Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

RIM says 'Be Bold' cartoon is not a new BlackBerry ad campaign

Update to blog clarifies that cartoon infographic is 'intended to be... fun'

Research in Motion said its Be Bold cartoon superheroes unveiled in a recent blog infographic were always "intended to be a bit of fun" and are not a new ad campaign.

The BlackBerry maker, in an update posted Tuesday, admitted that its original blog, posted last week, had received "a lot of attention over the last couple of days."

The original blog had many bloggers and BlackBerry users criticizing RIM's lack of marketing prowess, an issue the recently installed RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said he plans to address, partly by hiring a new chief marketing officer.

RIM's updated blog explained how the Be Bold concept evolved, starting with RIM's asking BlackBerry Twitter followers to submit New Year's Eve resolutions on how they plan to "Be Bold" in 2012. RIM said it received 35,000 such resolutions via Twitter, Facebook and on giant billboards in Times Square.

"As we looked at the resolutions and the data, majority patterns and categories emerged," the updated blog note says. "We decided to organize the data and share it in a fun way and the result is the infographic. This is not a new ad campaign."

By virtue of calling the event "Be Bold" in 2012, and creating its youthful superhero cartoon, RIM was hoping to associate young users with its Bold line of smartphones .

Marketing its smartphones to younger users, especially in the US, has been a major strategy for RIM for years. RIM's traditional base has always been with workers familiar with its physical keyboard BlackBerry devices.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com .

Read more about mobile and wireless in Computerworld's Mobile and Wireless Topic Center.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: BlackBerry, Facebook, Motion, RIM, Topic
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: consumer electronics, Facebook, hardware, hardware systems, Mobile and Wireless, rim, smartphones, twitter
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • 10 Mobile Security Requirements for the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Enterprise
    An enterprise mobility strategy needs to include more than the provisioning and security services available through mobile application and MDM solutions. To meet the mobility and security requirements of mobile users, enterprises need to look at deploying a solution for mobile content management (MCM) that supports BYOD policies. Read this whitepaper to learn: Why provisioning for mobile users has become more complex; Ten requirements to consider when selecting a mobile content security solution.
    Learn more »
  • Email Encryption/Decryption and Signing integrated into a comprehensive content security solution
    Clearswift’s SECURE Email Gateway provides an easy to use approach to providing secure email conversations. The technology enables customers to provide the privacy, authenticity and integrity of the communication that secure messaging offers, but without the complexity and high administration cost of other systems. The Clearswift SECURE Email Gateway with integrated encryption technology enables business to communicate with confidence and protects them from the risk of sensitive data loss.
    Learn more »
  • Staying Secure and Preventing Data Leaks in a Cloud-obsessed World
    If your organisation is to benefit from this explosive growth, it needs to be able to exploit all that the cloud has to offer. But at the same time, it is vital to protect your company’s employees, networks, data and reputation from the risks that exist in the cloud.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.