While waiting for Public Enemies to start, me and my fellow theatre goers experienced a moment of confusion (complete with loud mumblings of “what?”) when what looked like an ad for an upcoming U2 tour or album or maybe their support of a certain cause turned out to be an ad for…Blackberry. We were informed that “Blackberry Loves U2″ and directed to www.blackberry.com/u2. Being a fan of both (I steadfastly refuse to get an iPhone), I feared this might be a weak attempt fr Blackberry to seem cool, but checked it out. And was glad I did.
The campaign behind that confusing ad is actually an interesting idea that raises questions about both the challenges of joint branding and how Smartphones and the media industry could create a truly convergent marketing platform.
Below the fold:
Brand Confusion – a winning tactic?
Why the Blackberry could be a better iPod
So what? Converging content, spreadability, social networking and location-based services
