Any doubt that the BlackBerry 10 is central to the survival of Research In Motion was likely erased on Wednesday as the company not only unveiled its new operating system and phones, but changed its corporate name to "BlackBerry," too. "We have a fantastic brand, BlackBerry, and we are known as such all over the world, except in North America," CMO Frank Boulben commented in a video interview at the launch. "We wanted to take full advantage of that global, iconic brand."

"We have redefined ourselves inside and out," said CEO Thorsten Heins, speaking from New York to launch events held across the globe, including one held at the world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, in its $650-a-night Armani Hotel. "RIM becomes BlackBerry. It is one brand, it is one promise." He declined to specify the company's marketing spend for the corporate rebrand and a global launch of BlackBerry 10 that includes Sunday's Super Bowl ad buy, but characterized it as in the "hundreds of million dollars."

That was partially evident at the New York launch with the introduction of Grammy Award winning singer Alicia Keys as the company's "global creative director." It's a trend that follows Lady Gaga's arrangement with Polaroid, will.i.am with Intel, Victoria Beckham with Range Rover, and Keys' husband Swizz Beatz with Reebok — and no doubt annoys creative directors.Continue reading...

Intel has built a new social publishing platform called “iQ” that leverages the social actions of their global employees and curates content that is capturing Intel’s collective attention, much as it's been doing externally with such consumer-facing social digital projects as The Museum of Me Facebook integration.

According to Bryan Rhoads, iQ Editor-in-Chief, “Our modern world is the product of Moore’s Law. Every piece of technology we own or online service we consume has Gordon Moore’s 1965 law as a common denominator (Moore's Law = # of transistors doubling in microchips about every two years). It’s the innovative spark that created new industries, spawned new forms of communications and revolutionized the global economy.” 

Rhoads highlights the iQ approach:Continue reading...

Automakers have been panicking throughout the recession that Gen Y is abandoning the American dream of car ownership (forget home ownership). The answer: create buzz and a cool factor by targeting the creative class. The above photo doesn't look like a custom publishing project by an automaker, and that's the whole point.

Mercedes-Benz is positioning The Avant/Garde Diaries as a digital project, curating interviews, video and photos promoting its events appealing to not-always-affluent but certainly influential creatives in key cities. It all kicked off with the brand's Transmission 1 event in Berlin, continued with Movement Copenhagen then the recent Transmission LA - AV hybrid arts/music/digital happening in Los Angeles curated by the Beastie Boys' Mike D.

Last week saw the opening of A/D's editorial office, at the corner of Broome and Mott Streets in New York's Nolita neighborhood, whith hipster fave photographer Cobrasnake on hand to photograph the 700 guests who attended.Continue reading...

Forbes' piece on Vice breaking the billion-dollar valuation for its mix of original video programming — including Vice's VBS.tv partnership with MTV, YouTube's original-channel push this year and content for MTV and CNN) and branded entertainment partnerships such as the Creators Project with Intel — is as interesting for its insights into Vice as it is for surfacing Tom Freston's role as an advisor to the rising media brand.

The former chairman and CEO of MTV Networks has been keeping a relatively low profile since being chucked out of Viacom in 2006 after disagreeing with Sumner Redstone. Now an entertainment and media investor via his Firefly3 LLC and the chairman of the ONE Campaign, Freston is more committed than ever to social innovation, cause marketing and corporate citizenship, as he outlines in an interview with Kinsey last month.

It's no longer a shock that bad-boy media brand Vice would partner with Intel in The Creators Project, a global tech arts and music festival that touched base in New York this past weekend for the second straight year. Following an equally unexpected partnership with CNN, Vice is quickly becoming as known for its establishment allies as for its still-edgy editorial content (its infamous "Dos and Don'ts"; photo sets of undressed models smoking marijuana, etc.) featured in print and online (it recently relaunched at the newly acquired Vice.com domain).

Though brandchannel's Abe Sauer dismissed the Vice-Intel partnership last year as evidence the brand had become (borrowing co-founder Shane Smith's words) an "old, fat man," it was clear from the lines of attractive, upscale hipsters waiting patiently for wristbands that Vice still has more than enough credibility to curate a crowd. And as Sauer then noted, the high-profile alliance is part of a conscious strategy to demonstrate Vice can transfer its "edge" onto an established brand like Intel. Continue reading...