In American Television, a 30 second commercial spot during the Super Bowl theoretically reaches the biggest audience possible. It is also the most expensive ad placement. As a result, Super Bowl commercials are typically are highly anticipated- due to the high costs of advertisements, marketers place additional efforts to appeal to their target markets. One of the companies that I was really interested in was Blackberry. Being a Canadian, I was widely exposed to Blackberry’s emergence, and subsequently, their struggles in a competitive mobile landscape versus their competitors. With Blackberry being a distant 4th in the marketplace, they readied the launch of their much delayed handset, the Blackberry Z10. To complement this launch, Blackberry bought a coveted Super Bowl commercial spot and the world was ready, watching.
I saw the Blackberry ad make its way onto my favorite gadget blog, Engadget. I was extremely disappointed. In the commercial, it was a mishmash of absurdities. The message of “It’s just easier to show you what the Blackberry can’t do in 30 seconds” did reach me, but it was not striking like the iconic Apple 1984 commercial. I was really excited to learn about the Z10, but I felt that the advertisement did not educate me on features OR benefits that the new Z10 offered me. I left with disappointment and confusion. For enthusiasts, this was extremely underwhelming as it didn’t describe to them the salient benefits obtained for Z10. For the casual, mainstream users, this does nothing to convince them that the Z10 is a superior product to current phones such as the Samsung Galaxy or the Apple iPhone. Overall, this ad accomplished nothing in the sense that it did not leave a striking image, or educate consumers. Perhaps I’m wrong. There is quite a bit of discussion on simply how BAD the ad was. Any publicity is good publicity?
