GLOBAL PLAYSTATION ® 5 LAUNCH
CLIENT: Sony Interactive Entertainment
AGENCY: Amplify
ACTIVATION: November 2020
BRIEF:
Celebrate the arrival of PlayStation® 5 around the world, bringing mass awareness and buzz around the most anticipated product release in a decade.
RELEVANT LINKS:
Internal Film: https://bit.ly/36AqYrh
Global Film: http://bit.ly/2M9RNuV
Regional Films: http://bit.ly/3c1yVcv
Example show, London: http://bit.ly/3qIvw6n
Global Hero Film
https://bit.ly/36AqYrh
The campaign culminated in a global hero film bringing all the territory and region launch moments together, which was shared on global social channels, showing how PlayStation® 5's launch turned the world blue
http://bit.ly/364MiVt
The Idea
The Idea
Reimagine what a launch looks like and where it lives, with cinematic shows designed to break through the screen.
Piccadilly Circus, London | UK
25 regions. 5 continents. One global launch.
An extensive worldwide campaign in which, on the eve of launch, iconic locations around the world were transformed into mesmerising immersive shows.
The launch was designed to be witnessed by few in real life, but experienced by many around the world.
We harnessed and spotlighted the anticipation of a cultural moment of the launch of PlayStation® 5 in a way that magnified the global campaign through a shared experience bringing the gaming community together.
Dublin Conference Centre | Ireland
Place De l’Opera, Paris | France
Al Faisaliah Tower | Saudi Arabia
Strategy
Challenge
Sony Interactive Entertainment’s goal was to celebrate the arrival of PlayStation® 5 around the world to welcome a new generation of gaming.
With the launch coinciding with a global pandemic, we needed to create a moment the world could witness as one when it couldn’t experience it together, ensuring the launch could be experienced and shared without a large physical audience.
The challenge was to create a global cultural moment that was visible to the mainstream, making the iconic brand assets famous while achieving consistency of creative execution at an individual territory level.
Kanda Myojin Shrine, Tokyo | Japan
St. Moritz | Switzerland
Insight
A typical launch moment for a console is a celebration centred around the players. From those queuing for days in advance to IRL moments that the entire community can experience.
Rather than port an IRL experience online, we needed to reimagine how to excite the audience, creating a cultural moment in time.
Strategy
Our strategy was to bring the ‘Play Has No Limits’ global launch campaign to life, shining a light on the product and creating a coloured thread that would light the world blue, one region at a time.
To create a built-for-camera approach that transformed a moment in time into a global content engine.
Burj Khalifa | Dubai
Princes Gate | Canada
Porsche Museum | Germany
Times Square | NYC Auckland | New Zealand
Execution
The Show
We created bespoke anamorphic mapped shows in 5 separate territories that ran at up to 8k on 80m+ screens including the first experience of its kind on Piccadilly Lights.
The shows visually brought 'Play Has No Limits' to life, pushing the boundaries of reality by using anamorphic illusions that created fully immersive content where PlayStation® 5 console and DualSense wireless controller seemingly broke through the screen.
http://bit.ly/3qIvw6n
Show: UK Example
Iconic buildings and popular sites in a further 20 territories and regions became the canvas for bespoke shows, incorporating projection mapped content and lighting to celebrate the moment of launch.
These sites included a diverse range of locations and formats, including Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, Venice’s St Mark’s Square, Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, Auckland’s Sky Tower and a mountain range in Switzerland’s St Moritz.
The shows took place on the eve of the launch in each region, illuminating the location in blue light with PlayStation® shapes and PlayStation® 5 hardware, building up to midnight at the exact point the console went on sale.
Burj Khalifa, Dubai | UAE
Experience Production
Confidential
SIE + Amplify worked together with all 25 regions and their local agencies throughout the production process to ensure a premium technical delivery and consistency of execution.
A truly collaborative campaign with highly effective management of production and content, spanning 5 continents.
400+ Hours of virtual meets with regions & agencies 450+ People involved throughout the world
100+ Design and production assets created
343m/s Burj Khalifa show content broke the speed of sound
100% brand takeover of Piccadilly Lights First ever
Burj Khalifa | Dubai
Piccadilly, London | UK
Content Creation
Every show was filmed as it went live, using a shoot pack we developed to ensure consistency of the end content. We then created a 30 second edit for each of the territories and regions within 6 hours of activation which was posted on their social channels the next morning to celebrate the arrival of the console.
Each edit was posted on a global Twitter thread to form a global sequential moment, resulting in the longest Twitter thread in the PlayStation® history.
St. Moritz | Switzerland
Sky Gardens | Singapore
St. Mortiz | Switzerland
JK Iguatemi, Sao Paulo | Brazil
St Mark’s Square, Venice | Italy
K-Pop Square, Seoul | South Korea
Effectiveness
Effectiveness
'PlayStation’s biggest console launch ever.’ - PlayStation® Twitter
A launch the world could experience and share as one, blurring the lines between IRL and URL with shows created and executed in the midst of the pandemic.
Innovative anamorphic content, breaking the mould of traditional projection mapping.
Argentina
Italy
29 Activations across…
25 Territories and regions around the world
The first globally co-ordinated social campaign in PlayStation® history, with the longest global sequential Twitter thread. Assets were created for use on PlayStation® channels on launch day including eCRM, PlayStation® Blog, Facebook and YouTube, further extending the reach of the campaign.
3.5m
Engagements
Social posts centrally and at regional level
Social post impressions
24.4m
Post video views
Testimonial Confidential
“For the launch of PlayStation®5, we wanted to create a global cultural moment and celebrate the next generation of gaming. This project enabled us to reach our PlayStation® community on a global level, creating consistency in design and output, while showing local identity and resonance. The feeling we wanted to give was that anywhere you are in the world, we are all part of something bigger, together. Seeing the excitement around the world as we moved from East to West, and the anticipation of what was coming next was fantastic. The campaign generated extensive reach and achieved our goals to generate buzz, coverage and social engagement”.
–Sony Interactive Entertainment
Widok Tower | Poland
Planetario Galileo Galilei | Argentina
