8368: There Is No Black In BlackBerry.

Advertising Age reported the global creative account for BlackBerry went to White advertising agencies—72andSunny and BBDO. It appears no minority shops competed in the pitch. Looking forward to more commercials featuring barbershop imagery.

BlackBerry Moves Global Creative to 72andSunny, BBDO

Smartphone Maker’s Review of $200 Million-Plus Account Didn’t Include Former Agency Leo Burnett

By Laurel Wentz

NEW YORK -- BlackBerry parent Research in Motion named 72andSunny and BBDO Worldwide to handle the brand’s worldwide creative account after a review. Omnicom Group’s London-based AMV BBDO, working with other BBDO offices, will be the lead agency for all markets outside the U.S.

72andSunny, which was acquired by MDC in December 2010 and is based in Los Angeles, has worked with RIM on other projects recently and will take responsibility for North America. The U.S. business alone is worth about $200 million.

RIM parted company with Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett in November 2010 and the smartphone maker reached out to other creative agencies, including Leo Burnett’s Publicis sibling, Fallon. The loss is a blow to Leo Burnett, although the agency said at the time that it is growing its relationship with client Samsung.

The review did not include media, which remains at Starcom.

BlackBerry still leads in U.S. smartphone market share, but Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android are both gaining ground. Most of the growth for BlackBerry devices now comes from outside the U.S., and the smartphone has a 15% global market share, ahead of Apple and Samsung Electronics, which uses Google’s Android technology.

In addition to increased competition, BlackBerry faces security concerns by some governments over the smartphone’s secure email. Last year, a number of countries including India, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia threatened to ban BlackBerry services.

In December, RIM reported a 40% increase in sales for the third quarter to 14.2 million BlackBerry smartphones.