Bringing a brand character to life

The video game industry has undergone huge expansion in recent years. With consumers spending $24.75 billion on games and gaming hardware in 2011 (ESA), it's clear that the industry has become a highly successful mainstream form of media. However, this explosion has not come without more than a few growing pains, including those in the area of advertising. Companies struggled to advertise in a way that catered not only to their established "hardcore" fans, but also to broaden their audience and find mass appeal.

Sony, one of the Console Wars giants, is now in its third generation of the Playstation. The PS3, as it has come to be known, had the unfortunate opportunity to follow up the best selling console of all time, the Playstation 2. In fact, the PS3 was met with widespread disappointment from launch, and if not for "Red Ring of Death" hardware failures in the Xbox 360 consoles the PS3 may have been a complete disaster from a PR standpoint.

Coming off of and underwhelming, strange, and irrelevant "White Room" campaign, Sony decided it was time for a change. Senior VP of Marketing, Peter Dille, stated in a blog post that they wanted to move toward "a more high-energy, entertainment driven focus for the PS3." The result of this is the creation of Kevin Butler, Sony's fake vice president whose department changed with just about every ad.  

Meet Kevin Butler, Sony's VP of almost anything.

Butler appears as a lighthearted, energetic, and down-to-earth kind of executive. Seen without a jacket, usually with sleeves rolled back, he appears to the audience as the kind of guy that's accessible and entertaining. To me, this was a fantastic move for a company that needed to change the way people think about it and its product. After all, what better way to get the audience to understand your brand character than to actually create him as a real character?

Not only was the campaign successful in this respect, but the commercials are also created as if Butler is responding to fan questions, and in the process I think they manage to convey important information about the PS3 and some of the top-name games for it. After a while, Kevin Butler even transformed into something of a cult figure in the world of gaming, and his commercials remain some of the most funny and memorable in the history of the industry.

Be sure to check out one of the most successful examples of the Kevin Butler "It only does everything" campaign below!

Lance Armstrong's Fall Out

Lance Armstrong’s recent interview with Oprah Winfrey has unleashed an incredible amount of criticism and ill feelings from journalists and athletes around the world. According to the article by the award-winning sports writer, Dan Wetzel, Armstrong admits that he cheated to win his seven Tour de France titles by using performance enhancement drugs and also admits to have bullied and sued more people than he could remember. Armstrong describes himself as an arrogant man that bullied people into covering his lies. This interview revealed the truths about Armstrong that nobody knew. Wetzel wrote “…in tuning into the Oprah Winfrey Network, you could only marvel at that personality on display, the same one that while we celebrated his victories was, behind the scenes, leaving a path of personal destruction in its wake.”

This interview was a true revelation for thousands of athletes that supported and believed in his cause. Armstrong’s popular “Live Strong” campaign and foundation was endorsed and supported by Nike. As Armstrong is receiving extreme criticism, left and right, people are questioning Nike’s involvement and their knowledge of Armstrong’s misdoings. Nike and other sporting brands have suffered from criticism in the past. For example, the scandals involving Tiger Woods’ infidelity and Michael Phelps’ marijuana usage. These celebrity scandals make us think: Should organizations keep on taking the risk of endorsing athletes? Do the monetary and momentary benefits outweigh the harm that could be done do the brand image? Should the brand keep on advertising their “Live Strong” products?

From an advertising standpoint, I honestly doubt Nike would benefit from advertising their “Live Strong” products including shoes and athlete gear. If anything, I think that the brand’s reputation would be associated with the criticism that Armstrong is receiving. But the true question is: What should they do? Do you think they should stand by the athletes they endorse? Or should they terminate their contracts to avoid negative press?

Advertising Goes Viral

"Do you remember that Pepsi commercial with Britney Spears?"

"No."

"Oh, really? It's awesome. She's dancing around and it goes through the decades and she has all these great costumes. It's hard to explain, but it's great!"

This commercial is from 2002 and many of us still remember it. This particular upload has almost three million views.

Today, the "have you seen that commercial" conversation has changed, thanks to YouTube and other media hosting sites:

"Do you remember that Pepsi commercial with Britney Spears?"

"No."

"Oh, really? Here, I'll get it up on my iPhone right now!"
OR
"Oh, really? I'll put a link to it on your Facebook wall."

Huge corporations, such as Geico or Pepsi have their own YouTube channels that hold all of their promotional videos and advertising content. These videos get hundreds of thousands of views. The use of YouTube creates a new platform for "television" advertising. YouTube also creates a new opportunity for advertising because there is no 30 or 60-second time limit. Some advertisements, such as Jennifer Aniston's SmartWater ad, are created FOR YouTube. The longer time allotment allows for more explanation, a more developed plot, and further details.
YouTube has done much for music videos as well. This OK Go video for "Here It Goes Again" started as a viral video (Look for the front left guy stumble around 0:58). Weezer's video for "Pork and Beans" is comprised of content from viral videos, launching itself into "viral" status.

It is unclear if the increased exposure translates into increased sales, however.
Advertisers now have an extra incentive to create quality commercials because they may forever be caught in the throngs of online content, thanks to YouTube.