I’ve discussed to death the lack of marketing from Sony and have always said that “Sony is one good marketing campaign away from success,” something that I still stand by. Though Sony software continues to linger behind its competitors in mobile and electronics, its hardware continues to be one of the best. This is especially apparent in their 2015 fleet of 4K televisions, receivers, and sound bars.

With mobile, Sony is once again dipping its toes in mass marketing by partnering with UEFA through their 2017/2018 season. Depending on the success, Sony can extend their partnership with the mega soccer football league even further. While not popular in the States, the UEFA championship outside of the World Cup is one of the most watched sporting events with millions tuning in and Sony is taking advantage of that by plastering their name and the Xperia brand all over it.

This is a welcome change and a good move for Sony. Popular throughout the world, UEFA is most popular in Europe (where its held) which also happens to be Sony Mobiles strongest territory. This makes for a great match but perhaps Sony is missing the point.

A partnership of this size couldn’t have been cheap for Sony but in return during each mach, you’ll see things like ‘Sony Xperia’ or ‘Sony Xperia Z3+’ with some pictures of the phones scroll by. At face value, this is a good move by Sony as it will be seen by millions and raise their brand awareness, something that’s lacking throughout the world (though less in Europe) and nearly non-existent in the US.

However, what the ads lacks is conviction. The marketing does little to tell people what it is, especially when it’s just ‘Sony Xperia’ and nothing else. And when you do see Sony Xperia Z3+ with some generic photo of it, it does little to grab your attention as to why they should care. Marketing is about creating demand and fueling desire for people and these ads do little to further that.

In fact if you’re not familiar with Xperia line, you might not even notice what Sony is pitching or what it is that you’re looking at. With the eyes of millions of people upon it, Sony should treat these marketing opportunities as a way to entice people and educate people on their product line. When you have an established product, you can afford to be less aggressive and concentrate on brand awareness. But when you’re fighting for each consumer, each ad needs to be more thought out and impactful.

So though this marketing is a welcomed change for Sony, the company still has a long ways to go and a lot to learn on how to promote their products. For the millions spent here, I wonder if they weren’t better spent on TV and other similar ads instead of pitchside billboards. Hopefully this is just the start for Sony and a sign of more things are to come from them.

Discuss:

Do you think this type of advertising is effective?

[Via XperiaBlog]