How to Make Some Mayhem!

In our class yesterday we found two successful advertising campaigns and break them down. I chose to take a closer look at PlayStation's "How to Trade Games on PS4" marketing video (2013).

​During the E3 Expo in 2013, Microsoft and Sony unveiled their current consoles. Microsoft announced a highly controversial method of sharing games with friends in one simple way; you can’t. During the announcement, Microsoft opted for a “one user only” digital signature to be attached to every new title purchased at retail making used games require a license to be purchased in order for them to work on anyone else's consoles.

Sony heard the outcry and developed a short 21 second ad campaign that not only mocked Microsoft's practises, but also informed people on how to trade PS4 titles with each other. It was a video of one person holding a game and handing it to another. This generated a lot of online commentary and social media reach given the openly mocking nature of the video which appealed largely to their intended audience as well as those who were on the fence about purchasing an Xbox One over a PlayStation 4. This campaign negatively impacted Microsoft’s initial sales, and has not been able to successfully bounce back from the backlash.

In March of 2019 (Hooked on Tech, 2019), Sony had sold over 92 million consoles as opposed to Microsoft’s 42 million. More than double.

This campaign is currently still running with the release of Borderlands 3 and features a vast array of bland product advertisements that get invaded by Psychotic imagery that makes consumers think twice. The videos are featured on the developers YouTube channel and through sponsored ad spots on Facebook and Instagram. More suited to Instagram, the videos feature beautiful people cut short by glitches and Etta James’ “At Last” at the end of each advert.

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This campaign was successful as it was intended to attract new audiences in the process of appealing to the decade-long established fanbase. I can confirm, as Sarah has never been interested in Borderlands until she saw a sponsored post for the Shampoo ad.