BlackBerry at a concert I went to... guerrilla advertising

So yesterday I took the family to a Teeny bopper concert (Wham Bam) in Toronto. I wasn't really looking forward to it, as most of the acts I didn't like very much. I do listen to current music, but this wasn't my thing.

Now, anyone that knows me, knows that I'm a HUGE BlackBerry fan-boy. I have converted many people from dumb-phones to BB's, and enjoy the phones tremendously. I beta test for BB (beta zone) and always buy the newest handsets...my entire family has a BB, and many of my friends do as well.

So anyways, as we entered the amphitheater I noticed a BBM chat bubble about 20"x20' that said "add me for better seats" and had a barcode to scan. I stopped, and scanned the barcode. My family turned back and asked me WTF I was doing We found our seats, and I had to run to the bathroom. On my way, I noticed another sign. Different message, different PIN and barcode. I scanned that one too. I was then on a mission to find any and all of these signs throughout the entire place. I found a total of 5 different PIN/barcodes (there were more signs, but only 5 PIN in total) and I added em all. I get back to the family, and tell my oldest son to add em all too.

About an hour later, these contacts add me and send me a message. Each message described a different "perk". The idea was to add all the contacts, get them to add you to BBM, then track them down to win the prize.

The 5 stations I identified were:
1- Sunblock (show up, they give you a small bottle of sunblock. The venue was outside)
2- Battery swap (you give them your battery, they give you a fully charged one)
3- VIP pass (free food, free booze, swag bag)
4- Front row seats
5- Turns out to be VIP passes to a bar/after party

So, now I'm on a mission (Uber geek I know).
I find the sunblock and battery girl, we chat, but they are VERY secretive.
I manage to find the ticket girl. She hands me 2 tickets for the front row! SWEET!

My son and wife find the VIP chick. They get 2 VIP passes and hit the food/bar. While in the VIP lounge, my son sees another poster. He scans that one. A few minutes later he gets a message from this PIN. He won a BlackBerry 9700! awesome!

So we put the kids in the front row seats (wife and I had no interest in them )
The wife and I went to the VIP and had some food and drink.

All in all we had a great day. Got a ton of free stuff, and met some really cool BB people.

I found this kind of thing very interesting. It was marketing, but only for BB people, as the average person doesn't even know about barcode scanning etc. It was more of a rewards based system, for BB users. Never seen anything like it, but too cool!

(anyone wanna buy a BNIB 9700 $400 unlocked)
Follow me on twitter @markppg
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Wow, looks like they have taken the push of BBM and their marketing to the next level.

I am going to keep my eyes open for bar codes around and make sure that I scan them. I never would have even thought of this!

Cool story! Great that the whole family got in on the fun too. :)

The gal that was being secretive is, most likley, a Research in Motion employee on duty or a contracter doing guerrilla advertising.

Great use of the technology and a cleaver way to promote it too. :D

Freakin GENIUS...like greedy!

Nice. Glad you got to enjoy it. I'll keep my eyes open around this area.

That is very neat - going to be on the lookout as well!

What program did you use?

I'm definitely going to keep my eyes open for such marketing/advertising. That's awesome!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

This is really interesting. I'll be on the look out.

Sounds like you made out pretty well! Were there many other BB users there on the same hunt? It sounds like an odd place for such a deep BB promotion, given the audience of the show. Hope this comes to the US eventually. I am all about scavenger hunts!

Wow that sounds like so much fun !
I'm loving the new advertising that RIM has introduced .
This would be awesome if this became availiable in the UK !! :D

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I guess I just don't understand, do you just scan them with the bbm "scan a barcode" or do you have to have a special progarm?

Awesome story! Verizon did something like this a few years ago with MMS and a Fergie concert, I took my niece to see her twice for free that year. :) And I actually ended up enjoying the show myself too. :)

Sounds like he opened his BBM and click "Invite Contact" and chose to scan a barcode. That's the only way he could've added these contacts to his BBM and then received messages from them.

You can use the barcode scanner on any of these barcodes through BBM. I scanned a movie poster with the BBM scanner and it opened a website on my phone promoting the movie.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Originally Posted by G323q569

I guess I just don't understand, do you just scan them with the bbm "scan a barcode" or do you have to have a special progarm?

no you don't need a special program......

from ur main bbm home screen, menu key > invite contact > invite by scanning a PIN barcode

try scanning this barcode

http://my.blackberry.com/servlet/Jiv...bm_barcode.JPG

Originally Posted by G323q569

I guess I just don't understand, do you just scan them with the bbm "scan a barcode" or do you have to have a special progarm?

Yes you just scan them with BBM's scan a barcode.

Thanks for the head's up. Now I wll keep my head up looking for bar codes. Would be great if you had a pic or could better describe the poster with the "add me for better seats".

Originally Posted by Mr. Orange 645

Sounds like he opened his BBM and click "Invite Contact" and chose to scan a barcode. That's the only way he could've added these contacts to his BBM and then received messages from them.

You can use the barcode scanner on any of these barcodes through BBM. I scanned a movie poster with the BBM scanner and it opened a website on my phone promoting the movie.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

i also see them on local newspapers like Metro


http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/157...6210905.th.jpg

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i tried scanning this one but failed. i flipped to the next page and saw that you need an app for these 2D barcodes

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Look for 2D bar codes in the paper, then scan them with your smartphone to be taken directly to more content on m.metronews.ca. All you need is the free ScanLife application.


Here's how it works:

• Download the free ScanLife application by pointing your smartphone browser to 2dscan.com
• Use ScanLife to scan any 2d barcode you find in the Metro newspaper
• The code will send your smartphone directly towards more content at m.metronews.ca

Metro - Metro Mobile - Get Metro on your iPhone, BlackBerry, or cellphone - 2D Barcodes

i love everything about this story.

This is amazingly awesome, I hope this makes it state side and more specifically sac, CA, did the OP confirm this was RIM or just the concert promoter thing?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

What a fun story!!! I'll definitely have to keep my eyes out for stuff like this.

Oh, that's awesome! And you got front row seats? Nice! Definitely gonna be on the lookout for this. :D

Wow really? Now im going to be on the lookout everywhere, wonder will this happen in US soon.

Originally Posted by pkcable

Yes you just scan them with BBM's scan a barcode.

Thanks for the headsup. Didn't realize you could scan anything using the BBM scanner.