At E3 2005, with Sony having conquered the video game world with the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 over the previous eleven years, the Japanese consumer electronics behemoth was faced with a surging Xbox 360, a soon-to-be-resurgent Nintendo and questions of whether or not they could pull it off a third time.
The Start Of The Fall
Attendees of Sony’s annual media event that year were given their first glimpse at an answer with a smoke and mirrors show unlike anything seen before at E3. Glorious demo after demo was shown, all presented by developers who swore up and down that these games, while not playable on the show floor this year, were examples of the power of the upcoming PlayStation 3.
Unfortunately, the stunning images shown that day wouldn’t come to pass, and that would be Sony’s first stumble in a painful transition from the market-dominant PlayStation 2 to the PlayStation 3. For an example, look at the disparity between the games first shown to the E3 crowd and the first batch of games that would eventually launch the system.
Reality would hit Sony and its fans extremely hard one year later when the actual PlayStation 3 would be shown to the world, leading to some absolutely painful viral videos that are today breaking over 1 million views each. A sample:
Cringeworthy, to say the least, and it would lead to a staggered launch, multiple revisions on the PlayStation 3, and a drop from first place in the video game market to a third, all while Sony lost hundreds of dollars on each unit sold. If anything, this is an example of how a solid brand with a passionate following can falter and drop off the radar because of some short term gains in trying to wow consumers enough in 2005 to hold off on their purchases.
Slim Arrives
That s why all eyes have been on Sony in recent months, with rumors circulating about a new slim version of the PlayStation 3 coupled with a lower price point. After spending the last three years experimenting with different pack-ins, price points and models (five have come out), Sony announced a new single SKU for the PlayStation 3.
The new PS3 would come with 120GB hard drive, built-in Wi-Fi, a free online network (users of Xbox Live pay $50 a year to play with others online) and, most compellingly, a $299 price tag.
Couple this with a games library that is finally catching up to the hype, with Uncharted 2 regularly on the Amazon.com Top Five Video Games sales list, and Sony has set up a great foundation on which to build a brand. The price was finally right, the games were starting to actualize, and the system itself had a sleek new look and feel.
Now about that brand . . .
PlayStat– err, PS3
In the past few years, Sony has done everything to turn the ubiquitous PlayStation name into a hollow shell of its former self. The PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles are still widely regarded as opening up the video game market in the 90s and early part of this decade, and helped Sony attain the number one position in this lucrative market.
Unfortunately, the mistrust and disappointment over the PlayStation 3 so permeated the business and brand perception that Sony made one of the most drastic changes in the industry s history. PlayStation would not be elevated as the brand of note anymore. It’s not even called the PlayStation 3, and we dare you to find anything but a glancing mention of the word PlayStation.
Nope, it’s just PS3.
Everything, from the name to the logo to the video bumpers would start elevating PS3. Amongst the visual changes made include
Junking that horrible Spider-Man font
Focusing on the term PS3 instead of PlayStation 3
Making the multi-colored PS logo, unchanged in 15 years, a sleek chrome
Having a cutting edge, sleek look to the start of their trailers.
This lack of PlayStation branding and emphasis on PS3 extends to Sony s home country advertising, which you can see with an innovative Playface campaign below:
Introducing Kevin Butler
While the Japanese campaign is certainly sleek, it may be a little bit too eccentric for American tastes who were put off by some of the oddest television commercials used to launch the PlayStation 3 the first time around.
The new commercials showcase Kevin Butler (played by actor Jerry Lambert) in a series of customer service discussions with everyone from a rumor-mongering blogger to a concerned girlfriend that doesn t understand why her beau hasn t hooked his PS3 into the Internet. His response to the latter What’s wrong with him! Sony tapped Deutsch LA to create ads that are both witty and informative, with entertaining messages that highlight the PS3 s new price and features very clearly. Take a look at a couple of examples below:
Speaking with Ad Age, Peter Dille, senior VP of marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, explained, Humor, and especially irreverent humor, has been part of the PlayStation brand for a long time. The price move [to $299 last week] to us is only half of the story. We believe [the new ads] will work hard to reposition the PS3 for a more mass audience.
When pressed for comment on the way features are heavily highlighted in the new campaign, Dille went on to tell the LA Times, “We have been a game company for years and we would never walk away from that, but research confirmed there is a larger proposition under our nose. We wanted to reposition as a total entertainment solution. We felt like we can really own entertainment.”
Are Dille’s words about non-gaming entertainment worrisome to the same hardcore gamers that fled Sony in the past couple of years Kaz Hirai, head of SCEA and the poor soul in those E3 2006 videos blasting Sony s media event, spoke with the Times Online and said, We can talk about all the other things that it can do in terms of the non-game video content, whether it’s the video delivery service or the catchup TV service or the movie rental service. But none of that makes much sense unless we can say first and foremost it’s a great video game console.
The groundwork has been laid, with a sleek new console, consumer-friendly price, a crisp message and brand, and what we feel is a very effective marketing campaign. Only time will tell if Sony can recoup some of that gamer credibility to get out of a tough third-place spot, but if you’re going to go with fake characters, make sure you’ve learned the lessons of Sony’s E3 2005 and stick with the Kevin Butler variety.
