If there’s one thing that BlackBerry has been wanting to do for awhile, it’s monetize BBM. Sure, there are BBM’s stickers but that may not be enough for the Canadian company to give itself a huge boost.
BlackBerry has selected regional partners “that already have strong relationships with brands around the world as well as mobile advertising expertise”
In order to monetize the app further, the company has announced that they’ve entered into several new partnerships to expand their ad sales network and bring region-specific advertising sales expertise to BBM.
The new partnership will put the BBM advertising platform in front of brands, businesses, advertisers, and advertising networks. BlackBerry says that “BBM is uniquely positioned to capitalize on a mobile messaging market that is estimated to grow into the multi-billions in the next few years.” It’s looking to utilize its position with 90 million monthly active users to get a slice of that pie.
To help get things off to a good start, BlackBerry has selected regional partners “that already have strong relationships with brands around the world as well as mobile advertising expertise,” and will represent the BBM service where it has a “strong brand and large, active BBM audiences.”
Blyk will represent BBM globally, with dedicated sales representatives in Chicago, Dubai, London, Singapore, and Toronto, while Habari Media will represent BBM with dedicated sales representatives in South Africa, Nigeria, and Ghana.
So what will these ads look like? You can see a representation of a BBM ad in the screenshot on the left as it appears in a BBM Channel. BBM has also attempted to make sure the mobile ads “blend seamlessly” into the application and has made them a part of the Feeds, similar to what Facebook and Snapchat already do.
Within BBM, advertisers can place:
- Sponsored posts, which place content in the user’s BBM feed where they can click to download an app or access more information. Sponsored posts in a social media news feed are the best-performing type of ad unit that exists. Early BBM campaigns have delivered industry-leading click-through rates.
- Sponsored invites, BBM’s most native ad unit, offer brands a dynamic way to reach out to their most loyal customers, as well as to potential customers.
- Sponsored sticker packs, which provide brands a new way of visually communicating their brand message within conversations and linking to products, services, and promotional offers outside of BBM.
- Featured placements, which are the primary way for BBM users to discover new brands to follow in BBM Channels.
BlackBerry is quick to ensure that users know their data is safe and says that “at no time is personally identifiable information about any BBM user viewable by channel owners or advertisers.”
What do you think of BBM’s ads?