Hunt on for new RIM marketing director as man behind BlackBerry ‘Wake Up’ moved to MD
Matthew Ball
The search is on for a new marketing director at Research in Motion following the promotion of Matthew Ball, the man behind BlackBerry’s ‘Wake Up’ teaser campaign.
The former XBox and Vodafone marketer, who has been just a year in his post as marketing director of RIM Australia, has replaced Ray Gillenwater, who stepped down as the company’s boss after just three months in charge.
Ball confirmed that the marketing director role is vacant, with no immediate candidates lined up to replace him.
In April, Ball commissioned agencies Tongue, Starcom, Amnesia Razorfish and Frank PR to come up with a campaign to position BlackBerry as a consumer product to take on the likes of iPhone and Samsung Galaxy.
The ‘Wake up’ campaign, which was initially thought to be by Samsung, involved a series of stunts including a protest outside the Apple Store in Sydney.
Gillenwater was promoted to MD in April to replace long-serving country manager Adele Beachley.
Hope he lasts longer than Gillenwater! Whatever happened to Adele Beachley anyway, she was there for years, very high-profile MD, and then vanished overnight!
They are really scraping the bottom of the barrel now….
Congratulations and good luck Matt
You will no doubt do a great job
MC
well done Matt – you will smash it!
Who’d want to take a role at a doomed company with no innovations set to hit the market any time soon? Whoever does apply for this role, don’t accept any BS about ‘positioning’ them as a company that was once market leader, and is now a ‘challenger’ brand…that would imply they have a product that is a worthy competitor.
With what is now a reported 0.1% of the market share for new Smartphones purchased, one has to wonder if their will be any local staff left at RIM in 12 months!