Why The World Won’t Be Playing to Sony’s European Vita Ads
What do you do when you want to advertise a device jam-packed with more features than a Transformer crossed with a Swiss army knife? Mention none of the features, of course.
Now don’t get me wrong, the newly revealed Vita ad for Europe titled “PS Vita. The World Is In Play” does look impressive, and is well produced – despite the slight serial-killery vibe of some of the actors – but it does little to show off the handheld. It’s pretty, but mostly useless, like an attractive woman with barbie doll anatomy. Let’s take a look:
Sure, that makes we want to play games, but it doesn’t really make me want to play games on the Vita. I have no idea what games the Vita plays, I don’t know that there’s a touch screen, let alone another touch pad. Hell, even the name “PS Vita” flashes up so quickly that the average consumer is sure to have forgotten it by the time their viewing of The Walking Dead resumes. And let’s not kid ourselves, as gorgeous as the Vita looks in our hands, at a quick glance it looks like a PSP. Even if the consumer takes note of the added analog stick – the only new feature on display – they’d easily be forgiven for thinking this was just another PSP iteration.
If you’ve followed European PSP ads, you’ll remember that they also kept referencing the world to show off the portability of the device, with their main campaign being about “The Whole World in Your Hands”. With both devices having such similar slogans, confusion can only follow. In fact, let’s see what happens if you take the last 5 seconds of the Vita ad and replace it with one of a PSP ad:
That’s an ad that easily could be on TV promoting the PSP. As you can see, the rest of the ad does nothing to focus on what the Vita is capable of. There’s no mention of the myriad of control options, the stellar line-up, that it’s more powerful than an iPhone despite being cheaper – there’s nothing about any of the handheld’s unique selling points. It doesn’t even say when the Vita releases.
Sony’s advertising often seems to be trying to be memorable, but at best they are ensuring that people remember a “cool ad”, not a “cool device” – something that Sony should want to instil in the minds of customers ahead of the rumored March launch of the iPad 3.
The PS3 suffered greatly from terrible launch adverts and, while this ad isn’t as bad (anything beats crying baby dolls), if it is a sign of ads to come, then Sony’s marketing team will have their work cut out for them if they want to prove that there is a space in the industry for a high-end dedicated handheld.
8 Responses to “Why The World Won’t Be Playing to Sony’s European Vita Ads”
Yeah…yesterday they showed the first PS Vita ad on the blog, which mostly centered on cross-platform play. That’s nice and all, but that wouldn’t be the first feature I would center on since barely any games support it.
They should have an ad showing the games and the features and branch out. One of the problems with the PSP was the fact that not everyone knew what it could fully do. I really hope they have ads showing off some great things. The Taco Bell commercials and this isn’t going to do it.
The 3ds never had ads and they never even bother to critize. At least Sony is making their ads, they never used to.
sony has already come out and said their going to spend 50 million on advertising for the vita…. i agree with you seb, if they are all like this their not really doing a good job at promoting their product and what it can do.
i get mine tomorrow i cant wait. any ideas on any great incoming rpgs for the vita
Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention, Dungeon Hunter: Alliance, Final Fantasy X, Persona 4: The Golden, Shin Megami Tensei (working title), Ragnarok Odyssey (I can’t wait for), Warrior’s Lair and Ys IV.
There are direct and indirect ads of which one is subtle and the other direct. This will not be the only Ad Sony puts out for Vita, this is an indirect Ad to spark curiosity, it is a damn fine Ad. Direct Ads will tell you features and games and price and release date while indirect Ads will grab your attention to make you curious enough to go search for the product yourself.
This is a direct Ad
youtube.com/watch?v=-C5cY9oLKYg
youtube.com/watch?v=ADjMPGOAPhA
This is an indirect Ad
youtube.com/watch?v=DGNxHa0bqCI
youtube.com/watch?v=mdWkKKSckNk
People respond better to indirect Ads, just take a look at the respose on the To Michael PS3 Ad and see how much views it has. That is because it grabs your attention and judging by how fast this Vita Ad went from 0 to 35,000+ views in just less than 1 day proves that. While the direct Ads have been up since 2011. Do you get it now?
we had commercials for PS9 when PS2 was released, and look at the success of PS2.
I don’t think anyone can complain about marketing…unless it involves anything the Jersey Shore represents.
what i don’t get is why people are getting anoyed at the price of the thing, when the Iphone is about $150 more expensive.