A night of horrendous misfortune at the #BBM Party

Could an evening get anymore ironic, or unfortunate? The brand, the acts and their messages send a mixed signal through the networks via BBM.

An altogether fun and high energy night ends in turmoil.

Continue to the end of the blog to see what happened this evening. I think it is prudent that I write what I would have written regardless of a bunch of idiots doing bad, stupid, and dangerous things, so here is my intended blog… 

The snazzy BBM message station, where users could BBM on to the large screen in the venue and to the online world

For a company that has the word ‘Research’ in its name it is ironic that RIM have had to retreat back into the grey suited realms of the business world. The Blackberry really did show the globe, and Steve Jobs, the potential of the handset.

Why didn’t they invest and follow suit?

As far back as 2005 celebs like Paris Hilton were having their ‘Blackberry’s hacked’. I was in New York at the time that it happened and I remember thinking to myself “What’s a Blackberry?” I came back to England and enquired about them, “£130 for the handset and a £60 a month contract”, so I didn’t get one, but then the big suits at RIM decided, after stiff competition from the likes of Sony Ericsson and Nokia, to give the major networks free handset allocation and this, ultimately, gave way to the internet-capable handset’s boom.

Here’s an Idea of that boom…

RIM’S revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2007 was $835.1 million, up 26.8% from $658.5 million in the previous quarter and up 49% from $560.6 million in the same quarter of last year. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 75% for handhelds, 17% for service, 5% for software, and 3% for other revenue.

Then, with great pleasure, 2 years later, Research In Motion announced its first-quarter results for fiscal year 2010. RIMsaw revenue of $3.42 billion—a 53 percent increase from the first quarter of the previous year—and shipped approximately 7.8 million devices, it said.

RIM reported that devices accounted for 81 percent of its revenue, followed by 13 percent for service, 2 percent for software and 4 percent for “other revenue.”

So a further 2 years on.. 4 apple smart phones, 3 apple tablets, what are RIM and Blackberry doing?

Last weeks announcement that they now “intend to focus on building the business side of the business” shows a real indication that the key to keeping ahead of the game for the Blackberry brand was actually being true to your name. It’s a shame that Research In Motion never actually put their “research into motion.” Failing to improve on its market position; and never really gunning for the quicker releases of more advanced handsets.

The personal-user market is the golden chalice. Market dominance is rarely shared. This isn’t Nintendo vs Sony vs Sega vs Xbox… Or the likes of Nike vs Reebok vs Adidas.

The mobile phone companies relinquish top seed on a, seemingly, five year basis; with only Apple really now seen as the top runner to break the mould.

By what I can remember it was Nokia in the late 90′s to 2000′s, Sony Ericsson 2003 to 2005, Blackberry 2006 – 2008 and iPhone 2009/10 – present day.

Myself and the fabulous Jacinta Maddison (Shinesquad‘s Post Production Manager) attended the marketing circus dedicated to please or retain what’s left of  the young Blackberry customers. This is the company that got girls into gadgets. So tonight they had a plan and it involved Jessie J.

The mobile phone market, like most markets, is driven by the first time earner. Celebrity endorsement can really help to boost sales and maintain position. So, with that in mind I should tell you what I got upto last Tuesday night, down at the Bankside Vaults, in the venue called Pulse.

We were invited to an event hosted by BBM, Blackberry’s free text communication network, to watch Jessie J and Wretch 32, pump across a stage with a shimmering Blackberry interchangeable backdrop.

Nice guitar.

The DJ BenBridgewater warmed the crowd with his collection of RnB, Dance and the occasional Old Skool bad-boy remixes — bloody excellent set!

 His track mixing Snoop Dogg and the song from Top of the Pops 2 (prize if you can tell me who did it) was sick, really sick.

Then we were on to the support act Wretch 32, who were never on my radar prior to the event, but they were really good too! The lead singer got the crowd jumping.

Wretch 32′s lyrics were a particular highlight to the never-heard-of-before ears…

“Forget about violence I’d rather be cool… Listen, you can’t die with your money…”

Great message.

“Being a celebrity don’t mean shit to me, fuck the glitz and glamour I’ll roll up in my tractor”

Humble. I really liked them.

There were the usual sea of smart phones taking vids and pics. Ironically enough though it was what looked like a 50/50 split between Apple and RIM products.

And then after a few bits of fiddling on stage. We witness the mood get serious as a pair of hooped ear rings, a camel toe, and Jessie J, with her hair up, entered the stage, in that order.

On her second track she proceeded to grab an iPhone out of the crowd, while a fan had it on record and she sung into it, pulled a few faces and gave the fan a video to cherish. Hilariously and ironic, it was an iPhone and sadly not a Blackberry.Which Jessie J, did mention after the track had finished. Whoops! Brilliant. I could practically hear the squirms from the people at RIM watching her do it.

The performance was excellent, her band were in tight with her, and she really represented a strong woman with admirable honesty and a very down to earth sense of humour.

I didn’t fancy her all that much until maybe half way through where she decided to say to the people of the audience that she aims to win over the “people who had been paid to be there” – I thought that was an awesome shout, and she actually did win us over.  .

Oh yeah polka-dots.

Her backing singers were excellent. Jessie J and the two exceptionally talented girls enjoyed themselves, hitting the harmonies with expert precision. The Luther Vandross cover was a nice move, it got everybody jumping and dancing, she held herself well.

She also remembered half way through the set who was paying her fee… She asked an unassuming person in the audience… “How many people do you have on your BBM? Oh you got an iPhone, didn’t you know it’s a Blackberry event? Who the hell in here has BBM?” classic. She managed to find a Blackberry very quickly though and repeated her antics with it, in similar fashion, as she had done with the iPhone previously. Her charm was clear and her talent very evident. Its great that she is British and, although her music isn’t to my taste, her messages are real, honest and direct.

In a nutshell the performances were excellent and hats off to RIM for trying to pull off something big, cool, and in all fairness a gift to their, ever strained, hopefully loyal, demographic.

Important note… Shortly after the event had finished there was an altercation and somebody was, stabbed in the neck by a glass bottle. Such a shame for RIM who were clearly trying to build something with this, that their night is ruined by an idiotic moron.

It’s a shame that Wretch 32′s message was only listened and not heard by a certain few… Cretins.

“Forget about violence I’d rather be cool…”

Police secure off the area where the stabbing took place.