Sony’s zany spokesperson ads for PS3 featuring a marketing executive with an ever changing title is gaining a following. The latest, and perhaps funniest ad yet, has won Kotaku over.
This time Sony’s fake spokesperson, Kevin Butler, is presented as the VP of Epic Footage. When a new PS3 owner challenges Butler to show what Sony has to impress, he responds with, Two words, mon-tage. The ad has a great punchline.
Watch it at Kotaku.
AdweekMedia digital editors Mike Shields and Brian Morrissey rank the year’s ten hottest digital companies. With this year s list topped by Facebook, the writers see the social media site as overcoming negative sentiments about its ad targeting and privacy practices. The site continues to exhibit exponential growth in users as it draws in more marketers and bigger ad dollars.
Following Facebook, the top eight in the list are, respectively, Hulu, Twitter, Google, iPhone, Huffington Post, Bing and Wall Street Journal. Among these digital giants, two less recognizable digital companies round out the top ten. At number nine is digital media publisher Federated Media. Adweek describes the firm as one that s trailblazing in digital marketing, with campaigns focused on engagement and niche targeting. The company has created notable social campaigns for companies such as Microsoft and Toyota. Number ten is Addicting Games, the Viacom-owned casual game site that beats out the company’s entertainment properties such as MTV and Nickelodeon in audience. Addicting Games has grown its audience by 47 percent this year to 15 million unique users, becoming the third largest casual game site behind Yahoo Games and EA’s Pogo.
Check out the full list at Adweek {link no longer active}.
Shack News lists this week s releases for PC, Xbox 360, Sony s PS2, PS3 and PSP, and Nintendo s Wii and DS.
Activision’s DJ Hero is the broadest release, hitting every major home console including PS2. Namco-Bandai releases the long awaited Tekken 6 for PS3 and 360. For exclusives, PS3 adds to a popular franchise with Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, while 360 gamers get Microsoft’s Forza Motorsport 3 and Rockstar’s GTA: Episodes from Liberty City.
Check out the full list at Shack News {link no longer active}.
Sega has rolled out a billboard ad campaign for Bayonetta that taps into Japan s demonstrated fondness for playing peek-a-boo with attractive women. Billboards displayed at Japan’s busiest metro hub Shinjuku Station feature the game’s sexy femme fatale protagonist covered by removable stickers. Sultry poses, along with a couple randy-sounding if not completely translatable slogans, encourage passer-bys to peel off the stickers. The stickers are fliers with information to access a mobile phone site for the game.
Read more at The Escapist.
Disney has rolled out one of its most elaborate and expensive marketing campaigns for Robert Zemeckis’ 3D CG-animated retelling of A Christmas Carol. Writing for NY Times, Brooks Barnes says the studio is under pressure to deliver a hit film after a money-losing quarter and the high-profile release of chairman Dick Cook. To ensure a successful premiere for the $175 million film, and gain enough of a following to make it an annual holiday event like Zemeckis Polar Express, Disney has rolled out a literal marketing train of a campaign with a no-holds barred budget. Along with a traditional campaign and a digital effort that’s in all of the right social media places, the studio has taken a creative approach with street marketing. Disney unleashed Christmas carolers when it screened the film at Cannes. It’s planning fake snow for the London premiere. Still, the most impressive effort might be the one Brooks hints cost Cook his job: a personnel-and-budget gobbling 40-city U.S. tour by a five car train exhibiting facts and artifacts from Charles Dickens classic tale.
Read more at NY Times.
In conjunction with men s health charity Movember, Rockstar is running a promotion that lets one lucky moustache grower become a character in its upcoming Western shooter Read Dead Redemption. The game maker is piggybacking Movember’s own campaign urging people to grow a moustache in November to show support for its cause. The organization works to raise awareness of men’s health issues such as prostate cancer.
The Read Dead contest asks gamers to grow a moustache and mail a photo to Rockstar by the end of the month. Rockstar will then judge the entries and select a winner.
Read more at Gamesindustry.biz.
Adidas new campaign for basketball shoes makes the most of its NBA star power. The Brotherhood ads aim to deliver the message that individual style and personal drive are as much a part of basketball as being a team player. It s a great hook for a shoe company that s runner-up to Nike and Reebok when it comes to basketball.
To get the message across, the ads combine multiple takes of the same players -stars such as Orlando’s Dwight Howard and Chicago’s Derrick Rose – performing moves on the court. The smooth presentation and clean background make it a visual treat. It also helps Adidas squeeze a lot of highlights from their all-star lineup into one ad. Whether it lays the groundwork for a multi-ball variation of the sport, maybe for an All-Star Weekend gimmick, is another story.
Watch it at YouTube {video link marked “private”}.
Netflix is rolling out its streaming content service on Sony PS3 next month, reports AP. The move comes as the company ends its one-year game console exclusivity on Microsoft Xbox 360. On 360, Netflix has only been available to subscribers who pay $50 a month for Xbox Live Gold membership. The PS3 service, delivered through Sony’s free PS Network, will be available free of charge to those who already subscribe to Netflix.
In addition to 360 and PS3, Netflix provides its service through Roku digital video players, Blu-ray players and internet-connected TVs.
Read more at AP {link no longer active}.
French design firm Dessault Systemes has created a unique promotional tool for the upcoming Luc Besson film, Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard. Dessault designs tools and software to create 3D images. For Besson’s film, the company created a 3D stereoscopic screen that turns a cereal box into what it calls a Next Gen 3D game console with a motion sensor. The promo is running on boxes of Nestle’s Chocopic cereal in Europe.
Watch it at Revolution {link no longer active}.
Kotaku has its hands on a leaked cinematic trailer for EA and Valve’s upcoming sequel, Left 4 Dead 2. The Zombie Survival Guide trailer is primarily pre-rendered footage setting up the game’s premise and new characters, and dropping plenty of hints to game play and weapons. Amidst the amazing action and oozing zombies, the highlight might be just how tightly developed the game’s characters and dialogue is going to be.
Watch it at Kotaku.
