Whilst regarded as the ultimate must-have device amongst the ‘movers and shakers’ in Hollywood, New York and London, locally the BlackBerry was still regarded as an essential corporate gadget. That is, until BlackBerry burst into the consumer scene with the launch of the long-awaited Pearl in November 2006.

The launch, conducted at the IMAX theatre, Darling Harbour, saw BlackBerry unveil its ultra-sleek, smallest and lightest smartphone yet - blurring the line between work and lifestyle - with new features such as a digital camera, multimedia capabilities and expandable memory.

SpectrumLife worked with Research in Motion (RIM - the makers of BlackBerry) to launch the Pearl to a mixture of lifestyle, consumer technology and hard core technology journalists. On the day, the Pearl made a star appearance to a record number of journalists who all got a look and feel of the latest device, five of whom left the event clutching their precious Pearls thanks to a lucky dip.

To support the launch, a proactive product review program was implemented targeting both lifestyle and consumer technology media. The extensive coverage, generated from the media evaluation program, resulted in widespread exposure in key Christmas Gift guides - helping to rollout the product during this key buying season.