As BlackBerry pulls the plug on its phones, here's a look at its top Indian campaigns

BlackBerry: a name synonymous with the smartphone revolution and once the most-preferred handtool of corporates, journalists, and politicians alike pulled the plug on its pioneering handsets on January 4. The stylish phones, known for their mini QWERTY keys and the BBM services (officially shut down in 2019), were also the millennials’ formal introduction to the world of social networking and connecting on the go. And along with all this, the brand also created some of the most memorable and remarkable ad campaigns in the early 2000s. As the world gets nostalgic about their BlackBerry  devices, Exchange4media presents some of the most iconic brand campaigns in India:

“Do What You Love, Love What You Do”

For a brand that was relying on word of mouth marketing for quite some years, “Do What You Love, Love What You Do” was the first big TV campaign that talked about the product features in a way that could appeal to the key consumer groups, right from the corporates to the youth.

“We are the BlackBerry Boys”

Probably one of the most iconic Indian ads, “We are the BlackBerry Boys” was created for BlackBerry X Vodafone by the latter’s creative agency Ogilvy & Mather. The campaign, released in 2010, went viral at a time when social media was still quite young in the country and most recently, was shared by fashion designer and actress Masaba Gupta on her stories, hailing the agency.

The “BlackBerry Boys” returned on screens in 2012, talking about how they are no longer the 'BlackBerry Boys' because the youth uses BBM service for various purposes, right from sharing pictures to music and many more, which takes them beyond the world of chatting.

“Are You Missing Something”

Created by Orchard advertising, BlackBerry's “Are You Missing Something” was a four-film campaign released in 2010 and 2011. The campaign aimed to expand the appeal of the brand beyond the business market and reach out to the youth. The ads talked about how BBM could seamlessly become a part of their everyday lives with little snack-of-life moments.

“Action Starts Here”

Created by BBDO in 2012, the campaign showed people from different age groups describing their actions. As per reports, BBDO India’s then chairman and national creative director Josy Paul (now chairman & CCO) had said, “It all started when Sunil Dutt, the new head of India operations for RIM asked us the all-important question 'What does BlackBerry stand for?' Along with Krishnadeep Baruah, Amisha Sethi and the marketing team at RIM, we developed the idea that every BlackBerry is born for action within five days. There's an inherent urgency for action built into it. Look at the red splat that appears every time you get a message. The sign refuses to go away until you take action. The first thing we do when we wake up in the morning is check for the red splat. That's how we created the launch ad 'Action now has a symbol' and the brand line 'Action starts here'. That's what differentiates BlackBerry from other mobile phones."