Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

BlackBerry's latest television ads place its instant messaging service (BBM) front and center. They take a look at its role in a variety of users' everyday lives and ride perfectly on the company's recent How Do You BBM? contest.

For those who haven't "BBMed", it is one of BlackBerry's most praised and valued features, a successful take on mobile instant messaging. With it, dedicated chat rooms are set up for group messaging and sharing using text, photos, and emoticons. Users swap contacts using a pin number or personalized QR code. It's not unusual to see people sharing these via sites like BBMNation or on BlackBerry's Facebook page.

The company's recent advertising features BlackBerry users in everyday situations, everywhere from the barber shop to the road. It demonstrates how BBM can be used for capturing and sharing of photos. One man talks about using it for group coordination, helping friends spontaneously meet in real life. Others use it for presenting and selling art.

One interesting feature that is pointed out is the ability to determine whether or not a message was received. This is something that isn't possible with regular SMS. Urban Dictionary presents a possible resulting scenario well.

Alissa: Hey I bbmed you yesterday and you never answered!
Me: Oh, I never got your bbms.
Alissa: Yes you did! Dont lie, I saw on our conversation that you received them.
Me: crap, I wish i didnt open that damn bbm

How do BBM users blow off dates? Blaming poor reception or dropped text messages aren't legitimate answers. See the new BlackBerry television ads here.

Truth in Advertising is a running series of advertisements that portray consumers using mobile technology in their everyday life. They take a look at how brands are demonstrating our want and need for mobility. Click here to view previous entries.

While traveling the NYC subway system last night, this collaborative advertising campaign caught our attention. It displays a piece of a puzzle, the bigger picture unidentifiable on its own. The only clues are a simple graphic of a camera and the Twitter hashtag #undergroundpuzzle. Obviously this is targeting the young and the tech savvy.

After further research, it appears that WPP agency Johannes Leonardo is behind the effort. 40 unique images have been sprinkled across subway stations in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, sending New Yorkers on a hunt for an undisclosed client. According to Creativity, the final image is explicit, this is an interesting way of getting around the restrictions of the mainstream media.

The campaign assumes that the target audience is wielding a camera phone and uses Twitter. For anyone without Twitter, this ad is irrelevant. Through these tools and the collaborative power of the web, the puzzle will be solved. Advertising agencies are experimenting with this idea of the hive mind, or swarm intelligence, pushing brand engagement via mass problem solving.  Johannes Leonardo's website explains, "we harness the energy of the masses by creating ideas that acknowledge them as the medium, not just the destination."

In the May 2009 issue of Wired, Lost's J.J. Abrams discussed new puzzle design with this opportunity in mind. In a world of Google, problems are sometimes too easy to solve, and for those creating alternative reality games, it is assumed that tools like Twitter and Facebook will be put to use. This was the idea behind the red balloon experiment, where DARPA tested the way social networking can help users solve a large-scale, time critical task. 10 balloons were released across the United States, a group at MIT was able to locate them within nine hours.

With the #undergroundpuzzle campaign, print media becomes part of a larger digital strategy. It is the path to mobile presence. It goes to show that digital is not killing print, but rather freeing up physical media to play a different role, one that our mobile phones will be part of. With this emerging mindset, agencies look at consumers as users, mobile users with the power of connection.

With Apple's announcement of the iPad, media companies immediately began to consider possibilities for the device. In fact, planners at BERG and Sports Illustrated had already been conceptualizing the future magazine. Now, with the ability to execute these ideas, Wired is showing off their plans for an iPad edition.

Users can already find publications like GQ, Maxim, and Esquire on their iPhone, but the screen size is still not ideal for creating a superior interactive storytelling experience. With the iPad, Wired Magazine is able to do just that, by creating new ways to connect with brands, navigate the publication, and explore multimedia content.

Along with the ability to 'scrub through' pages and watch short films, Wired's iPad edition will provide users with rich social features. Sharing through Facebook, tweeting, and bookmarking will all be possible. It reminds us a lot of the Mag+ concept. Were this format to become popular, we'd expect to see a lot more social activity, and better feedback, around magazine content.

In the video below, Wired demonstrates interactive advertisements. One ad lets users spin a virtual car around and explore its features. With this, the chances of brand recognition (or even purchase intent) are a whole lot higher. It is already essential that brands provide utility and value to consumers; this new era of publishing will make it even more so.

[via adage]

Advertising agencies are becoming more creative when it comes to designing marketing messages for smartphone devices. While most iPhone users might tend to avoid these ads, companies like Medialets are using interactivity to get users involved. The NPR app for the iPhone just launched one of these ads yesterday, which will promote the release of Vampire Weekend's new album, "Contra."

It is first displayed at the bottom of the app, but if you click to expand, it takes up the entire screen. Then if you shake the device, it edits the video right there on your screen. Since you can actually interact with the video by shaking your iPhone, Medialets is assuming that the ad will generate more hits. If you decide that you love the song and the video, you can click to buy the album directly through your iPhone.

We wonder, will many people take the time to interact with ads like this on their phone or will this strategy be like all others, with ads that people try to avoid?

[via techcrunch]

Razorfish has released its annual FEED study charting how consumers engage with brands in a digital era. It makes a few comments on mobile's increasingly vital role in consumerism today.  The iPhone is important, with the rise of Apple's iTunes App Store and a finding that 24% of consumers have downloaded a branded application. Other discussions include the logical swing away from display advertising for a more engaging digital brand experience. Get the PDF here.

We are fans of HTC's new advertising push, it really tries to peer a little deeper into mobile's role in our lives. This spot reflects a statistic we mentioned earlier: first thing we do in the morning is check our phones, 22% of mobile web access time takes place between 7 - 10 a.m. Click here for another in HTC's You campaign.

Truth in Advertising is a running series of television commercials that portray consumers using mobile technology in their everyday life. They take a look at how brands are demonstrating our want and need for mobility. Click here to view previous entries.

Truth in Advertising is a running series of television commercials that portray consumers using mobile technology in their everyday life. They take a look at how brands are demonstrating our want and need for mobility. Click here to view previous entries.