Sony targeting Wii owners

Sony says it will win over lapsed gamers, Wii owners and former PlayStation 2 gamers with its mammoth marketing push for PS3.

Earlier this week the format holder revealed plans to spend over 80m on European marketing efforts for the redesigned console, which arrives on Tuesday, September 1st priced at 249.99.

MCV can reveal that 12m in total is to be spent in the UK on marketing, which includes a heavy-duty TV campaign and in-your-face outdoor ads. 6m of that is dedicated to a new brand initiative and SCEE’s ‘The Game Is Just The Start’ slogan.

Key first party games EyePet, Uncharted 2 and Singstar Take That will be supported with up to 2m each, while a national sampling push will reach over 5m consumers.
Now Sony thinks it can ‘convert’ Wii gamers into PlayStation 3 owners:

This campaign is the end of a two year journey for Sony in repositioning the PlayStation brand and making it more open and inclusive,” SCEE marketing director Alan Duncan told MCV. With this campaign we are being much more direct.”

Sony also plans to promote music service VidZone, Blu-ray playback, iPlayer integration and its movie download service.

UK marketing manager Adam Boita explained: Last year was about proving to consumers the strength of software; this year we are talking about both that and the wider proposition PS3 offers.

We’re reaching out to those not used to gaming – not just core male gamers.”

Added Duncan: Until now, the ‘buying journey’ for PS3 consumers was a long one – they would really consider what it entailed and why to buy. It was treated like buying a car. We’ve needed something that makes it much simpler. The lowered price and new PS3 helps make that statement.

For us the big audience is PS2 owners who have either lapsed and moved away from gaming altogether, or moved to Wii and now want to upgrade. There is a massive opportunity to appeal to those who still don’t have a next-gen console. That’s why we’ve gone for a very invitational campaign.”