[insandouts]

That Mercedes AMG Petronas deal suits BlackBerry way better

Posted from my Canadian PassportSQW100-1/10.3.1.1151

LOL..how has that deal changed sales or perception of the company?

[Xenolock]

LOL..how has that deal changed sales or perception of the company?

Demographics. Look at the average Formula 1 enthusiast vs the average Drake enthusiast.....

From a Z30

[BB Adict]

As much as I don't like Drake it's a smart move to involve him in the BB brand. He has over 5.7 million followers on instagram. He's a big fan of the raptors and him posting pictures about them has single handedly increased ratings and given speculation to Raptors becoming more popular than the Leafs (there's many factors to this trend but Drake's involvement is certainly one of them)

In the era demonstrating the growing power and prevalence of social medias influence and celebrity endorsements, BB is very foolish not to take advantage of Drake as an endorsement. Sure they build "tools, not toys" but Blackberry is a business and they are the "tools" for not endorsing Drake and making an increased profit because ultimately a businesses prime objective is to make a profit and an intelligent and efficient business will use multiple streams in order to achieve that aim.

Not hating I love BB but there understanding of marketing and marketing strategy is akin to a monkey trying to operate a personal computer in hopes of creating the next Facebook.

Drake has little to do with the Raptors increased ratings. The Raptors increasing popularity is due to the fact that they are now winning.

Posted via CB10

[Sequester#WN]

Quite honestly I have just Googled for Drake as I am a) not into rap music and b) European (and c) probably too old).

If BlackBerry was to sponsor a celebrity it should be a global brand, otherwise this is pretty useless. Insofar I have to agree with one of the previous posts. Sponsoring a F1 team might be quite a good idea because this is a global event - although not very popular in North America.

The question is: how important is North America as a key market now? I would assume the local base is in some European countries, parts of Asia and Africa. Americans got used to the iPhone.

I work for an American company and they are about to switch to Apple in January. I will get myself a Classic then and load "Good for Enterprise" on it. Nobody ever will see me using Apple as a business phone. This simply is wrong.

Posted via CB10

[SK122387]

He's endorsed them for the very, very low price of FREE.

Why would they pay him? Sending him devices is enough... for now, until maybe they focus on the consumer market sometime in the future.

[cmartin329]

I am 55 years old. Who the hell is Drake? Do you want him to endorse for kids or what? I am about taking care of business not playing. I have an Ipad for that.

[sandman10]

whats a Drake?

[BL3]

Quite honestly I have just Googled for Drake as I am a) not into rap music and b) European (and c) probably too old).

If BlackBerry was to sponsor a celebrity it should be a global brand, otherwise this is pretty useless. Insofar I have to agree with one of the previous posts. Sponsoring a F1 team might be quite a good idea because this is a global event - although not very popular in North America.

The question is: how important is North America as a key market now? I would assume the local base is in some European countries, parts of Asia and Africa. Americans got used to the iPhone.

I work for an American company and they are about to switch to Apple in January. I will get myself a Classic then and load "Good for Enterprise" on it. Nobody ever will see me using Apple as a business phone. This simply is wrong.

Posted via CB10

Drake is, with no doubt, a global brand

Posted via CB10

[bobshine]

I'll give you an example of things not to do with marketing... Apple and U2. How much do you think Apple paid to have that marketing stunt with U2? I heard something like 30M.

What did that do? Nothing.

But free marketing like what Drake is providing, that's priceless. Cause you know that this guy is honestly saying that he likes his BlackBerry. He's not paid to do it. So OP, you think BlackBerry should ruin this?

Posted via CB10

[Carjackd]

Come on John! He's one of the hottest icons now, and he loves BlackBerry. And yet you decided not to sign him to an endorsement deal simply because "BlackBerry is focusing on enterprises" !? This is probably one of the best chances to take advantage of, just imagine how much more revenue you can generate, bumps up your market share to attract more developers, and make BlackBerry relevant to the mass again.

Please consider

Posted via CB10

Alicia Keys has 20 Million followers...how did that deal work out for BlackBerry? Nuff said!

Executive Producer of the Peevishlicious Crew via my Canadian Passport

[eddy_berry]

Why does BlackBerry need to pay Drake for something he will do anyway? People just see him using a BlackBerry and that's good enough and not a dime was spent. Give him a Classic and that's minimal spending on marketing. Which they just did. Done. No need to spend money on a rich guy to get him to do something he already does anyway. Now which sounds more idiotic? Unnecessary expenditures IMO.

Posted via CB10

[cseggleton]

Last time I checked "enterprise" means quite a few things. I would capitalize on many types of enterprise. Dr., lawyer, rapper, astronaut, etc.

Posted via CB10

[cseggleton]

Alicia Keys deal did not work as it seemed very desperate at the time. The last phone tie in with an artist I remember that really seemed to work was U2 and Apple with the Vertigo single.

Posted via CB10

[ponpiri]

Not to mention cutting a deal with the Kardashian clan who the majority still use the bold 9900. In fact the keyword is so popular in certain circles they invented the stupid typo keyboard which blackberry sued for. If they were smart they could of leveraged the celebrity of the Kardasians and Ryan Seacrest(created typo or invested in it because he loved BB keyboard) too generate lots of positive publicity and make BB appear trendy and cool to a more youthful generation while also maintaining their corporate appeal.

So there startegy is to go all corporate, well that's great but would they lose market share if Kim or Drake endorsed the phone? No Would CEO care? No, Would high level execs care? No. Because in the end they just want something with max security and productivity. The reason enterprise doesn't care is also reflective in main major corp partners switching from blackberry to Android and Apple.

Absolutely not. A big fat NO to using any reality stars as ambassadors, especially the Kardashians.

Drake would be a great choice if they were to go that route. He's one of the most inoffensive "rappers" out right now. Even so, I'm sure that a lot of the "this is a tool, not a toy" crowd would be miffed regardless..

[donmateo]

Why? For the cost to manufacture and ship a Classic, they reached tens of millions of people. That's the kind of advertising you can only get in that sort of grass roots type effort. Tell me where BlackBerry can reach that amount of people for, say, $250-$300?

[srzjumper]

Have you heard his monotone voice on radio? epic talent fail

Have you heard about all the people that can't get along with him? epic personality fail

Have you seen him try to shoot a 3 pointer? epic irrelevant fail

[ponpiri]

Alicia Keys deal did not work as it seemed very desperate at the time. The last phone tie in with an artist I remember that really seemed to work was U2 and Apple with the Vertigo single.

Posted via CB10

I think the best celebrity endorsements Apple has done was Justin Long with the Mac/Windows jibes and the upcoming artists for their iPod campaigns. The U2/Apple collab turned into a disaster after they added the entire album onto iPhones without permission. That was a pretty big news item a few months back.

I think electronics (and dating websites/alcohol) are being endorsed by entertainers via their music videos these days. Americans are finally taking notes from Korean and Japanese businesses by having branded items show up in music videos.

[_tC]

When I bought my Niagara 9630 BlackBerry, there was a tie-in with the band U2. A trackball having, no WiFi phone.
I'd like to see a picture of Mike Phelps with a Classic in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other to show just how efficient one could be.

Posted via CB10

[johnnydoesai]

Okay fine. I get it, it's a about enterprises, and profit, and the fact that drake is already doing it for free..i get it. But man if there's a commercial for BlackBerry Classic, can you imagine Drake in it? Surely it will beat an image of Cheney walking around introducing Classic as a productive tool etc etc....

Posted via CB10

[surgeon1919]

We don't need some overrated rapper or hip-hop artist representing BlackBerry ! We don't need that kind of demographic appeal.

BlackBerry just needs to create some clever tv commercials, provide incentive to store reps to sell the phone and work on closing a deal with some big name app creators.

We have the OS that few know about. Once the enterprise side of things picks up a little more, it will be 'cool' to have a BlackBerry again.

Posted via CB10

[surgeon1919]

Drake is, with no doubt, a global brand

Posted via CB10

Give me a break!

Posted via CB10

[itzJustMeh]

Who is this Drake?

[vprince69]

Because some little kid knows more about marketing and how a company functions than people who has spent years in the position...

Posted via CB10

[itsyaboy]

All BlackBerry needs to do is bring out good BlackBerry phones and give Drake something of an exclusive tour or whatever. If Drake likes it, he'll promote the phone his way. If he doesn't, well, the fault will probably lie somewhere between Drake and BlackBerry. The truth is far more efficient. If he's naturally enthusiastic about BlackBerry he'll promote, I wouldn't worry about that.

However, when people notice he is being signed for an endorsement deal, all of his pro-BlackBerry activity will feel fake and thus loose value. And all his non-BlackBerry activity, like him using another phone, will be blown up like: SEE, even their signed celebrity doesn't use BlackBerry all the time!

I think it would cost too much money, his audience is primarily consumer based and the risk of side-effects are too great. Remember Alicia Keys?

[Plazmic Flame]

BlackBerry did exactly what they needed to do...

If you follow Drake's Instagram account, they gave him a BlackBerry Classic and he was thankful for it. Millions of his followers read it and saw it, they want it, mission accomplished. No need to bring him on into the ranks of the company officially. We don't want another Alicia Keys scenario.

Anyways, Drake has always been a self promoter of BlackBerry himself which has helped them more than they know. Things are exactly as they need to be on the endorsement front. Lets not sink the boat now.