Blackberry never seemed to need any advertising back in its days of glory. ‘sent from my BlackBerry’ was advertisement in itself. However, with its slipping down in the markets against some better competition, Research In Motion (RIM) launched its ‘Action Starts Here’ campaign to promote its brand last August.
The campaign focused on the asterisk that every BlackBerry user is familiar with- ‘splat’! According to Josy Paul, Chief Creative Officer and chairman, BBDO, the ‘splat’ for a user is a trigger or a call to action first thing in the morning, by providing notifications of emails, messages etc. Sunil Dutt, managing Director of RIM, thought that the idea was a more universal one rather than just an Indian one. The commercial for Blackberry’s ‘Action Starts Here’ campaign was then developed for India as well as a couple of other Asia Pacific markets. Josy Paul added that discovering the meaning of ‘splat’ was a moment of epiphany.
However, in spite of the profound statements, the TV commercial came off as a little overhyped. It is just another typical montage ad which marketers are more than willing to give a green signal to. The youth-hangouts, lisping moppets were all predictable. However, it did throw in some surprises too. In the commercial, a man detaches from the jingle and jumps out of the plane for a bit of skydiving (we hope).
Krishnadeep Baruah , director of marketing at RIM India, said that the ad campaign gave the brand a distinct identifier, targeted at a group of people who are passionate about certain things and believes in converting their dreams into action.
BlackBerry’s ‘Action Starts Here’ campaign was BlackBerry’s attempt to connect to the younger generation. However, Baruah is not too keen about how the campaign was developed. He would have preferred the brand stand for something specific and exclusive. The wide interpretation that was given diluted the power of the campaign, according to him.
BlackBerry had taken its campaign even to social media with its Facebook page launching the India Action Challenge on August 15 which lasted till October 4. It invited people to pledge to take constructive actions and come back with photos as proof of their action. People had enthusiastically signed up for the same, with others not being able to do so voting for their favorite pledges. .
Blackberry is still carrying forward its campaign ‘Action Starts Here’ to newer markets inviting locals from its markets around Asia in the digital campaign of ‘Action Starts Here’. It calls upon people to realize their dreams as well as change the world into a better place. If people have decided to buy the BlackBerry boxes from the shelves, it at least proves that the campaign had some reach.
