The Origin of an Improbable Idea

We were preparing the launch of our new product: an AI chat that leverages real estate data collected in Switzerland to deliver intelligent insights to users. My mission was to create the visual campaign for LinkedIn – a catchy tagline, a clean mockup of the app on a recent iPhone, some information about pricing ($50/month after a 7-day trial), the logo. Everything needed to be effective and reflect the product's modernity.

I was finalizing the visual when I asked the team, from across the open space, which iPhone model they wanted me to feature. The question was practical, almost mundane.

That's when someone said: "Put it on a BlackBerry."

The remark initially provoked some laughter. Then, strangely, it kept resonating.

Materializing the Abstract

My work as a designer consists precisely of this: taking an idea, regardless of its origin, and pulling it out of the abstract to make it tangible. It doesn't matter whether the idea comes from a structured meeting or a spontaneous remark in the open space – what matters is translating it into concrete visuals.

Literally extracting ideas from people's minds and representing them is my profession. And this representation allows testing the intuition, seeing whether the concept holds up against the reality of the image. An idea can seem brilliant in theory and collapse once visualized. Or conversely, as in this case, reveal unexpected depth.

So I took the time to create this alternative visual. Finding a vintage BlackBerry mockup with its characteristic LCD screen, adapting our modern interface to that reduced space, observing the result.

And the result proved striking. A revolution on a revolutionary object. Our artificial intelligence interface, designed to navigate millions of real estate data points, displayed on a device that had itself been revolutionary in its time, but was only just discovering what an application meant in the contemporary sense.

A Break from the Advertising Landscape

The contrast with today's promotional visuals is clear. In the contemporary advertising landscape, saturated with the latest iPhones, immaculate surfaces, and ultra-polished mockups, this choice is unprecedented. We're deliberately going against established codes, where every tech campaign seeks to showcase the newest device, the most modern interface, the promise of the immediate future.

But there's another fascinating dimension: generational perception. We're playing with an image that creates a fracture in interpretation depending on the viewer's age. For a certain generation, the BlackBerry is an object loaded with memory, almost nostalgic – they remember holding it, the sensation of physical keys, that LCD screen that seemed revolutionary at the time.

For another segment of the population, younger, the BlackBerry is so distant, so foreign to their visual universe that they could legitimately think this device was AI-generated, created entirely as a fictional object. This ambiguity isn't a flaw – it enriches the message. It underscores how rapidly technology evolves, to the point of rendering certain objects unrecognizable within a decade.

An Unexpected Emotional Charge

This advertisement is infused with humor, nostalgia, multiple emotions. It summons memories for those who lived through that era, while creating a form of beautiful dystopia for others: it suggests the possibility, in its time, of having been able to use this technology in the 2000s.

The irony is particularly delicious when you realize that some of the people participating in this project today weren't even born when the BlackBerry reigned over the market. They're building cutting-edge technology while visualizing it on a device they've only known through photographs or cultural references.

This temporal dimension adds depth to the message: we're not just showing a product, we're creating a narrative that spans generations, that plays with collective memory and imagination.

Multiple Readings of a Contrast

When I presented the visual to the team, the reception was immediate and enthusiastic. Everyone saw something different in it, but all perceived the image's power.

There's first this almost ironic dimension: publishing an advertisement with a BlackBerry could be read as a message to users – "look, you can use it even on your BlackBerry" – knowing nobody owns one anymore. A form of humor that underscores the product's accessibility through absurdity.

But this image also carries something deeper: the idea of resurrection. Usually, tools from the past remain in the past. They become obsolete and stay there, relegated to drawers or technology museums. Seeing a BlackBerry capable of running one of our era's most advanced technologies creates a powerful symbol.

We're telling users: we've designed this technology so accessibly that even those most reluctant to change, even those furthest behind technologically, can use it. The message isn't condescending – it instead affirms that we've thought through the interface and experience to make them universally accessible, regardless of familiarity level with contemporary digital tools.

The BlackBerry also represents the real estate sector's slowness in adopting technological tools. It's a sector that, particularly in Switzerland, maintains traditional processes, where digital transformation advances at a measured pace. The BlackBerry thus becomes a symbol of this inertia.

And this is where a more fundamental question emerges: what are we really bringing with Quanthome AI? Is it another tool, destined to join an already long list of professional applications? Or are we proposing a technology, something that profoundly modifies how real estate information is accessed and processed?

A Company Culture That Nurtures Innovation

Beyond this campaign's specific result, this sequence illustrates something fundamental about how we work at Quanthome. The challenge consists of maintaining an environment where these suggestions can be heard and explored, even when they seem to diverge from immediate priorities. This requires collective trust, accepting that exploring an idea isn't necessarily a waste of time, but can instead enrich the final project.

This approach is part of our company culture and largely explains what makes us innovative in a traditionally conservative sector. While other real estate players follow established processes and conventional marketing strategies, we create a space where a spontaneous remark can become the heart of a campaign.

It's this capacity to listen, to experiment, to take seriously what might seem anecdotal, that allows us to produce differentiating approaches. In a sector where innovation progresses slowly, this creative agility becomes a strategic advantage.

Experimentation as Method

In our case, we ultimately kept both visuals: the contemporary iPhone that affirms our technological position, and the BlackBerry that tells a more complex story about innovation, accessibility, the possible resurrection of tools we thought definitively outdated, and our capacity to break with established advertising codes.

But rather than simply choosing one or the other, we decided to use this visual diversification for AB testing on our LinkedIn advertising campaign. This approach allows us to concretely measure each visual's impact, understand which narrative resonates most with our audience, and adjust our strategy based on real data rather than intuitions.

AB testing transforms our creative exploration into rigorous methodology. We're not content with having two interesting visuals – we learn which one most effectively communicates our message, generates the most engagement, converts best. This combination of creative audacity and analytical rigor also defines our approach at Quanthome.

An Open Question

This campaign was born from a remark thrown out in an open space. It led us to reflect not only on our advertising message, but also on the very nature of what we're proposing. Are we bringing another tool to an already saturated ecosystem, or are we introducing a technology that modifies the fundamentals of real estate information access?

The answer to this question will likely determine how Quanthome AI is perceived in coming years. Will it be viewed as a product of its time, or as a significant step in the sector's evolution?

For now, we have a BlackBerry displaying artificial intelligence. And this image, born from an improbable suggestion I was tasked with materializing, continues to raise relevant questions about accessibility, innovation, generational perception of technology, and how we design tools to serve the greatest number.