Viraaaal marketiiiing!!

K.O.Kiki

Sooo... no-one's gonna pick up on this one? Even after it's been on Kotaku? Even after it's been on UK Resistance?

So it turns out that Sony decided to hire a marketing firm -- again -- to create a viral marketing campaign in an effort to create Xmas sales for their flagging PSP (yes it is flagging, look at sales charts).
Except their marketing firm, Zipatoni, are idiots. That, or they work for MS/Nintendo...
All I Want For Xmas Is A PSP, a site where, using bastardised & inconsistent "l33t-speak", 2 "teenagers" attempt to give us the "deal":

here's the deal:::
i (charlie) have a psp. my friend jeremy does not. but he wants one this year for xmas.

so we started clowning with sum not-so-subtle hints to j's parents that a psp would be teh perfect gift. we created this site to spread the luv to those like j who want a psp!

consider us your own personal psp hype machine, here to help you wage a holiday assault on ur parents, girl, granny, boss – whoever – so they know what you really want.

we'll let you know how it works for us. pls return the favor.

more to come,
c&j.

After being found out by a WhoIs search or whatever on SomethingAwful, Kotaku, etc etc (iirc), the site comments have been spammed, it seems, non-stop.
Lesson: do not annoy the internet.
If only Sony could learn...

tracert

Idiots.

monument

K.O.Kiki wrote:

(yes it is flagging, look at sales charts)

Let’s see, with the latest all format Irish games charts…


1 - FIFA 07
Format (% SHR)
PS2 (64)
PSP (21)
XB360 (5)
XB (3)

2 - PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 6
PS2 (59)
PSP (25)
XB360 (15)
PC (1)

3 -NEED FOR SPEED: CARBON
PS2 (66)
PSP (18)
XB360 (7)
DS (3)

Crucifix

Terrible campaign. I have lately been considering getting a psp....portable ops just looks damn enticing.

K.O.Kiki

@monument: I meant hardware sales. And worldwide (though I'd love a US/EU/JP breakdown; I just can't find a good one atm)

magick

its fair bad alright, the "rap" vid is terrible but the comments ppl are leaving are classic

monument

K.O.Kiki wrote:

@monument: I meant hardware sales. And worldwide (though I'd love a US/EU/JP breakdown; I just can't find a good one atm)

The games sales matter more at the end of the day, but I'd also point to what former editor of Gamesindustry.biz said in August...

Rob Fahey, editor of Gamesindustry.biz, claims that in the new console war pro-Microsoft reporting is “influenced heavily by the American dominance of English-language media”, and that “whereas the Xbox 360 has sold 3.3 million units in North America, it has sold only 1.3 million in Europe and just 400,000 elsewhere”. Pointing to the PlayStation’s broader appeal with different demographic worldwide, but criticizing the firm’s “arrogance”.

http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/2006/08/editor_points_t.html

tba

What annoys me is that they are trying to market it to kids but claim it is a grown up console.

tuxy

monument wrote:

The games sales matter more at the end of the day, but I'd also point to what former editor of Gamesindustry.biz said in August...

Ya but Irish game sales don't matter when the website is aimed mostly at Americans.

K.O.Kiki

Oh, what's this?

here's the deal:::
Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn't a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP.

Sony Computer Entertainment America

Well, well, well! Seems deleted all the December posts, too. But the internet will never forget. Google knows all...

tba

pwnd!

amp

K.O.Kiki wrote:

Oh, what's this?


Well, well, well! Seems deleted all the December posts, too. But the internet will never forget. Google knows all...

Yes Sony, your speech was too funky fresh. That's what it was .

I read the original SA thread on this and cringed. I own a psp. I loved it, but now when I look at it I feel shame. I now dread bringing out in public and feel dirty when I play it. (Mind you it's flashed to 1.5 and I am devhook empowered)

I even thought that maybe that this was designed to bring out the hardcore psp fans to react against the deserved backlash against this utter travesty. But even the most retarded fanboy could never support an idiot pretending to be Vannila Ice who wants his parents to get him a psp, despite the fact that he can obviously afford a bling cane and medallion and at the start is seen to waving a wad of cash. (Is that the cash Sony paid him maybe?).

Ah screw it. Tycho flames this much better than I.

koneko

amp wrote:

I read the original SA thread on this and cringed. I own a psp. I loved it, but now when I look at it I feel shame. I now dread bringing out in public and feel dirty when I play it.

That's because you are dirty. A filthy dirty person.

But I agree. Luckily there are so few games worth playing on the PSP that we don't have to embarrass ourselves by taking it out in public.

projectmayhem

PSP sales are flagging compared to DS, but if you're Sony you've made a profit already.

as for the site, bloody awful attempt at PR. hopefully someone got a pink slip in the post

flogen

projectmayhem wrote:

PSP sales are flagging compared to DS, but if you're Sony you've made a profit already.

Are they profiting on the PSP; I thought they were selling at a loss (although the tech has probably cheapened since launch with the price remaining the same)

as for the site, bloody awful attempt at PR. hopefully someone got a pink slip in the post

Pfft, post is too good for them, I hope it was a text... that would also offer some delicious txtspk irony. That'd be tasty alright, but maybe not as tasty as their soon-to-be-broke-ass tears.

monument

It was so simple in the old days; this internet thing has gone and wrecked things.

For projects that had (potentially) mass appeal all marketing and advertising people had to do is put general adverts where a general audiences would see them. Then put the silly txt-speak adverts in the mags/places for aimed at that generation/group, and put the pinkie girlish adverts in pinkie girlish mags and so on.

No one was any wiser that a product they might like may also be advertised to groups they don’t want to be their stuff to be linked to and in a way they would probably cringe at.

Another example, PS2s and PSPs were coloured/branded pink, male gamers cringed, whined, monned, and joked. But like mobile pink phones the pink PlayStation products sold in truck loads.

tuxy wrote:

Ya but Irish game sales don't matter when the website is aimed mostly at Americans.

Oh, right. Now, I see. Thanks, I was wrong when I presumed we were having a general talk about the PSP, game consoles, and their marketing. Silly me!

K.O.Kiki wrote:

@monument: I meant hardware sales. And worldwide (though I'd love a US/EU/JP breakdown; I just can't find a good one atm)

K.O.Kiki, we better not talk about the EU or Japan any more, apparently, we’re not allowed to.

MikeHoncho

The funny thing is that its got news and talk about the PSP at a time when Nintendo are eating up the blog and message boards. I almost wonder did they set this up in an attempt to fail just so people would divert there attention from nintendo for a moment. The site is so bad that there is no way you could expect anyone to believe it was anything other than a marketing ploy.

projectmayhem

flogen wrote:

Are they profiting on the PSP; I thought they were selling at a loss (although the tech has probably cheapened since launch with the price remaining the same)

the hardware is just ps2 stuff, made smaller, so they were making a nice profit from an early stage

tuxy

projectmayhem wrote:

the hardware is just ps2 stuff, made smaller

Ya but the acme shrinking device they use on the hardware to make it that size is expensive to run.

tuxy

monument wrote:

Oh, right. Now, I see. Thanks, I was wrong when I presumed we were having a general talk about the PSP, game consoles, and their marketing. Silly me!

The post you were quoting was about worldwide sales, so i didn't see the relevance of your post stating Irish sales.
If you had just stated it with out the quote it would have made sense.

johnny_ultimate

More Sony marketing blunders : the recent mothball PSP ads. Em... que?
PSP - just like watching carpet.
Sure, that will entice me to buy one.

monument

johnny_ultimate wrote:

More Sony marketing blunders : the recent mothball PSP ads. Em... que?
PSP - just like watching carpet.
Sure, that will entice me to buy one.

He said look at the 'sales charts', so I went and looked at the ones that are readily available to me.

I might be stretching it a bit here, but in the wider picture of the console wars, if anything the Irish games charts and the lack of success of the Xbox / Xbox 360 in Ireland could be used as a counter to the dominate image that the Xbox 360 is a success worldwide. The fact is the console’s success in the US has not been repeated worldwide and even only limitedly in Europe. Anyway, looking at the US figures (which nobody has so-far produced here???) in isolation is in world terms is, a large step, but still not too much of a step up for looking at the Irish figures in isolation

Ok, back to PSP, so lets take it that he was talking about ‘worldwide sales’ – are they ‘flagging’ ? Can somebody provide the figures on this? (Not being smart or anything here, I really want to know! – and this isn’t sarcasm)

johnny_ultimate wrote:

More Sony marketing blunders : the recent mothball PSP ads. Em... que?
PSP - just like watching carpet.
Sure, that will entice me to buy one.

Yes, and the third place idea was at least twice daft. As both are off-the-wall daft. And, if we go by what you’re saying, one has apparently failed…

…Continuing on from my last post and points about marketing and advertisement placements, and how pink phones and PSP were laughed at but sold well…

If you don’t like the PSP TV adverts or the "I can't believe she called me a dirtbag"... "Yeah. You're clearly a dustball" Dublin Bus adverts, or the “I think I see Santa Claus coming to town”… “That the Luas, dust for brains” etc, it’s probably because the ads are not specifically aimed at 19 year old male students who already have an interest in games.

johnny_ultimate

monument wrote:

If you don’t like the PSP TV adverts or the "I can't believe she called me a dirtbag"... "Yeah. You're clearly a dustball" Dublin Bus adverts, or the “I think I see Santa Claus coming to town”… “That the Luas, dust for brains” etc, it’s probably because the ads are not specifically aimed at 19 year old male students who already have an interest in games.

Funny you should say that because just last night I was talking to a friend - guess what, a 19 year old male student - who thought the PSP ads were great (although he acknowledged he didn't really get what they were on about). Non gamer by the way.
And ok maybe the "have you seen my moth" got a bit of a chuckle. A bit.