With the latest update to BBM for BlackBerry 10 and iOS, BlackBerry introduced a couple of new subscription models, custom BBM Pins and No-Ads.
It is worth pointing out here that I am not a fan of BlackBerry’s current monetisation strategy of BBM. While monetisation is a necessary evil, I’m an enterprise developer and an enterprise user and I fully expect BlackBerry to focus their monetisation on features like BBM Protected etc, features that give me value for my money.
Swamping users with stickers and ads is not my idea of “features”. I have never bought a sticker and never will. BlackBerry recently added ads to BBM and now they are asking me to pay to turn them off – ridiculous.
With that background, I fully expected to have a quick look at Custom BBM Pins and quickly throw them in the file marked “more trash”. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
BBM uses unique PINs to identify users. And BBM users can add contacts with their PINs, or codes based on those PINs. Indeed BBM Pins are like marmite, you either love them or hate them. The PINs are just a set of random numbers, and they’re difficult to remember. So sharing a PIN with a potential new contact can be a pain.
The ability to customize your BBM PIN not only makes it easier to share, and remember PINs, but it also allows you to market and advertise your custom pin.
For years, I have been wanting to add my BBM PIN to my business cards and couldn’t I have many different BlackBerry devices for development, for showing to clients and for business use and this requires me to constantly switch between devices on a regular basis. This of course means I constantly have a different BBM PIN attached to my main BlackBerry ID.
With a Custom BBM Pin, adding my BBM pin to my business cards can now be done, without the worry that my business cards will be out of date in a weeks time (or whenever), when I switch my device.
Business cards are not the only avenue opened up by custom pins. You could literally advertise your Pin on letterheads, email footers, posters, car bumper stickers – absolutely anywhere that you could use as a marketing medium.
BBM custom Pins cost $1.99 per month, and £1.50 here in the UK (yes BlackBerry still overcharge UK users). Now while that might sound a lot just for the use of a pin, when you consider the marketing potential, it really is great value. Where else, could you advertise and market something globally for a pittance every month?
