PlayStation Marketer Explains PS3 TV Ads

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal writes "In a two-part Q&A, Playstation marketing chief Peter Dille discusses the PS3 ad campaign, Microsoft's blogger superiority, why Ludacris is his kind of celebrity and more." From the article: "Emotion is a big part of the category. You've seen the baby spot, which kicked off the TV effort. The whole thought behind that was, look at the wide variety of emotions the PlayStation 3 can elicit. The other theme we're setting up is that the power of the PlayStation 3 is so awesome that anything placed in close proximity is witness to this awesome power. So this baby doll is whipsawed through a gut-wrenching range of emotions, from laughing and crying to reverse crying. That's going to set up a series of spots where you'll see the power of the PlayStation 3 in this white room environment." N'Gai also has a great piece up looking at why screenshots are no longer effective marketing for next-gen games.

It's like a joke

[chrismcdirty]

Marketing is like a joke. If you have to explain it to your audience, it's failed.

This guy is smokin it up...

[Azureflare]

I want to see what games are available at launch for a console. I don't want to see what some marketer thinks the effect of a PS3 should be on people. I don't buy a new console for the overwhelming effect it has on me (pffffffft) but for the GAMES. And, strangely enough I am quite impressed with some of the games they have lined up. Why would they think that an ad for say, White Knight wouldn't be more effective than a silly ad cooked up by some markedroid?

If Sony thinks the console is going to sell itself, they have a problem. The games are what matter. What is odd in this case is that many of the games are good, so I don't know why Sony doesn't just go with the games.

Why the PS3 ad campaign sucks...

[Turken]

Short answer: Because it's made by advertising people, not gamers.

Long answer: How many people in the Ad business do you know that are also hardcore gamers? Not many. In general, advertising people are artists - right brained folks, while gamers tend to be more technical and logical left brainers. Especially at places like slashdot. This guy is talking about trying to appeal to emotions in the advertisements, but he's doing it in a way that is fairly abstract. Logical people either don't get it or don't like it. Average Joe Sixpack tends to be neither artistic nor logical. He just wants to laugh, and the ps3 ads are nowhere close to the humor of the average superbowl beer commercial.

So, unless Sony is trying to reach out to the artistic - creative people and convince them to buy a PS3, the current advertising is not going to be that effective. After all, how many artists are going to be emotionally moved by the crying baby AND have enough spare cash sitting around to afford a PS3?

Here's a clue:

[mrsbrisby]

If you have to explain your ads, then they didn't work.

It ain't artistic either.

[Ayanami Rei]

It's browbeating you with broad strokes of concepts and emotions.
* It will make you feel emotions, refresh the genre (baby)
* It will be very powerful (hovering self-solving rubix cube)
etc.

They place the stuff in a stock gray room which forces you to interpret and accept these concepts. Then the use the weird sound effects and music and make the monolith, i mean system hover: THE PS3 IS GOING TO BE VERY GOOD HEY THIS LOOKS KINDA LIKE 2001 SPACE ODYSSEY NO?

This isn't art. This is hype and hackery. It isn't clever, or introspective. It just makes the same outlandish claims about a product only in a new shell. It's only supposed to make the viewer _feel_ like they are clever and "got it". It's like the Matrix. There isn't anything to get. Philosophy and art 101, with a masturbation option.

So.. They leaned nothing from the PSP ads

[AnswerIs42]

So.. they didn't learn a damn thing from the PSP commercials.. and we saw what a huge hit didn't become.

Another poster was correct.. if you have to explain the commerical.. it is a falure.

Re:Wrong

[drinkypoo]

Marketing is like a joke. If you have to explain it to your audience, it's failed.

You sir, are clearly not in marketing, because you're 100% wrong. The goal of marketing is to get people to remember your product. If a marketing campaign is confusing, it may very well be successful, so long as the campaign and the product are memorable. This is Marketing 101.

You sir, are clearly not an English speaker, because you're 100% wrong. If the marketing campaign was confusing but got people to remember your product, then you didn't have to explain it to anyone. This is English 101.

Re:Here's a clue:

[rayde]

if we're talking about them at ALL, they worked.