Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Triple Life

Once in a while an ad comes along that defines a market to a big group of it's customers. An ad that connects and identifies those people so perfectly that it stops being advertising and becomes part of their truth.

Sony's classic Double Life ad for Playstation did just that; seeing the real truth of gamers way before Nintendo opened up the market.

So we come to the new ad for the PS Vita. I'll start off by saying I don't dislike it, I think it's a nice ad that will connect with the core gamers Sony is targeting.

One issue though, it feels a bit like the brief said: "Give us Double Life again". So similar was the ad that after 10 seconds on tv I knew it was an ad for the PS Vita.

It would be almost impossible to hit that sweet spot of message, audience and timing again, and anything new is only ever going to feel weaker by comparison. Although I suppose you could argue that even if the ad isn't as strong, tapping into that golden memory of the Playstation generation will do more than any one ad new ever could.

There's sense in it though, hardcore gamers no longer feeling like they are understood, with smartphone gaming taking away the mass-appeal of consoles that arrived with Wii and DS. For the first time in about 6 years, the core gamers need reassurance and need rousing together; and Sony needs them even more to get Vita off the ground. Even if it's not as good as the original, the strategy seems to make sense.

I'm pretty sure if they just repeated Double Life with a PS Vita at the end, it would do the same job though.

1 comment:

Rob said...

God, that really is the same isn't it.