BlackBerry Wake Up campaign switches to targeting people who ‘mean business’

“Business is no longer just a suit-wearing, cubicle-sitting, card-carrying kind of pursuit.
“These days being ‘in business’ means you’re the kind of person who takes action and makes things happen.”

Is RIM finally directly targeting their real market – rioting chavs?

hahahahahahha, god i hope they paid a lot for this campaign! It is on brand though: totally uninspired, unintuitive, doesn’t work well with other components, and has no appeal to business or consumers.

“Flash mob”….as usual Blackberry about 2 years too late!

That video left me feeling decidedly….uninspired.

They say nothing kills a bad product faster than great advertising, but thankfully – I reckon the campaign matches the product perfectly here. If it can’t tell me why I should buy a blackberry over any other smart phone, it’s the video equivalent of a white flag waving.

the v/o sounds like a placeholder recorded by an intern for the client meeting…..all you need to do is see and hear the top notch production values on all Apple marcoms and the difference with these guys is very apparent.

you can’t deliver a worthy idea and message (albeit misguided in the first place) with shite production values.

One word: Embarrassing.

oh Amnesia Razorfish, i used to have so much respect for you! If anyone has the interest, flip open the source of that web page and get ready to keep laughing!

The v/o sounds like JP from Tongue….anyone confirm?

I don’t understand this campaign.

It goes outs of its way to insult its target audience (Wake up iPhone users) and then provides no concrete reasons as to why Blackberry is a viable alternative to iPhone.

Is there a new Blackberry product that matches iPhone? What does it look like? Why is it better?

oh my god…..

I am usually the first one on here to go off at commenters for being to harsh on their industry colleagues.

But this?

This is just crap! Seriously?!

If you are going to do a circa 2005 teaser campaign, then don’t disappoint the audience when it finally gets there. The ad talks about ‘Waking Up’ and ‘Being Bold’ but the delivery of it (including the voiceover) was enough to put most viewers into a coma.

And the message that you have to use Blackberry if you mean business. Please. Hope this is the final nail in the Blackberry coffin.

yep

Disappointing campaign, really doesn’t make sense, yes it is creating some noise, but for what?

Does not show any promise that Blackberry will recover.

I’m with Dave (Comment 10). I try to be positive … but this campaign is terrible.

Even to my 100 year old eyes it looks dated!

It’s so awkward to watch and listen… It really looks like a ’90s Year 1 Uni assignment.. It’s a shame that Blackberry chose this path. I think it would have been smarter to learn what their colleagues in Argentina or Brazil are doing for example – in those countries everyone uses Blackberry for work and personal. Very strong brand presence because they have better service and better deals than their competitors…

Yeah, Apple’s “Think Different” campaign was years ago, how many people will even remember the reference. It’s like “we know we’re getting stomped by Apple so we’ll try to run an Apple type ad campaign”
Of course it fails to even address the whole “Android” thing. I mean that’s pretty popular too I’ve heard.
Never mind. I’m sure some other middle aged men out there will find it very “cutting edge” who knows it may even go “viral” whatever that means.
But it’s a good thing right?

“Think different” is a nice reference to Apple’s previous advertising?

But I think this great ad does the job of pointing out that Blackberries do email and nothing else so can only be used for business.

Hoping not to be too boring but unfortunately it is true that ….

Blackberry:

Used to signify a well paid city worker with important emails.

Now signifies a less well paid city worker whose boss won’t get them an iPhone.

That voiceover is quite possibly the worst thing I’ve ever heard.
It doesn’t seem even close to being professionally produced, doesn’t sound like someone that is even “in business” as they put it.

I just don’t understand the thinking. Why picket the Apple Store if your audience is business people? Why link from the campaign page to a Facebook page, which is very un-business like? Why are you patronising me about what it means to be in business? Why bother at all when Bring Your Own Device is clearly the way forward?

Does anyone else feel like punching the voice-over right in his voice box!?

Is the pre-roll and expandable MREC annoying anyone else…..

I kind of get it. That Blackberry is for more serious business people but they don’t mean the boring business people. Maybe? Or am i wrong.

I have an iphone and i am very serious about business. I wouldn’t change.

My God, what an awful cringe-worthy voice-over!!!

Absolute muppets. Poor strategy, poor execution.

Terrible execution…
The VO not only sounds horrid, but it doesn’t even keep up with the text which distracted me the whole clip…..

urgh. another epic fail from RIM.

I can believe I wasted time on this. Not only is the flash mob old school, but so is the use of the “flash intro” – I was waiting for the site to load and for me to actually see product on the site – but No, there is nothing on the site.
Terrible…

I’m pretty damn sure the VO is none other than Jonathan Pease himself. The ‘Executive Ideas Director’ at the agency responsible for this tripe.

Sounds like its blackberry that has woken up, two or three years too late.

Rimmed

It’s so 1984. Not the Apple ad, not the book, but the actual year.

Yep it’s ‘JP’. Great salesman…..

I thought you were all being bitchy industry people.

Then I bothered listening to the voice over. OMFG, they should weaponise it, cops could use it for crowd control.

How much would that travesty have earned its creators?

Walked away from computer, then realised maybe I should be in advertising if this mob are getting work. Completely off-topic, but here’s a concept:

– King Kong is rampaging through a city, being especially spiteful, knocking over the odd building.

– He comes across a brewery and proceeds to down a few vats of beer.

– Our protagonist takes to the streets again and starts crushing cars against his head like some idiot drunk crushes beer cans.

– He picks up the client’s car and knocks himself out with it. The car won’t crush, it’s tough and safe and unscathed. The car falls to the ground with the giant gorilla and speeds off.

Sounds expensive, but you could prob. do it cheap with some crappy 3D or stop-motion animation and the idea would still hold. Right, I need more coffee.

Five agencies and not one stopped this?

Wow. This is unbelievably bad copy. Just awful. Embarrassing.

a teaser which puts you to sleep – and probably a campaign as boring as the brand to follow!

Surely they could have afforded a professional VO artist?
I mean, Jonathan Pease, really?
This is awful to the extreme.

This just interrupted my playlist on Youtube.

Voice-over is horrific.

“You’re either in business or you’re not.”

you are right, I am not in your business.