Sony’s Playstation 3: Bad Advertising Gets Bad Results

In past posts I commented on Sony’s television advertising campaign for the Playstation 3 and how it was more than lack-luster. It’s now been almost 3 months since Christmas and the numbers speak for themselves. According to Earthtimes.org:

Nintendo Wii continued its impressive performance to once again top the list of best-selling video games console in the United States for the month of February, according to latest figures released by market research firm NPD.

Wii managed to sell over 54 percent of the total hardware sales in February, with gamers grabbing all available units in the market. In total Nintendo sold over 335,000 units Wii consoles. The Japanese game maker continued to rule even in the portable consoles, with over 485,000 units of Nintendo DS being sold, which is more than double the number of PlayStation Portable units sold in the same period.

Xbox 360 was second on the list, selling around 228,000 copies while PlayStation 3 had to settle for third spot, managing to sell a dismal 127,000 units, even though there were no reports of shortages.

Granted, the advertising campaign for the Playstation 3 is not the sole reason the console is not selling well. There are many other factors. But when the advertising fails to tell the viewer why they should buy a Playstation 3 and just shows a bunch of weird imagery, what do you expect?

The Nintendo Wii on the other hand, as you read above, is experiencing tremendous sale volumes. The interesting thing is that Nintendo hasn’t been blasting the viewers away with television ads. The Wii’s popularity seems to be driven mostly by positive word-of-mouth. It just goes to show that a good recommendation from a friend is worth much more than an advertisement.