BlackBerry: Tricks Of The Trade films

[Worker]

Hello to all,

I'm part of a small video production team, and we've recently been helping to produce a series of short films that enhance the appeal of BlackBerry Smartphones.

We've tried hard to hit the mark, both in terms of the people selected for the films, and the ways in which they use their BBs; though I'm keen to receive feedback from a wider audience.

I'd be genuinely grateful for your opinions, it's very difficult to gauge whether or not our films will be well received.

This is my favourite of the series:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD_7Frsdzws

Thanks in advance,

Worker

[stevetaz]

Hi Worker and welcome to EB:

Thanks for registering and I hope we see you here often.

I am curious why you chose to focus so much on the company's functions of trimming and cutting lawns rather than show the BB in action. I know the business owner spoke about what he is using the BB for and saying that it saves him an hour and a half a day, but I think it may have tied it together better to show him sending his invoices and doing what he spoke about rather than edging a lawn. The only time I saw him handling the BB was when he took a picture with it. I suppose one argument could be that the BB allows him to attend to his business, but I am not sure if that was your intent and if that was what was communicated.

I did not go back to view the video a second time because I wanted to respond as a person might after seeing it once. Advertising has to hit home the first time I think, but I am not in the business.

I hope we see you visit and post often and I look forward to hearing about what you intended to do when these videos were designed and made and what venue they were designed for...It is interesting.

[Worker]

Thanks for the response.

It's a very interesting point you raise. The purpose of the films is to show the variety people using the BlackBerry handsets, and less what the BlackBerry actually does. The films are designed to tell you about the businesses themselves briefly and to then tell you about the interesting ways in which the BlackBerry might potentially be used.

For example, we looked at a Wine Retailer who was using Twitterberry to post wine tasting notes and generally communicate with more people in his line of business, on the move.

Wine Retailer

I guess the films are not advertising per se. And they're not instructional videos showing you how to use a BlackBerry handset, either.

However, would you like to see more of this? The instructional element? If so, perhaps this is something we can put to our client.

[stevetaz]

I was not looking at the video expecting it to instruct how to use a BB. I was looking for the businessperson to be shown actually using it instead of just talking about it.

The second video you posted does, in my opinion, actually show the busy business owner using the BB as he talks about how it helps, reinforcing that he does indeed actually use it. The description of how Twitter ties in with his business was also reinforced by showing the BB actually used to Twitter.

I felt that the second video drove home the tie-in with real life and business much more than the first.

Just my opinion.....

[Worker]

Thanks for the input, I'm really very grateful.

What about yourself, have you found yourself using your BlackBerry in ways that seem little "Off the beaten track"?

[stevetaz]

Off the beaten track? No, I think my use of the BB is pretty standard.

I will say that for the past two weeks I have been out of the US on holiday and for some reason this year I had no data service on the BB and boy, have I felt really naked!! I still find myself looking at the BB every ten minutes as if I am suddenly going to see the full 1XEV signal.

Last year I did have full data and cell service and managed to keep up with the business emails pretty well without infringing on my vacation. This year I dread going back as the volume of unchecked email will be huge. I find that although I do have wireless laptop service this week (not the first week) I just can't bring myself to log on to the VPN to open Outlook so I am going to be crushed when I get back. But I sure had more time to drink heavily this year....