The Project
Mr. Youth (MRY) and BlackBerry created an online competition that challenged students to prove that they are the next “big thing”. Run by celebrity judges and fueled by participants’ passions, the competition influenced young people to make it big and make social waves, to get them talking about the BlackBerry brand again.
The BlackBerry BBM Challenge Council Project was led by popular comedic actors/producers Streeter Seidell and Amir Blumenfeld (best known for MTV’s Pranked and CollegeHumor.com).
These two comedic actors challenged nationwide youth to compete in a series of five challenges over three months presented through weekly updates. BlackBerry attempted to debunk existing myths about their products by using humorous and quirky video content & clever copy delivered in a weekly episodic format (i.e. webisodes).
The User Experience
Mr Youth (MRY) collaborated with RIM and Edelman agency partners to execute a seamless and integrated campaign for BlackBerry targeting the youth consumer (ages 13-24). The Challenge Council Project used multiple phases to convert “doubters to believers”.
With the help of special celebrity guest cameos, including Greyson Chance and Leighton Meester, each Challenge Council webisode examined a misconception or myth about BlackBerry smartphones and asked participants to help correct it.
These webisodes also highlighted core features of the latest line of BlackBerry smartphones such as their social music capabilities and faster web browsing. Winning entries were awarded prizes including tickets to exclusive events and all-inclusive trips or experiences with their friends.
The BlackBerry Challenge Council website entailed:
Scripted video, involving talent who answers specific questions. Each episode was filmed in a studio setting and included a myth-buster, a challenge, and a link to a landing page/YouTube channel.
These were professionally shot short video vignette that requires no talent but may incorporate Council members. It seeks to dispel the major doubts in each category in a fun, edgy way and could be tweeted by the Council or @BlackBerry.
A key part of the Teaser Phase was the debunking videos which addressed questions/concerns about the “ease of use” or general BlackBerry product doubts.
A video vignette explaining what the campaign is, who the council members are, and what their mission is. If there were any new announcements or information that needed to be communicated, this section changed accordingly.
This was a real-time social feed that pulled in tweets from both ‘doubters’ and ‘believers’, either using the campaign hashtag (to be assigned by Edelman), or selected by MRY/Edelman to be addressed by our Council, and responses to doubters from @BlackBerry, or both.
My UX/IU Design Tasks
Images
