Blackberry is in the midst of its most ambitious campaign ever. The brand is promoting its new smartphone, the Z10, using almost every resource available, including: interactive, crowdsourcing, celebrities, social media, and their first ever Superbowl commercial.
The campaign’s slogan “Keep Moving” was reportedly inspired by a quote from legendary hotel mogul Conrad Hilton.
In an interview with the New York Times, Blackberry’s chief marketing officer said that the campaign is meant to target “doers, achievers, [and] people of action”. “They are about getting things done, success-oriented, multitasking and hyperconnected”.
One of the campaign’s most buzz-worthy TV spots does just that. The camera is in constant motion and set to the driving tempo of the song “Elephant” by Australian rockers Tame Impala.
The campaign kicked off with Blackberry’s first Superbowl commercial, which boldly shows viewers a few things that the Z10 actually can’t do.
However, the most ambitious element of the campaign is taking place online. Blackberry is hosting a series of creative projects in which fans of famous artists will be given a chance to work with their heroes. So far Alicia Keys, Robert Rodriquez, and writer Neil Gaiman are all working on projects that you are invited to help them with. Fans are given the chance to “get involved” in creating music videos, a short film, or an adaptation of a short story.
I am a big fan of director Robert Rodriguez’ work (Desperado, Machete, Sin City, From Dusk Till Dawn, Planet Terror, ect.) and I am very interested to see how his short film “Two Scoops” turns out. One of the opportunities that aspiring film makers have to get involved with “Project Green Screen” is to play a special agent in one of the film’s scenes.
I browsed the current set of video submissions and, frankly, found them all to be pretty terrible. This seems like an amazing opportunity for aspiring actors to showcase their talent and creativity. Watch Robert’s brief on the project and start practicing your lines now for a chance to work with the always innovative director.
Blackberry’s “Keep Moving” campaign is definitely ambitious. What is your favorite element of the campaign so far?
So far I’ve liked the Superbowl commercial in spite of things. I’ve never been a huge fan of Blackberry at all. However I am a huge fan of Android. With the new Blackberry 10 OS, inspired by the Z10, Blackberry devices that receive the upgrade are able to run most Android apps. This is a huge break in that consumers get offered the app selection of multiple mobile operating systems. In short what i’m trying to say is, that Blackberry should market this because it could potentially be a very big selling point. Thus far, their idea to promote the new device are good and gaining a lot of notoriety.