Sony Transforms Squirrels & Mice into "Urban Nomads"

February 13, 2006 | By: David Radd

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Listened to any cheese lately? How about watching some carpet? Maybe you've even played some nut. If you've engaged in any of these activities of late, it's likely that you've watched some recent PSP television commericals. We speak with TBWA Worldwide, the ad agency behind this odd yet undeniably sucessful marketing campaign.

It began with a little controversy. The most recent Sony PSP ad campaign was kicked off by some perfectly-legal-but-still-resembling-graffiti-advertisements spray painted in numerous cities. The images were of youths with swirly eyes riding PSPs, licking PSPs and otherwise doing a lot of things you wouldn't normally do with your PSP. The ads drew the ire of local residents who defaced the ads and criticized Sony for encouraging graffiti. Not the least of these critics was New York City councilman Peter Vallone Jr. who demanded Sony donate $20,000 to anti-graffiti programs as penance for the ads.

However, as the expression goes "there's no such thing as bad publicity" and the ads certainly did their job in stirring up a lot of attention. They also set the stage for a recent series of TV and web advertisements, featuring dustballs, mice and squirrels with the same swirly eyes. GameDaily BIZ talked with Jeremy Miller, Public Relations Director of TBWA Worldwide, who confirmed that the two ad campaigns are related, talked about the genesis of the ads, and explains "cheese you can listen to outside."

One of Sony's greatest strengths is its ability to brand and advertise its products. "Walkman" was associated with portable CD players for a long time and "PlayStation" may be the strongest brand in interactive entertainment. Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) in particular has had several memorable ads over the years (remember the guy in the Crash Bandicoot suit?) not to mention the current inviting PlayStation slogan "Live In Your World. Play In Ours." TBWA, the company responsible for designing the recent PSP ads, has been the spearhead of SCEA's ad force, working with the company before the first PlayStation even released in the States.

In talking about the success of this most recent ad campaign, Miller said, "According to IAG Research (Intermedia Advertising Group) in a survey of more than 5,000 people, the Squirrels were the second best liked ad during the month of December. December was PSP's biggest sales month since the product launch."

Who knew that squirrels were gamers?

Regarding the channels and sites where the ads appeared, he added: "For TV, we focused on youth cable networks with edgier programming, programs that include music, comedy, fast-paced entertainment. For Online, we used viral sites that specialize in viral content, videos, photos, etc. that have a user-generated, unbranded feel."

"Because of the portable nature of the PSP, all that it would provide and the insight that it would emancipate your entertainment, we knew we had to speak to those people who were constantly on the go and actively engaged with life," he continued, talking about the ads' demographics. "We looked to today's Urban Nomads for clues and found that a lot of street art and edgy animation styles had been resonating with them. So we just embraced that trend and made it our own."

The first, and perhaps most noticeable, thing most people notice about the recent ads is the artistic style. The ads are completely black and white (other than game footage) with a "pencil on paper" quality about them. This was done deliberately, as the unique style of the ads help to separate the PSP from other Sony products. "The original idea came from the twisted and bizarre brains of Blake Kidder and Patrick Almaguer. And it was allowed to stay twisted and bizarre with the help of passionate and extremely tenacious account, planning and media teams. Our clients specifically asked for a distinct look and feel for all of the PSP work, so they were immediately drawn this work. The animations definitely help PSP stand out as a brand and wouldn't be confused with anything else from PlayStation or from the category," explained Miller.

"We're going after a target that's wary of being advertised to," he added. "If you're going to communicate things to them about your brand, the communication better entertain them along the way. There's got to be something in it for them."

Most DS owners would probably prefer cheese over PSP

The dialog of the ads is equal to the post-modern animation. It's not exactly nonsensical, but it certainly doesn't take the most direct route in advertising the product. These dustballs/mice/squirrels make obtuse remarks about carpet/cheese/nuts that can be construed as being about the PSP's multimedia/music/gaming capabilities. While having conversations that resemble streams of consciousness, they utter quotes like "They got more flavor than a pistachio!" "I'm watching carpet" and, of course, "It's like cheese you can listen to outside!"

We queried Miller as to what "cheese you can listen to outside" really meant and he said, "We could offer up some erudite answer as to what it means, but who are we kidding?"