BlackBerry 10 is going to the SuperBowl! Following the unveiling of the first BlackBerry 10 devices on January 30th, RIM will be hitting the airwaves on February 3rd with its first ever Super Bowl ad.
“A Super Bowl commercial, is a great opportunity to show the re-designed, re-engineered and re-invented BlackBerry to tens of millions of consumers on the largest advertising stage of the year,” said Frank Boulben, Chief Marketing Officer, Research In Motion. “BlackBerry has 30 million social media fans, and we’re looking forward to continuing to encourage them and all NFL football fans to see the power of BlackBerry 10 for themselves.”
With over 100 million people expected to tune in (many for the ads as much as the game), that’s a lot of eyeballs (including many in Canada) that will be catching a glimpse of BlackBerry 10. And with 30 million social media fans, RIM also promises to be fully engaged with “pre- and post-game on-site, digital and social activities, including real time engagement with BlackBerry social fans on Facebook and Twitter, as well as extending and amplifying exposure and fan engagement through Promoted Posts and Sponsored Story ads.”
Buried in the press release is a hint that RIM has the next-generation PlayBook waiting in the wings. It describes BlackBerry 10 as the “new mobile computing platform that will power the next generation of smartphones and tablets” (our emphasis). While all the attention has been on the smartphones, a new tablet hopefully not be long in coming.