data plans.
Due to the release of its newest Z series phones and operating systems, the target audience includes
users who are younger or are under the age of thirty-6ve (35).
The main media objective for this campaign is to reach the largest number of consumers around the U.S
and Canada, for sure being based out in Canada the biggest number of Canadians who are mostly
Blackberry’s Target Market. Create a buzz about the brand and awareness is fundamental for the
campaign too.
Blackberry users are always connected, so that’s why social media pla>orms are a big part of the
campaign. TwiGer, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube will be used and all connected with common
hashtags, so the same content can be shared in dierent ways. As social media is always on and always
changing, the campaign will be there during the whole 6-months period but with dierent approaches
