This is the story of two different video game manufacturers and two very different marketing messages.
If you’ve been watching any kind of TV at all lately, you’ve probably noticed two very slick ads. One ad, for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, features a saccharine-sweet chorus of elementary-aged school children passionately delivering their rendition of 80s glam-metal hit “Nothing But a Good Time,” by Poison. If you haven’t seen Microsoft’s ad, take a minute to check it out here.
I’ll let you be the judge, but when I see Microsoft’s ad, I see an incredibly confident video game manufacturer that is smart enough to know when to roll with the punches. Like it or not, the video game market has changed. Thanks in no small part to Nintendo’s Wii system, what was once a strictly male, 18-34 demographic is now an anything-goes, male/female/robot/alien demographic. Microsoft’s latest ad not only acknowledges this fact but wholeheartedly embraces it.
Meanwhile, Sony’s latest ad for the PS3, an over-the-top, gratuitous, knee-jerk reaction to the unfamiliar landscape it now finds itself in, features testosterone-fueled rockers, Saliva, performing “Ladies and Gentleman.” Again, decide for yourself, but when I see this ad, I see a video game manufacturer backed into a corner. Every bit the deranged, elementary school bully who torments other children in an attempt to compensate for its own shortcomings, Sony is desperate for you to know that the PS3 is the most powerful, kick-ass, Jesus-walking-on-water video game system of all time.
Without commenting on the overall effectiveness of either strategy, let me just say that Microsoft’s approach appeals more to me than does Sony’s. In a time when Nintendo and the casual gamer are king, Sony’s ad seems to be overly directed toward the largely prepubescent, Napoleon-complex-having hardcore crowd.* Meanwhile, Microsoft’s ad occupies the perfect middle ground between the two extremes.
*Disclaimer: The author does not think of all hardcore gamers this way. Much to the contrary, he considers himself a perfectly adjusted, non-Napoleon-complex-having hardcore gamer.
That is a very interesting compare and contrast on two distinctly different ads. Sony seems to be using old tactics that resort to flexing muscles, 360′s is much more playful and inviting to people.
You are definitely right on the whole testosterone level of PS3′s ad here. Guns a blazing, flames, etc. Will Sony try to take its ads to a broader audience like Microsoft and Nintendo are? Only time will tell.
You raise an interesting question, Hans. If Nintendo and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft are taking a more invitational approach with their recent commercials, maybe Sony’s spot has a place after all. Someone should probably address the hardcore crowd, right?
I do think Sony should be careful, however. If casual gamers represent the largest piece of the video game market, and hard core gamers the smallest, targeting the latter will at best get you a third place finish this generation.