BlackBerry's turnaround is happening. Seriously.

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The turnaround effort began when John Chen, who was known for transforming Sybase from a money-losing basket case to a $5.8 billion takeover target for SAP, became CEO last November.

On the marketing front, BlackBerry signaled its new direction when the company hired B2B ad agency gyro earlier this month, scuttling its former ad partner BBDO, which is known for its campaigns for Snickers, Visa and M&M's, among other consumer brands.

Mark Wilson, a veteran of Avaya, joined BlackBerry in January as its senior vice-president of marketing; he replaced former chief marketing officer Frank Boulben, who departed last fall.

BlackBerry's new vision was illustrated in its first new campaign with gyro, for the new Passport phone, which was directed at professionals in healthcare:



Resurrecting the BlackBerry brand is a marketing challenge, to say the least. The company's new approach is to go after business "power pros" in industries such as healthcare, government and insurance, who need a tool, not a toy. "I think it's established that BlackBerry is the most powerful tool," says gyro CEO Christoph Becker. BlackBerry is for "anyone with big decisions to make," he adds.

BlackBerry's strategy is to sidestep a battle with Apple and Google by acknowledging that business users might also own devices from the latter companies. "They have a personal life," Glen says. "They may have an iPhone for their iTunes." When it comes to work, though, such users would use a BlackBerry. Phones and Android phones "frankly distract you from business communication," he adds.

Glen's comments echo those of Chen, who wrote in a CNBC op-ed on Oct. 2 that, "We don't expect to sell a handset to everyone and don't expect to take down the consumers who love to play games on their iPhones. But we do want to provide an experience that caters to the mobile professional –- anyone who relies on their device to do their jobs."

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