The Kick-Ass Express

PAUSE: This PlayStation Vita ad says everything you never could about why you play games.

Explaining to your friends exactly why you play games can be a tricky proposition, but Dutch agency 180 Amsterdam does so beautifully in this new spot for the PlayStation Vita. The ad is directed by Cary Fukunaga (who won the Sundance Dramatic Directing award for Sin Nombre), and I found the bit on exploration particularly stirring.

-Jamin [via AdWeek]

I’m torn over the effectiveness of this advert. It’s a great mood piece that sells the dream of seamless, variety-filled handheld gaming, but at the same time it fundamentally fails to inform the consumer about what the product actually is.

Sony are putting too much stock into its target audience already having a built-in knowledge about the Vita. Gamers or not, people are going to want to know why they need to invest in ANOTHER portable touch device. Sony’s “The Game Is Just The Start” campaign struck a perfect balance between brand building and informational advertising, whereas this seems like a regression back to the ambiguous promotions of old.

This is a £300 piece of tech. Why on earth would you not utilise your expensive television ads to at least educate consumers about what your product actually does? For such a feature-packed device it makes very little sense.

(via killscreendaily)

3 months ago 26 notes

Tagged with: #gaming #vita #ps vita #sony #playstation vita #advertising