For anybody who is a regular on this site, you will know that we have problems with Sony and their advertising agency. They seem to have things down finally on the Playstation side but when it comes to their other divisions, between the lack of advertisement and confusing advertisement, Sony stands to lose a lot. Before, you read any further though, I recommend you watch the following ad.

Ok, now that you’ve done that, lets discuss some things. On this site, we reported about the Sony Internet TV and the Sony Internet TV Blu-ray player. I would like to think that this  means that I know a few things about that product. But after watching that ad, I’m not interested in the product, nor do I have any idea what that product does and that’s not good. All I know is that it brings Internet and TV together. But then the average person will say, I have a laptop/iPhone/iPad etc. and will move right a long and never care about this new product launch. Sure the concept is cool, people gathering around a giant screen (is the Internet TV coming to movie theaters?) but the ad does nothing to explain to people what it does.

Instead, the entire ads hopes that people will be hooked on the idea that a bunch of people in the middle of NYC are interested on this giant TV and remote and therefor, they will want to know more about it or better yet, are ready to purchase this mythical device. As always, the problem with Sony ads is that they take style over substance. It’s too busy being an artistic and meaningful ad, instead of telling me what it does and why I need. We only need to look at Apple ads. They are simple, show off the product and make it compelling to own one. Too easy? Lets look at Nikon ads where Ashton Kutcher tells us why he loves his Nikon (because it has good zoom and he can draw on the screen etc.) and boom, your like “ok, I get what this product does”. Sony completely missed that boat and this isn’t their first ad to do it. Again, another example is Samsung ads. “Buy our TV, it looks like you are there! The 3D is amazing, it’s thin!”. Simple and to the point. Again, Sony brings me in a lab with Payton Manning and Justin Timberlake (and I’m a big fan of both of them) where they are creating stuff and you should trust Sony because they make other 3D stuff. Ummm, ok?

Here is what the internet TV ad should have been. A camera pointed at the screen, watching TV, It’s showing Community, you bring up the IMDB page and search for it, you find the actor you wanted, you switch to Twitter and post about watching it, you see a post from your friend who is watching the NFL game. You do a quick search, it tells you the channel the game is on you click on it and it takes you to that game. The whole idea is to give you a quick experience and everyday use out of why you need the product. Simple, to the point and the consumer gets what the product is.

I truly believe that Sony makes some of the best products out there yet nobody is ever aware of these products because of Sonys lack of advertisement and when they do, it’s too confusing with what it’s trying to tell you.