Blackberry flies high at airports

Blackberry, a true OOH loyalist brand, has entered the high profile airports to promote BlackBerry Passport. The new BlackBerry Passport is a device designed for productivity-driven mobile users who use one device for both work and otherwise, without sacrificing the style or portability quotient. Keeping in mind this segment of’power professionals’ and their consumption habits, the brand designed a marketing campaign that included an extensive print campaign, complemented well with OOH airport activation at New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru airports.

The rationale behind the choice of the media platforms was to create an impact on the’users’ who are avid travellers and work on-the-go. The airport therefore seemed an apt platform to connect with people who on an average travel by air 6-8 times a month.

“In a nutshell, through our airport activations, we aimed at enforcing our communication of mobility 24/7 time and again (as opposed to print which is a one-time look in a newspaper). The experience zones that we built at the airports were designed in a way that would establish BlackBerry Passport as different from others in both the form factor and the user experience. The OOH campaign was executed keeping in mind the benefits that had to be highlighted in comparison to every other rectangular phone. This two-month campaign started in mid-September at the Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru airports and recently concluded with amazing results, explained Amar Thomas, Country Marketing Manager, BlackBerry India.

The three airports annually see 80 million passengers, a large percentage of whom are professionals. “The spillover is minimal making it the perfect touch point for us to drive awareness trial and adoption for the BlackBerry Passport, he said.

Along with ambient and conventional OOH media, the BlackBerry Passport campaign involved experiential kiosks at the airports with the BlackBerry Passport replicas in Delhi and Mumbai. At these kiosks, customers could see a visual demo of the phone and buy it online on Amazon.in.

“The holistic campaign included an awareness generation on social media for five days, complemented by print advertising to create curiosity, followed by the OOH campaign, and culminating in purchases at stores or online. Furthermore, at the kiosks we could clearly position ourselves as a’smartphone++’ company with a portfolio of products and services that helps the end user to be more productive and a true mobile professional that users actually aspire to be, said Thomas.

Two different avenues were utilised to promote the product. First, to showcase the phone capabilities in larger-than-life format, a dual video wall solution was used. The busiest exit gates at domestic arrivals were identified and two giant video walls, towering 15 feet were designed to represent the BlackBerry’Passport’. TIMDAA’s digital content team designed one composite video incorporating five different videos of the brand’s communication along with the live feed to give an awe-inspiring look to the entire innovation. The live streaming was of a popular business channel and helped grab eyeballs. There was enough real estate available on the video wall to play BlackBerry’s brand videos as well. 

Another avenue was an experience zone. “Creating an experience zone at the airports helped us to spend more time and categorically explain some key features of the BlackBerry Passport. BlackBerry Blend which is another unique feature offered by BlackBerry 10 allows customers to enjoy the BlackBerry experience on their laptops or tablets just by simply signing in with the BlackBerry Id irrespective of the OS that the tablet or laptop has. The airport activation add to the urgency of purchases, as the customers get instant gratification in addition to an demo from our trained experts stationed at these zones. These experiential zones have helped BlackBerry communicate the innovation aspect of the product to the customers. This can be only done when a customer takes and experiences the product on his own, said Thomas.

“The outcome of the OOH campaign was definitely more than just a feel good campaign as it contributed majorly to quick conversions in terms of the purchases. However, the airport regulations do not allow us to sell the device at these experience zones but the brand witnessed considerable increase in terms on sales post the campaign kick-off. Apart from sales, the overwhelming response in terms of consumer interest encouraged the brand. There were a total of 35,000 demonstrations across all cities in the past one month and we look forward to about some 60,000 more demonstrations by the end of the campaign, shared Thomas.