I have to give it to Research in Motion on this one. They are sponsoring the John Mayer Concert Tour which begins June 1st. RIM will be on site at each stop on the 40 date tour promoting RIM’s new consumer device the BlackBerry Curve. Paul Kalbfleisch, RIM’s senior director of corporate marketing, had this to say…
Recent additions to the BlackBerry product line such as the Pearl and the new Curve make live music a viable avenue to reach consumers in search of devices with plenty of capabilities. John Mayer’s concert tour gives us that venue and that context to talk about BlackBerry to a group of people that maybe we haven’t talked to before. “We’re able to reach out to a new audience, maybe a slightly younger audience in their 20s, without at all alienating the existing BlackBerry audience.
I’ve been critical of RIM’s marketing of the BlackBerry Curve believing that RIM really didn’t target new consumers with 70% to 80% of BlackBerry Pearl sales going to existing BlackBerry subscribers. It looks like RIM is doing a much better job of marketing the BlackBerry Curve.
[Source]
RIM is still in the concert promotion business.
BlackBerry Presents John Mayer 2008 Summer Tour