Sony’s Advertising Drive

Sony has launched a new 20 million dollar advertising campaign. The campaign emphasizes the easy-to-use, high-tech features of Sony’s camcorders and digital cameras. Sony’s new campaign comes in the wake of a series of ad agency changes. They hope that their new campaign will “show the public that Sony is making the same kind of technological advances in high-definition as, say, Apple is making in music.”

Sony’s new devotion to advertising is a response to the competition they have experienced from companies such as Samsung. According to David Martin, United States president of Interbrand in New York, says Sony has dropped from 18th in 2000 to 26th in his company’s annual brand rankings. To remedy this recent drop, Sony plans to play up its new technology and use humorous ads to make the brand feel more accessible. Sony is confident about this new campaign will be successful because their consumer research showed that consumers had great passion for Sony but that the brand was not making an emotional connection. Mr. Martin, however, is less sure of its success. He contends that traditional advertising has become less effective in the consumer electronics sector because people are paying more attention to objective product reviews. It seems that Sony’s advertising will only be effective if their products meet the new expectations they are setting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/business/media/10adco.html?_r=1&ref=media&oref=slogin