Hey All,
Have a ton of work to get done tonight (tight timeframe), but wanted to drop a message here quick for those who are fired up about the What Would You Do for a BlackBerry 10 Phone? Contest.
Today was posted the 4th winner -- the bikini photoshoot -- and it got a lot of mixed comments (some of you LOVING it, others hating on it getting picked), so just wanted to address it here. I browsed through the comments quick.. didn't read every single word, but got the gist of it. So let me drop some notes here to clarify things.
NUMBER 1: The premise of the contest - I notice a ton of people didn't read it, so they're are always a bunch of comments saying pick this one to win, or don't pick this one to win. Every video we're running on the site is already a winner. The way it worked was people could submit their idea of WHAT THEY WOULD DO. On the crack team we go through all these ideas and decide which ones we'd like to see carried out. From there we contact those people - if they're willing to follow through with their idea, then they win. They carry out their idea, send us in the evidence they actually did it, and then when the phones come out, we hook them up with their BB10 phone and prize pack. Done.
NUMBER 2: How we pick the winners - It's NOT just about the craziest most dangerous ideas. It's about spreading out the mix of ideas to show off the diversity of the CrackBerry audience and BlackBerry fan base. We ran this same contest back for the BlackBerry Storm, and similar to now we had some people getting mad at the winners picked, etc. It's going to happen. You can't please everybody. We had like 20 people say they would get BlackBerry tattoos. 15 people say they'd go polar bear diving. Others who would literally torture themselves. It's kinda crazy (and awesome) all of the stuff you're willing to do for a BlackBerry. And honestly, while that's good, we can't pick those way too over the top ideas -- the last thing I want is for somebody to get hurt doing something winning a phone (something I pointed out in the original contest post). So with the Storm contest when we ran it we decided to pick entries that varied across broad categories. A couple crazy ideas (getting shot with paintballs, the tattoo), some sexy ideas (the pudding wrestling in new york), some arts and craft ideas (making a giant BlackBerry Storm quilt), etc. Overall, it worked great. That contest went down in history as pure awesome, even though along the way as we posted each video we had people jumping in saying you should have picked me instead, etc. No matter what you can't make everybody happy with a contest like this. And also, we don't know exactly how the final videos/posts will look until we get them. Some will be awesome.... some less so... so we roll with it. The option is not doing a contest at all, but that would suck. So when it comes to picking the winning ideas, we spread them out... and we've been doing the same this year. That tattoo was crazy. The BlackBerry Princess and Bikini Photoshoot fill sexy fun side. The paper cranes fit into that arts and crafts and a ton of work side. Between all the entries there's a lot of diversity, and I think so far the videos have been entertaining! And there's still more to come in the mix. So from a entry standpoint, we look at is as which videos we want to see executed. For some, it means going outside a person's comfort zone. For others, maybe it's taking advantage of their career and what they do for a living to still do something awesome. Really overall, my goal with a contest like this is for the world to see that there is a BlackBerry fan base out there that's extremely passionate about their devices. It worked with the Storm contest and it's working again this year. After today's posts there are actually a lot of posts going up on the net mentioning the contest. Of course those sites will write about it in the way that suits their audience (like these people are nuts!), but it's still good as its spreading that message that there is a loyal fan base.
NUMBER 3: As for the Bikini Model Photoshoot, she's actually a BONUS 11th winner. When we found out she was in Miami, we thought we would do that up extra special. As some of you may / may not know, we have an office in Miami where our design team is and some of our coders. So we know lots of people out there, etc. So we hooked her up with our friends at Capture Fashion to pull together her BlackBerry bikini photoshoot for CrackBerry as part of some other work she was doing. That's a little outside the normal rules, but I wanted to see it happen, so I made an exception. This site is CRACKBERRY... every now and then I like to see us push the limits on this site... which usually ticks off a few people, but overall is worth doing. Keeps things memorable around here. It's funny... when you write so many stories every day, week month, when you look back they sort of blend in together... but then when you do the occasional over the top post (like me taking my shirt off and dancing on youtube last year, or this bikini photoshoot), then those posts get remembered for years to come. So yeah, for the people complaining on it, etc... just chillax. It's for fun. Look at it for what it is and nothing more. We got the video back yesterday and I wanted to run it today on the eve of the big launch so didn't put into the contest that it was a bonus entry, but we still have seven more videos to come.
Ok, gotta jet for now. Hope that adds some clarity. Just enjoy the contest folks. Don't over think it! Peace.