Company: Sony PlayStation, Foster City, CA
Entry Submitted By: Voce Communications
Company Description: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (SCEA) is responsible for keeping PlayStation® growing and thriving in the United States, Canada and Latin America. Based in Foster City, California, SCEA serves as headquarters for all North American operations and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Inc.
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Awards Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Campaign of the Year - Electronics

Nomination Title: PlayStation 4 Sizzle Video

Tell the story of this nominated marketing campaign for the judges (up to 525 words). Describe the genesis, planning, execution, and results to date of your campaign. If applicable, remember to describe what's unique or innovative about your campaign:

The PlayStation 4 sizzle video was created in only one day as a last holding asset for the PlayStation 4 event. The SCEA Video Production team had been working tirelessly for about 2 months on the opening video for the February 20 PlayStation 4 event, and only decided the day before the event that a sizzle video was also needed. Tired and battered from weeks of work since November, a small group of producers and directors from SCEA’s Video Production team began developing the sizzle reel at 10pm the night before the February 20 event.  

The team had the creative backbone of a prior project they had recently cut and began to incorporate footage from that video. By 11am the next morning, the team shared a cut with the larger group and after making a few updates and approvals from SCEA executives, the team made final edits and the video was ready. The video was played as the closing segment of the event and was then posted online for the world to view and share.  

Since the videos launch in February, it has accumulated 28,233,767 million views, 20,085 Likes and 28,397 Comments on YouTube. The video was posted to YouTube on the day of the event, which was during the most competitive month of advertising due to the Super Bowl taking place in February. Despite the heavy advertising push from the most popular brands today, the PlayStation 4 sizzle video went on to become the most watched video for the month of February, beating Super Bowl spots from Samsung, RAM Trucks and Jeep. With 26 million views in the month of February alone, the PlayStation 4 video had an impression of 5 million more views than the closest contender.

Briefly describe this entry’s communications objectives and how it met those objectives (up to 125 words):

The PlayStation 4 sizzle reel was designed to excite generations of PlayStation fans. The less than 2 minute video, revealed at the PlayStation 4 announcement event on February 20, highlights gameplay of next gen titles, including Knack, The Witness, Destiny, Killzone: Shadow Fall, inFAMOUS: Second Son and more. The video was also hosted on YouTube,the PlayStation.Blog, and several top tier gaming sites such as IGN, Gamespot, and Destructoid.   Although most brands aim to stay away from producing videos in February due to Super Bowl ads dominating YouTube views, PlayStation decided to release the video anyway. To date, the PS4 video has received a total of 30,318,008 million views, 51,817 Likes, 37,791 Comments, and was the top watched YouTube video for the month of February.

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Provide a brief biography of the leader of the team that planned and executed this marketing campaign (up to 125 words):

Michael Brynteson started the Video Production Department for SCEA as a solo contributor in 2007 and has grown the group into a 20+ person department over the past 5 years.  Michael works under Joby Hirschfeld and partners with Kevin Cohen on multiple events for Sony Corporation including E3, CES, IFA Shows.  His team, including Lead Video Editor Steve Gerhardt, continues to push the bar in creating content for Sony PlayStation and in building a world class studio that can be compared to any major Production facility in the world.