Last year, Sony launched a controversial series of ads for the PS3 centering on the "white room." Very indirect and symbolic, the ads conjured up a wide variety of reactions, not all of them positive. It's debatable whether they were trying to cover up the fact that there weren't exactly a lot of games to show in the launch period, but regardless, it got a rise out of people.

This year, Sony is going the more direct route and showing all the possibilities for the PS3 in its ads. This includes not only the games, but also Blu-ray movies, PlayStation Network, and even the anticipated PlayStation Home. Between all that, and the new price of $399, it's certainly helped get the buzz out for the system.

We talked with Scott Steinberg, VP of Product Marketing at SCEA, to get the scoop on the PS3 ad campaign.

Former Sega marketing guru turned PlayStation advocate

"The reaction we've gotten has been fantastic in terms of how people have looked at our content behind the campaign and the support we've gotten, the media value we've received and the impact we've had," described Steinberg. "It's exceeded all our expectations. We've had great comments from analysts and our business partners that it's really elevating the PS3 business."

"The ad spot has really broken out musically and visually," he continued. "It's the sort of ad that when you see it, you just blast the noise on your TV; it's a rare sort of commercial to have that reaction. The visual imagery around the spot really conveys the power of the PS3. It really showed the breadth of the system's capabilities."

Commenting on the ad's soundtrack titled Ladies and Gentleman, Steinberg added, "[Saliva] wasn't even rated on iTunes at first, and then after the campaign it made it to some top list. We're reading on the forums and the blog posts that the kids who knew who the group was spread the word, and the campaign has been so popular it's led to success for the band."

Your eyes and your ears will be bleeding
Along with being flashy and attention grabbing, these ads also highlighted important selling points for the PS3. Primary among them are the ever widening portfolio of PS3 titles (including Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, and Heavenly Sword) and the system's new entry point of $399. Not to be lost in the mix is the PS3's Blu-ray movie capability, which is both important to SCEA and the Sony group in general moving forward.

"Our research pointed to two barriers which were, without question, price and portfolio of titles," ventured Steinberg. "We feel we solved that with the $399 price package. In the ads, we also show more games from first-party developers, but we also partnered with various third partly companies, like Activision, EA and Ubisoft to tag some of their commercials with PS3 branding – titles like Call of Duty 4, The Simpsons Game and Assassins Creed. We feel it is a comprehensive ad campaign as that every male, ages 18 - 45, has been exposed to it at least a few times."

"Our retail partners have bundled a lot of Blu-ray content, which really complement the ads. All of that says that our PS3 system with a Blu-ray player is a great incentive for the holiday. Blu-ray is the premium machine to build your home entertainment center around," he continued. "Obviously, Blu-ray is very strategic for Sony and is a vital part of the campaign. We see it as one of our key differentiators so that's why it's being promoted in stores so aggressively. It's no doubt that it's a big part of our value proposition [for the PS3] and we feel we have done a great part of emphasizing on the merchandising half of things; it's paying dividends."