• by Karl Greenberg , October 15, 2010

Keith Pardy, CMO of Research in Motion, maker of BlackBerry had good news about the brand. Speaking at ANA's yearly confab, he said the BlackBerry made it to the list of top five phones globally for the first time in the first quarter this year.

He said BlackBerry is the leading smartphone in North America, and in Latin America it is the third fastest growiing brand. Pardy, who argued, among other things, that the key is finding a central truth inside one's company and then expressing it outside, chatted with Starcom/Mediavest CEO Laura Desmond.

She contends that human relationships are now, for all practical purposes digitized, and that advertising primes the pump, but because of the power of social media, it is no longer the end game. "Paid media gets the party started," she said, "Owned and earned keeps it going all night."

Pardy, for his part, said the more people in one's community the more valuable it is. He said BlackBerry has 5.5 million fans, more any other mobile phone maker. He also said the company has $100 million worth of earned and owned media.