Sony’s TV ads are spectacular. Whether they’re hurling bouncy balls through San Francisco, building a gigantic zoetrope, or splattering towerblocks with paint, but we could have seen the last of their kind.
Sony’s latest marketing sensation doesn’t take place on TV at all: instead it uses the web and social networking to showcase the latest Cyber-shot, Alpha and Handycam kit, saving Sony a bundle in the process, but also putting the products’ future firmly in the hands of gadget fans.
Sony and its advertising agency Fallon let us see behind the scenes of their latest promotion this week. Dubbed Twilight Football, it’s one of the biggest real-time marketing stunts ever attempted, and in terms of logistics at least, more impressive than any of its previous ads.
Seven football games have been staged around the globe. Each kicks off at dusk, with the action captured using Sony’s new Cyber-shot TX1 and WX1 compact cameras, the Alpha A550 DSLR and Handycam CX520V camcorder. All four products feature Sony’s new Exmor R sensor, which is twice as sensitive as its predecessors and designed to perform well in low light.
Read our Sony Cyber-shot TX1 and Cyber-shot WX1 reviews
But rather than show off the Exmor R’s skills in a slick TV ad, Sony has invited photography fans to witness the games themselves, picking competition winners from all over the world, flying them to Twilight football matches and dishing out cameras for them to produce photos that’ll be used in marketing the new snappers. The football teams playing in Twilight matches are also competition winners, found using Twitter and YouTube, as well as a promotion through UEFA.com. Check out the British team’s winning video below.
See our exclusive Twilight Football photo gallery
It’s the first time Sony’s used social networking to sell its products, rather than creating a spectacle through TV ads. Ben Cyzer, head of account management at Fallon, said it was a tricky task, describing Twilight Football as a “difficult brief” to deliver, but that the company also needed “players and photographers to realise the idea… creating a diverse set of images to demonstrate the campaign, as well as the capabilities of Exmor R.”
Check out the results of Sony’s social marketing experiment at www.sony.co.uk/twilightfootball and see our snaps from the final game in South Africa too. It’s a sharp change of direction for Sony, but one we reckon has the makings of marketing genius.
