[randall2580]

I think those who are saying you are seeing commercials are seeing the corporate one single commercial that BBRY has been running here. You have not seen one from any of the carriers, what is generally referred to as co-op advertising. During the Canada launch, folks said from launch day forward some of the best ads were the ones from the carriers.

There was nothing in these ads anyone is seeing here that told folks that today was the day for AT&T. Not even the cookie based ads that you see on Hulu, and even this website right now at the top of my page I have an ad for the Sprint GSIII. Earlier it was AT&T for the HTC One X.

Maybe it's just AT&T we will see if it changes when Verizon rolls at the end of the month. As far as TMob, I cannot remember - though I am not a customer and as such don't pay as much attention - to TMob advertising particular phones, generally the ads I remember from them are with Carly whats-her-name on something fast.

[kbz1960]

The one I saw on TNT was an AT&T ad.

[randall2580]

The one I saw on TNT was an AT&T ad.

I will watch for it this weekend. I tried to google "z10 att ad video" and found nothing. Would be happy to say I saw it if I did I have admitted to seeing the Corp ad every hour at least I have been watching TV this week. Maybe by Monday they'll have it on the splash page of their website

[mandony]

I don't know where the OP is located.
Here in New York City we are being bombed with Z10 TV ads on every station, and full page ads in every newspaper.
There are also NYC Promo events at many locations - Best Buy and ATT started this week and TM have roll out's next week.
Also, every Best Buy store has at least one Z10 specialist.

[SteelGreek]

I don't know where the OP is located.
Here in New York City we are being bombed with Z10 TV ads on every station, and full page ads in every newspaper.
There are also NYC Promo events at many locations - Best Buy and ATT started this week and TM have roll out's next week.
Also, every Best Buy store has at least one Z10 specialist.

Fellow NYC-er here... what stations are you watching that you're seeing ads on? I've yet to see one. The events are here for sure (I went to union square last night) but I didn't know about them from any other media outlet outside of CB. If I didn't stalk cell phone/tech sites I'd have no idea about the Z10 which is a shame.

With that said, I can't say more TV ads will do the trick. They're nice but far too common... plus with DVR and the like people just fast forward through a lot. In my business we've seen a much bigger uptick in sales by going back old school... print media. People will leave magazines and newspapers out for others to see.

Customization in your markets is key as well. Talk about the communications/security for the business folks in their media of choice. Talk about the social/sharing abilities in the teen magazines or shows. Showcase flow/one handed use on TV to those who are occupied with life (for example: new mothers who have a child on one arm and their phone in the other). Not a lot of radio ads here in NYC because not everyone drives but it might be beneficial in Long Island or Westchester.

[trebor1221]

I agree. If I had not gone online looking for the z10 release date, I would never have known it was available.

[mzblues]

TITLE SHOULD READ: BB Z10 won't succeed in the US without ads

I apologize for a bad title, but this is about Z10 not succeeding without proper advertising. As a note, a few are mentioning NCAA tournament. Even though this is great, that's not enough..

You are 100% right.

All I know is that I have been wondering why there were not ads strategically placed on TV even earlier then two weeks before the US launch and totally agree that the marketing campaign is poor at best. These BB forums are the only place advertising the Z10 (by word of mouth). Your average US consumer doesn't know anything about BB10 or Z10. Just ask people at work, your children's friends, neighbors, etc. BB has not gotten anyone's attention here in the US.

Even those that do know about the Z10 like myself and couldn�t wait for its release was totally disappointed when I went into a large AT&T store in NJ today to check it out. There was not a poster on the front window (like they had for the iPhone & Samsung) saying, "coming soon" before the launch or "It's finally here" with a cool photo or tag line now that its here. Inside, there was also NOTHING and I could barely find the ONE phone that was buried in a sea of competitor phones. Maybe a POP floor display or something to catch people�s attention would have been worth the cash.

Then when I went to play with it and wanted to experience the Hub & Flow, etc., I myself was a bit confused (even though I am aware of some of its functions). The salespeople there didn't really offer to help me figure it out, and honestly I don't think they know how to use it either.

I am aware that it has a learning curve in order to really appreciate all of what BB10 can do and I am more then willing to spend that time to learn everything about it playing with all the functions. But I left there saying that if I (a person who knows about and wants this phone) was initially frustrated, how in **** will you get an iPhone or Droid user who may check out a Z10 (if they can find it in the store) to not just drop it in frustration and just buy whatever next iPhone 6, 7, 8 that they are already comfortable with?

Since we can�t count on AT&T or the other carriers to promote all that BB10 can do, where is BB to show consumers how cool they are, all of its cool functions (and how to use them) through some kind of strong marketing blitz which has not happened.

A lot of sales are impulse driven and people buy when they are there at the store. So just having some promotional stuff on BB�s website is too late since most will buy what the salesman says is good at that time.

Let's face it, when a new iPhone or Samsung is launched EVERYONE knows about it. It�s advertised, in the news, in ads and in your face. The only real attempt to let people know about BB was the Super bowl ad (which I thought was kind of lame). It would have been better to use that money for multiple ads that should be out there right now.

[LDubz1251]

TITLE SHOULD READ: BB Z10 won't succeed in the US without ads

I apologize for a bad title, but this is about Z10 not succeeding without proper advertising. As a note, a few are mentioning NCAA tournament. Even though this is great, that's not enough.


Before people go crazy and call me a troll, i'm far from a troll, i'm just trying to point out an obvious problem. In the past few weeks i've been traveling often for my company, and what did i notice? No advertising for the Z10. ANYWHERE. No matter what city i was in, i saw zero television ads, saw zero billboards, saw nothing. The only place i saw ads were online (youtube, google ads), and that's because i visit a lot of Blackberry websites (crackberry, blackberry.com, N4bb, etc).

My girlfriend and I wouldn't even know the Z10 was going to be on sale today, if it hadn't been for me visiting crackberry as often as i do. Why isn't Blackberry advertising? AT&T is definitely not advertising. When i go to ATT.com, the first phone i see is the HTC One X.

It is being set-up for failure in the US. What a shame, i really think this platform has what it takes to be incredible, it just needs to get in enough peoples hands to survive, but in the US that doesn't seem to be a strategy.

UPDATE: As a few pointed out, the NCAA tournament is showing a bunch of ads, i also made a very troll-like title, which i changed to make more sense.

this statement is point less because everything needs to be advertised in order to succeed word also needs to be spread about the product... other wise.... creating it was useless because you cant send it to the rest of the world and show them how good the product is..... so to conclude.... you statement is invalid and can be used to describe anything...

[Bla1ze]

To Sell Its New Z10 Phone, BlackBerry Bets Big On Real-Time Takeovers - Forbes

"BlackBerry will be there as millions of Americans tune in to March Madness—likely costing hundreds of millions of dollars in productivity—as the company will continue to air its “Keep Moving” television commercials; Boulben says commercials from carriers will hit TVs in the next couple of weeks."

[VictoriaPa1]

I agree that word of mouth is powerful, but not as powerful as good advertisement. I mentioned to a few friends this week that Z10 was being released Friday and i was excited to go get mine, but NO ONE knew about it. Unless you're an avid Crackberry reader, how would someone know? The average Joe doesn't check, but he might be interested in trying it out. Bottom line, is it hurts their sales. That's what a lot of the media sites latch on to. BGR is already reporting that the Z10 has weak pre-orders. I personally don't care, but it's not a great image.

This is so true. Good point!

[ami.one]

I had the same thoughts in India that BB seems completely off the radar of the bulk of the population without Ads.

But BB seems to have planned its advertisements schedule only after the units are in the retail shops - because a few days after launch and I am almost fed up of a BB ad coming up on all TV channels every few hours !

And believe me, the ads are a little better than iphone 5 and miles ahead of samsung. Will try and upload a few if i can find them online. EDIT: see here

Am yet to see the full page news paper print ads for z10 though. Iphone5 and Galaxy etc have full pages every few days in most national newspapers. And they have huge tie-ups for financing of the phones (In India we don't really like carrier contracts so the alternative for most manufacturers is to offer low EMI financing schemes with banks & credit card cos etc.) BB may want to do this too. Most devices like ip5 or sgs3 are probably only Rs 500-1000 pm on EMI (~ $ 10-20 pm).

Personally, I don't like the EMI business as it reduces the premium positioning of the device and lot of people overspend, but it does get the numbers so phone cos need to do it.

[fryk]

Advertising is very expensive in all forms. I saw no signage at my local ATT store Thurs Pm.,the day before launch. Or a demo /dummy model on display. Hopefullly the NCAA and NY newspaper ads are the beginning of the major ad push. BB may use the strategy of getting the Z out there in use and then go for the big ad campaign

[randall2580]

To Sell Its New Z10 Phone, BlackBerry Bets Big On Real-Time Takeovers - Forbes

"BlackBerry will be there as millions of Americans tune in to March Madness—likely costing hundreds of millions of dollars in productivity—as the company will continue to air its “Keep Moving” television commercials; Boulben says commercials from carriers will hit TVs in the next couple of weeks."

I have noted here that I have seen the "Keep Moving" ads even though I am not a big basketball fan - they (BlackBerry) have been evident - I am not sure how effective that commercial is but that's for another thread maybe.

"Commercials from carriers will hit TV's in the next couple of weeks"??? Why are they waiting for the HTC One and the GS4 to be in the stores at the same time - again wasn't this the reason BlackBerry wanted to launch in this quarter was the lack of "noise"? This launch was much later than the UK and Canada who had ads ready on the first day - and there are comments on this site that say some of them are better than the BBRY ads themselves and probably helped awareness and sales. What is the reason to postpone the carrier ads. There was good buzz here after Jan 30th especially on the business channels, go watch the CNBC coverage from Friday and tell me the buzz is still good.

I have mentioned in other places on this site my memories of the 9800 and 9810 launch on AT&T and when you contrast what happened Friday you have to scratch your head and wonder if anyone is aware of how important this phone is to the company.

My guess is they (BBRY) are counting on good sales initially from the pent up users who have had their phones now for a long time and can't wait to get their hands on the new phones to drive the sales now and then they will advertise when that ebb has flowed. Just in time to compete with Sammy and their multi million dollar ad buy for the GS4. Should be interesting to compare and contrast that.

[David Strakovsky]

To Sell Its New Z10 Phone, BlackBerry Bets Big On Real-Time Takeovers - Forbes

"BlackBerry will be there as millions of Americans tune in to March Madness—likely costing hundreds of millions of dollars in productivity—as the company will continue to air its “Keep Moving” television commercials; Boulben says commercials from carriers will hit TVs in the next couple of weeks."

It's definitely good to see they're ramping up for an insane ad campaign, i just think it should've been done BEFORE it released in the US. Like i said earlier, these upcoming ad's will benefit the Q10 more than the Z10.

[SlcCorrado]

I think the numbers are out. Cnbc is about to talk about BlackBerry

[SlcCorrado]

So pretty much good everywhere but the states. Not sure why they aren't mentioning that 2 carriers haven't even released it yet, haha

[David Strakovsky]

So pretty much good everywhere but the states. Not sure why they aren't mentioning that 2 carriers haven't even released it yet, haha

I feel this might be a Sarah Palin moment, where the "liberal media" is looking for those "gotchya" moments. hahaha

I'm curious if they'll mention how much they've spent in advertisement during their shareholders meetings.

[Linda9600]

Having ads does not guarantee a success. I think Microsoft is an excellent example of that. I have seen many, many billboards around my neighborhood driving around. Cannot miss those neon colored pink and blue billboards that says, "Meet Jessica, multi-tasking mom" or whatever that tag line using The Hobbit. Bright, beautiful colors to draw the eye to the billboards, yet I have not heard any news article saying Windows Phone has exploded in sales. It's really too bad.

If more people bought the Z10, then other people will see it, and the more people carrying it means the more people will buy it. I think that's what happened with the iPhone. I know people who bought it just because everyone else had one. This peer pressure trick is particulary good with non-tech-savvy people. If, for example, I'm not tech savvy, I will not go and research a smart phone. I will see that since everyone else has one, it must be THE phone to get.

If corporate America upgraded, it would a good niche market for BlackBerry.

[David Strakovsky]

Having ads does not guarantee a success. I think Microsoft is an excellent example of that. I have seen many, many billboards around my neighborhood driving around. Cannot miss those neon colored pink and blue billboards that says, "Meet Jessica, multi-tasking mom" or whatever that tag line using The Hobbit. Bright, beautiful colors to draw the eye to the billboards, yet I have not heard any news article saying Windows Phone has exploded in sales. It's really too bad.

If more people bought the Z10, then other people will see it, and the more people carrying it means the more people will buy it. I think that's what happened with the iPhone. I know people who bought it just because everyone else had one. This peer pressure trick is particulary good with non-tech-savvy people. If, for example, I'm not tech savvy, I will not go and research a smart phone. I will see that since everyone else has one, it must be THE phone to get.

If corporate America upgraded, it would a good niche market for BlackBerry.

No argument there. Ads don't guarantee you anything, but not having ads can also guarantee less people will know about your product. I'm not that savvy when it comes to businesses, or advertisement/marketing, I made an observation, and decided to open a discussion. It seems a few agree with me, and a few disagree with me. I'm fairly content with that

The article posted today:BlackBerry CEO interview: 'I cannot complain about carrier support' | CrackBerry.com kind of approaches what i was talking about, and the comments seem to be supporting my general opinion. I don't think Blackberry is very pleased with the release as of yet. Maybe they can have a mulligan when Q10 comes out haha.

[Andrew4life]

Wasn't sure where to post this so I did a search about ads and I'm drop this ebay ad here.
Just got this in my inbox.
Not the best ad for the Z10, but at least it is getting some notice.
I must say though, the Z10 really looks like the Iphone in this picture


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