Though many may not realize, as a creative entertainment company, Sony reaches more people daily than most brands in the world through our technology and content, including music, movies/TV and games.
While exciting and full of opportunities, this also creates challenges for brand marketing – we are much more than just one thing. How can we tell stories that clearly and compellingly convey Sony’s unique breadth?
Part of what sets Sony apart is the community of world-class creators behind our content. But just like every creator, they too face obstacles and self-doubt as they pursue their vision. It’s when they work together, inspire each other, and push each other to be better that they create magic – all for the love of entertainment.
That shared love is innate to everything that Sony and our creators do across categories, and we empower and enable our community to create the very best.
We set out to create a short commercial spot that connects all the above in one story. That means bridging the gap between the various parts of Sony that our audience may not be aware of beyond great electronics, celebrating some of our biggest IPs, and spotlighting the veteran and emerging creators who make those stories possible, for their passion and humanity alike – all at once.
Our goal was straightforward, but lofty: crystallize the breadth and intent of the Sony brand, familiarize the audience with who we are and deliver content tailored to a strong paid media campaign.
To accurately represent the breadth of the Sony brand also means juggling many inputs and collaborating across 5 different Sony groups to tell an overarching narrative that doesn’t say too much or too little.
The start of our strategy was to draw learnings from our first spot tying all of Sony together last year, which found huge success in paid. We knew we could go bigger and further while simplifying the narrative, and that’s what we did.
The next consideration was fostering the most authentic collaboration across all Sony groups represented here (Pictures, Television, PlayStation, Music, Electronics) - one reality of corporate America is that achieving ambitious synergistic projects is often easier said than done.
We involved creatives from every group from the earliest concept stage, collaborating on story, IP, talent, etc. It was essential all involved understood and connected to the overall message, and importantly, felt excited by how this unified narrative could celebrate their work and lift all tides.
This also meant building in tremendous flexibility in the creative process. The storytelling was intentionally nimble and privileged the broader brand message, so we didn’t shy away from rewriting it many times to accommodate varying creative inputs, IP choices, talent schedules, etc. We pivoted throughout, but the roadblocks enabled great creative solves that ultimately elevated the piece.
Narratively, we wanted to place the viewer in each creator's distinct worlds, as they face a moment of doubt – the kind they need to break through to fulfil their vision. Representing a sample of our creators, from the newest to the most veterans, was important to us. Showcasing them on a level playing field when it comes to overcoming self-doubt and achieving greatness, felt both authentic to their processes and relatable to aspiring creators, whether they're a producer or a wildlife photographer.
We set out to feature the right talent, balancing huge, zeiteigsty Sony IPs relevant to our target audience with creators who would fit the narrative spanning gaming, movies/TV, photography and music.
We describe Sony as “a creative entertainment company with a solid foundation of technology”, which informed the role we wanted technology to play. While not explicitly drawn attention to, Sony technology is present throughout the spot, enabling creators to do their best work.
Lastly, another lesson learned was to optimize the paid media campaign by maximizing variants and openers, ensuring the broader Sony brand story always comes through. This directly supported the creative process: we planned the storytelling in a modular form so we could switch the order of most scenes and get the same message across in different formats/lengths, while keeping it fresh. This enabled us to conceive 15+ variants across paid channels including FB/IG, YouTube, CTV and OLV platforms.
Ultimately, our whole approach was to bring to life a key mantra shared across Sony: we create all that we do, for the love of entertainment. And if jumping out of a skydiving plane can help tell that story, then that's what we'll do (and we did).
We’re proud of what we achieved not only creatively, but collaboratively with our Sony partners' unwavering buy-in. Creating content is what brought our groups together – a perfect reflection of this story.
In 60sec, we distilled what the Sony brand stands for, spotlighting some of our biggest global IP and the real creatives behind them, including ‘God of War Ragnarök’ (PlayStation5), TV’s ‘The Boys’, upcoming blockbuster ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’, superstar music producer Tricky Stewart and emerging artist MK xyz (and a bear!).
We showcased their creative processes in an authentic, playful way that ties them together. Turns out movie/game/TV/music creatives + wildlife & skydiving photography can all coexist in one story - thanks to the Sony thread.
We launched to unanimously positive feedback from fans, who were excited to see Sony come together in an epic way they hadn’t before. The campaign has been extremely successful in paid media. Taking a modular approach to creative worked out great, with 20M+ impressions and 4.5M+ views so far, exceeding all engagement benchmarks.
Distilling what makes us unique into concise storytelling has always been an exhilarating challenge, and we’re excited to continue developing such stories that highlight the power of Sony.
We’re much more than great electronics. Through your PS5, in your headphones, on your television – there are storytellers pushing boundaries. As long as there are stories to tell, we will support creators who bring them to life – and we’re excited to continue to celebrate their journeys along the way.
