When the advertising world thinks of Sony, it also thinks of the firm that’s been with the PlayStation since it’s inception way back in 1994–TBWA/Chiat/Day.
But this longtime connection to Sony has been severed because Sony is dropping the ad company from their ranks.
Sony was looking for an agency to handle a $150 million PlayStation advertising campaign and TBWA/Chiat/Day was eliminated from the pool of five finalists going for the account.
The remaining four in the shootout are Vanables Bell & Partners of San Francisco, RPA of Santa Monica, California, Publicis in Seattle and Deutsch of Los Angeles.
Sony Computer Entertainment of America is expected to make its final decision by the end of next week.
In 1994, Sony hired, as what it was known then as Chiat/Day for running the campaign for its original PlayStation. It then went on to run very successful ads for other PlayStation brand game machines.
However, with the launch of the PS3, the ads, which many felt were either confusing or uninspired, was most likely the last straw in breaking the relationship between the two companies.
TNS Media Intelligence says that Sony spent $94 million on ads in 2006, no doubt, a majority of that on the struggling PS3 and only $2.9 million for the first eight months of 2007.
Many are starting to see the PS3 as the "comeback kid" of the present gen game consoles and with this momentum freshly in hand, Sony needs to make sure that their next ad agency fully understands how to get the message out about the PS3–it’s fun; something that the previous ads totally failed to convey to the public.
[via adage]
