The youth of South Africa has once again independently voted BlackBerry as the ‘Coolest Brand Overall’ in the Sunday Times Generation Next 2013 Brand Survey Awards. Young voters also named BlackBerry the ‘Coolest Cellphone’, and BBM as the ‘Coolest Cellphone App’ for the third year running.
The results of the ninth annual Generation Next Brand Survey Awards were announced at an event at Montecasino, Johannesburg last night. The ongoing popularity of the BlackBerry brand among young South Africans is a result of the company’s focus on offering an experience that enables tech-savvy young people to lead increasingly connected lives.
Alexandra Zagury, Managing Director for South and Southern Africa at BlackBerry says: “We are delighted that BlackBerry is the coolest brand for the third year in a row and sincerely thank our young fans for their loyalty and support. Smartphones are a lifestyle choice in the youth market, so BlackBerry focuses on designing cool and stylish handhelds that are also packed with excellent features that keep young people engaged and connected, such as BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), social networking and plenty of apps.”
She adds: “Success in the youth market is not about selling products, it’s about sincere engagement with your audience. Young people want a relationship with the brands that they love and BlackBerry gives South Africa’s mobile and hyper-connected youth the tools to communicate and co-create with the world around them.”
Zagury says that the award is especially pleasing in the year that BlackBerry has successfully launched the new BlackBerry 10 platform and smartphones. BlackBerry 10 has been re-designed, re-engineered and re-invented to create a new unique mobile computing experience. Both the new BlackBerry Z10 (all-touch) and BlackBerry Q10 (touch with physical keyboard) smartphones are available in South Africa, and the newly announced BlackBerry Q5 smartphone is coming soon. The BlackBerry Q5 is the perfect smartphone for young people and makes it easy for them to have fun, create, share and stay connected.
BlackBerry 10 builds on many of the strengths that made earlier BlackBerry platforms so popular with the youth .For example, BBM, which enables users to share text and voice messages, pictures and video clips – provides an even richer experience on BlackBerry 10 as it includes video chat, and introduces the ability to share your screen with other BlackBerry 10 contacts.
Staff writer
