Smart or Desperate? Alicia Keys is BlackBerry’s New Global Creative Director

Alicia Keys announced as BlackBerry’s Global Creative Director

All out of better ideas, BlackBerry is hoping that celebrity partnerships may dig the brand out of the “red-headed step-child of smartphones” category.

A few days ago at the BlackBerry 10 official launch, singer Alicia Keys was announced as the smartphone company’s new Global Creative Director by its CEO, Thorsten Heins .

The company is also after author Neil Gaiman and director Robert Rodriguez to use the new phones to create film and storytelling projects.

Alicia will be “working closely with BlackBerry developers” and will be using her phone to create music videos for each city she visits on tour with Miguel this Spring.

BlackBerry 10 Launch

The incentive for consumers is the chance to interact with a celebrity during one of these projects, but is this enough?

While it’s true that celebrity involvement has been a key driver for brands such as Beats Audio , can this work for one as troubled as RIM/BlackBerry ?

And I don’t just mean the fact that absolutely no one reps #TeamBlackberry without shame and getting kicked off the playground.

I mean the collapsed market share in the US, ruling just 4.6% of the global market for smartphones, and profound losses in 2012 .

How bad was it? In its fourth quarter alone, RIM ‘s revenue fell to $4.2 billion (down 19% from $5.2 billion in the previous quarter and down 25% from $5.6 billion in the same quarter of 2011).

They shipped (not sold) approximately 11.1 million BlackBerry smartphones and over 500,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, bringing net loss to $125 million.

In comparison, while Apple ‘s fourth quarter eludes to signs of weakness , the company brought in revenues of $54.5 billion, an 18% increase over the same quarter in 2011, and profits of $13.1 billion.

In any case, I’m eager to see how the BlackBerry 10, issues and all, can help with BB’s much-need comeback . The battle, however, is a steep hill.

spotted via hisredcarpet.com ;

images via businessinsider.com , ibtimes.com

Author