The PlayStation PS4 launch campaign successfully transformed brand perception through innovative national press strategies, including a memorable teaser ad that stirred social media engagement. Unique collaborations with media partners, particularly with 'The Sun,' led to standout creative executions that generated substantial audience interactions and solid sales. As a result, the PS4 became the fastest-selling console, significantly outperforming competitors even with a delayed UK launch.

1. Newsworks Planning Awards
PlayStation – Best Newspaper Campaign
Emma Cranston & Stephen Cooke
Exec summary:
PlayStation broke publishing boundaries, unleashed social hysteria and created a media first
with the launch of the PS4 through national press. The tactical placements and strong
collaboration between all parties meant this campaign was a huge success and wide-
reaching.
Background & objectives:
In the last generation of consoles, PlayStation lost its gaming crown. Microsoft’s XBOX 360,
a fresher, exciting (and cheaper) console launched ahead of PS3, winning the battle of the
two. With both launching next-generation consoles head to head for the first time in
November 2013 (we knew we would be out spent by Microsoft too), the challenge was
simple: change people’s perception at launch and win back our crown.
All of the media arms for the PS4 launch were BIG and IMPACTFUL e.g. taking over the
OXO Tower, creating a beacon for the next-gen gaming, therefore print needed to be up
there with the ‘wow’ factor. Print also needed to be able to create intrigue during the build up
to the launch, as well as impact at launch. The national press had the abilities to cater for
both of these needs.
Insight
Research from UCL showed us that to change perception of a brand you need a series of
positive ‘jolts’. Preconceptions of traditional print meant that people wouldn’t expect to see a
‘wow’ moment in print, therefore a perfect forum to run a stunt and to be part of the series of
‘jolts’.
Although PlayStation has a gaming target audience, for this launch the target audience was
much broader because the PS4 is not only for gamers but the whole family because it is an
entertainment hub. National press was a perfect vehicle to communicate this announcement
to a broad audience. We also wanted to bring the creative to life and showcase what readers
could expect from the PS4, therefore we ran on newsbrand tablet editions too.
We had to work very closely with the creative agency, Drum, on the strategy and execution
of the press creative. This was then opened up to the media owners to discuss parameters,
ideas and timings. Adnostic were also crucial to the tablet activity, which again needed a
three way conversation between them, Drum and ourselves.
The plan
The tease
The console had been announced in April 2013; traditionally the UK has had to wait for
several months after the announcement before it is launched in this market (bigger markets

2. such as Japan and US are launched first). Therefore, nobody knew that PS4 was coming to
the UK that year. On the 24 May we ran a teaser ad in Metro’s Sport section (around the
Champions League final which highlighted PlayStation’s long-standing sponsorship of the
tournament), to create intrigue and open the social conversations about the upcoming
launch. It created a social wave of comments and hysteria; people were taking pictures of
the Metro newspaper ad and sharing it on social networks (see below for teaser copy).
Not only were readers sharing the copy but they were even adapting it to show their
excitement (see image below, left). PlayStation reacted to this and built a tool on their forum
where gamers were able to easily change the copy and share the image on social network
sites (see image below, right).
The launch day
The national press had one day to make an impact, which was the on the launch day itself;
Friday 29 November. We ran big impactful formats (cover wrap, OBC and IFC DPS) with all
key titles to PlayStation (the popular press and commuter titles). The big impactful formats
showed that we meant business! The Sun is a key title for PlayStation, therefore we wanted

3. to do something a little more special with them. We needed to shock and entertain their
readers. The Sun has never moved their Page 3 girl for any advertiser before and they
initially were not willing to so do for PlayStation but after lengthy discussions and once we
shared with them the approach the ad was going to take they agreed to do it. The creative
read ‘Apologies to Rosie, 22 from Middlesex, Today’s Page 3 is for the Players’. We moved
Rosie to page five! A media first! We had to work closely with The Sun who disclosed the
name of the Page 3 girl just before going to print:
To bring the creative alive we worked closely with Adnostic to create a new bespoke ad
format for the campaign, which ran in newsbrands’ tablet editions (Metro, the Guardian and
The Times). It was a highly engaging video ad with multiple touch points - it actually felt as if
you were playing the game. There were options at the bottom of the ad to view additional
trailers of the other launch games.
http://dev.adnostic.co.uk/preview/ps4/v1/
The results
The teaser and The Sun’s Page 3 creative generated a huge amount of Twitter mentions.
#sorryrosie was trending on Twitter on the 29 November.

4. Campaign loved the advert:
The tablet creative had a total of 270,000 ad views, 380,000 total video plays and over 150%
ad engagement, proving the media was bought in the right titles.
The PS4 was officially the fastest-selling console of all time. Week one UK sales were 65%
higher than XBOX One, despite them having a week’s head start.

5. Six months on, we’re still winning, outselling Microsoft not only on next-gen but across all
hardware platforms.
Client view
Every party who was involved in the whole process were thrilled with the results. Here are a
couple of quotes to prove that:
"The PS4 execution was a brilliant example of a client leveraging the power of an iconic
editorial page by using witty and clever creative," (Simon Cosyns - deputy editor of The
Sun).
“By thinking big and close collaboration between media agency, owner and game studios we
created a really innovative launch that was the envy of all PlayStation territories. The results
show how focus and creativity can outperform big budgets,” (Murray Pannell, marketing
director, Sony PlayStation UK).