Sony Ericsson: XPERIA SHOWER OF CONVERSATION

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: SONY MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS
Agency: DENTSU
Category: Other Consumer Products (including Durable Goods)
Advertising campaign: XPERIA SHOWER OF CONVERSATION
Writer: Hitoshi Iwaki (Kyokuto Denshidai)
Producer: Maki Kitani (Excelling)
Director: Masaki Tsuji
Chief Director: Norihiko Ohhata (Nihonsei)
Director: Noritsugu Totsuka (Excelling)
Creative Director: Hidetoshi Sera (Dentsu)
Writer: Akinori Nakajima (Kyokuto Denshidai)
Creative Director: Makoto Kanabayashi (Dentsu )
Assistant Director: Ryosuke Kawamura (Excelling)
Assistant Director: Takuya Ishige (Excelling)
Director: Yukihiro Chida (Excelling)
Creative Director: Kojiro Tanoue (Dentsu )
Director: Naoki Sonoda (Excelling)
Writer: Sansei Suzuki (Kyokuto Denshidai)

Implementation
We created an audience-driven reality show, with a setting where comments are overlaid onto the screen in real time, allowing people to respond directly to events occurring in the video.The show featured a group of youths with specific goals, who were provided with only minimum food and Xperia to help them survive and achieve their dreams. Our hypothesis was that the tech-savvy viewers inherently want to show off their knowledge and expertise, the desire which would prompt them to give the cast advice on how to use Xperia more effectively.

Outcome
'Xperia' became one of the hottest searched keywords and topics on social media platforms soon after the show started.The show became so popular that the show was extended from 720 hours to 1,000 hours.The number of views reached 1.15m, triggering 3.1m comments in total in just over a month, the majority of which were generated by those in their teens and 20s.The number of devices sold doubled (203%) compared to the previous model.

Execution
Because this campaign was about starting a conversation about Xperia, we first targeted tech-savvy users, who are eager to show off their knowledge on niche features and functions. In the show, we challenged them with a question: “How can smartphones make a dream come true?” As the cast members strived towards their goals, the tech-savvy users who are eager to brag about their knowledge engaged in real time conversations with the cast, giving them advice on how to use Xperia more effectively. Their comments generated a ripple effect, creating much buzz among a wider audience who voluntarily joined the conversation.

Client Brief Or Objective
Xperia is Sony’s new device with multiple functions like no other, targeting youth. However, smartphones have become a commodity to young people today, making it hard to get them to talk about the device itself; The only people getting excited about the niche cutting-edge functions are the tech geeks. We set out to generate excitement with young people and get them to talk about Xperia, by creating an audience-driven reality show involving the tech geeks.