Case\Note
Sony PlayStation 3
Business\Problem
PlayStation3 is a wonderful and very expensive piece of technology. A £425 entertainment supercomputer that shifts PlayStation out of the gaming market and into digital entertainment.
Unfortunately, the main competitor is half the price, and lots of big brands are converging on this market – and they’re spending big to win. Our challenge was to help successfully launch PS3 into the market.
Conventions\
We observed that all the brands within this sector were ducking the opportunity to interact with the consumer. They settled for the role of gateway – and sat on the side lines watching their consumers have fun. All we saw in communication were a series of weak invitations.
Disruption\
This is the participation generation, carrying a massive demand for interaction. Our insight was to be where the consumer is – and the category isn’t: interacting; turning spectators into players.
We showed that PS3 plays back. It’s living, evolving entertainment, that can outthink and outplay people in unsettlingly real experiences
Idea
To do this, we created a hotel called Paradise, populated by a unique and volatile group of characters.
Our aim was to build a campaign of living, evolving entertainment that could find its way into people’s lives through every channel possible, summed up within the line ‘This Is Living’.
Campaign
We directed people to view the hotel we created online through LBi, through press and postcards. And we created 40 different pieces of content – more like film trailers than ads – and as well as running them as advertising, released them as virals, bought space as TV content or made them available in long format DVDs.
We built a hotel on Second Life, reviewed the hotel in Tripadvisor, created back-stories on all the characters and meven made one of the characters’ war memorabilia available on eBay.
Effect\
None of the campaign was conventional. None of it told people anything. The message was in the emotional experience of the campaign. Some people might not get it. But the right ones would. And to date we have been proved right.
Sony has countered the negativity of a delayed launch and a retail price double that of its competitors. PS3 is developing positive word of mouth in Europe. Over 1 million people have visited our website. And 48 hours after launch, Sony had sold 600,000 PS3 consoles across Europe; the most successful home console launch in Europe ever, and the UK launch weekend outsold those of Xbox 360 and Wii hands down.
Convention\
Weak invitations.
Vision\
The entertainment supercomputer for the participation generation.
Disruption\
This is Living.