Research in Motion prepares 'biggest' campaign for crucial BlackBerry 10 launch

The campaign is being rolled out this week in order to support Wednesday's launch of the BlackBerry 10 OS and the first two smartphones to run on the platform.

BlackBerry is reportedly spending $3.7m (£2.3m) on a 30-second Super Bowl TV spot in the US alone, which will run this Sunday, 3 February.

The launch of the new OS is expected to prove make or break for the struggling handset maker. It disappointed analysts in June when it delayed the launch until the first quarter of this year, due to it being "more time consuming than expected", and, at the same time, revealed it would be slashing 30% of its 16,500 workforce.

In addition to the 30-second TV spot, BlackBerry will also run a large-scale digital and social media campaign to support the launch, including real-time engagement with BlackBerry fans on Facebook and Twitter. Social media activity will include a number of promoted posts and sponsored story ads. The global launch campaign has been created by AMV BBDO.

Frank Boulben, chief marketing officer at RIM, said: "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.

"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."

The new OS is rumoured to include a video-calling function within the brand's popular BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging service, in a move that will pitch it against Microsoft owned Skype.

BlackBerry is hoping to launch a total of six smartphones running on the BlackBerry 10 operating system by the end of the year.

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk