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Marketing 101: Sony

Sony may be the once and future king (we'll see), but they've had some stinkers for ad campaigns...

Things started out on the wrong foot almost immediately for the PlayStation 3.

As the industry moved towards high definition graphics, Sony decided to future proof their next console, hoping to have a machine that would have the same longevity as the PS2. They bet on their blu-ray disc format, which would go head to head against HD-DVD, the first true video format war since VHS and Betamax. They did their best to make a console that would be the leader in raw power. This was a total 180 from the PS2, which was arguably the weakest machine in terms of graphical capability during the 6th console generation. All of this was, as one can imagine, very expensive.

Along the line of 599 U.S. dollars expensive.

The pricetag gave people sticker shock, but Sony execs (in true arrogant fashion after so much success) assured everyone that fans would get a second job to afford so much awesome.

Yeah, things didn’t start well, and the initial marketing campaign didn’t help. While the company nostalgically brought back the “red e” in their “Play B3yond” campaign, the early ads where simply bizarre.

                                                        Gah! What were they thinking?

                                              No, really...what were they thinking??

Sony was also losing its grip on exclusives in those early years, and the powerhouse of a console took a serious beating from its competition, the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. It took a similar beating from video games media, as evidenced by this iconic EGM cover:

No, things weren’t looking too good for the PS3 for the first couple years, but Sony was fortunate that no one seemed to be eager to let the 7th generation of consoles end. This allowed the company to once again rally to get some exclusive titles into their stable and refocus their message.

Enter Kevin Butler.

This fake “VP of whatever Sony needs at the moment” took people by storm. He was instantly likeable and just cheesy enough to pull off the new “It only does everything” campaign that tried to get the masses to understand what a media hub the PS3 could be. At the same time, he wasn’t annoying or pandering, so he appealed to the hardcore gaming population as well.

While I can’t say that Kevin Butler completely turned the company around, his character came at just the right time to really make people stop and take notice. The price of the system had been steadily dropping, blu-ray had won the format war, and the PS3 was getting some great games. Kevin Butler mysteriously vanished, only to come back even stronger with the “Long live play” campaign. Unfortunately, a legal dispute between Sony and Jerry Lambert (the actor who played Butler) ended the fun. However, that led to what may be the best PlayStation ad of all time:

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#Marketing  #Sony  #Launch  #Playstation  #Playstation 2  #Playstation 3  #Playstation 4  #Kevin butler is the man 

Comments

Jon Lewis Staff Writer

11/13/2013 at 03:45 PM

I love the Perfect Day ad. Its catchy, in a good way. 

transmet2033

11/13/2013 at 04:27 PM

Sony has such a fantastic collection of first and second party developers that their software sells the system nowadays.  I picked up a PS3 specifically to play the Insomniac games.  

gensurvivor

11/15/2013 at 04:48 PM

Interesting article. It's cool to see all of these old commercials. I draw different conclusions in some areas. For one thing, we have to look how the landscape changed. In the infancy of the PlayStation the industry was still fighting for shares in the emerging home console market featuring a myriad of companies including but not limited to Turbo Grafx, 3DO, and Atari. Sega and Sony both tried to distance themselves from the industry leader, Nintendo by being the most avant garde, which would by default make them more mature than Nintendo as kids do grow up. Sega, even before Sony reflected this attitude with campaigns like "Welcome To The Next Level" and eventually with "Fly Play Thing, Fly" which was Saturn's response to the PlayStation.

The PS2 and PS3 campaigns reflect this edgier ideology. But the times changed. Consoles are commonplace now. They have to perform other functions like watching date movies on Netflix and checking e-mail. Consoles are horribly mundane now. You can't have a toy baby crying the apocalypse in font of a levitating PS3 obelisk. Agreed. It's too upsetting to the average consumer who can't think on that level. They need death neatly wrapped in a bow. Look at the "Greatness  Awaits" commercial. It's a dude in a suit getting out of his crashed BMW to play war games. It could easily be that NES-era kid all grown up. Sony knows the demographic now: the majority. The days of PlayStation One were about rebel culture. This is even reflected in Sony's hardware choices. The Cell, the Emotion Engine, are all gone in favor of a plain old PC. They don't have to innovate on that end anymore. It's too expensive and no one cares. We all got second or better paying jobs and I'm going to pay less in real dollars for a PS4 than a PS2. All Sony has to do is make some great exclusives to go along with the cross-platform favorites and they will be solid.

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