Long live Kevin Butler

With the launch of the Slim hardware update last September, Sony brilliantly updated its branding for the PlayStation 3 and perhaps for Sony Computer Entertainment as a whole. Fans and industry analysts have written at length about the Kevin Butler campaign spanning first party games and the new hardware itself, generally lauding it over the pompous launch campaign back in 2006 that featured, among other things, a crying baby and a levitating PS3 that were supposed to convince the masses to save up their pennies to buy it for its pure awesomeness. But the introduction of Kevin Butler changed all that. See below for its awesomeness:

Well played, Kevin. Well played.

What made this work was that Sony was able to make fun of itself while finally delivering the console at a price a broader range of gamers would accept. The brilliance was that Sony carried this highly accepted tone over to all its first party ads. The first major game to be promoted after the Slim launch ad above was the highly anticipated sequel: Uncharted 2.



For those who had played the first Uncharted game, the above ad resonated well because while the footage itself did not convey the game's excellent whit, the humorous story in the ad about the girlfriend thinking the game was a movie did. Perhaps that is a bit of a coincidence, but as new ads rolled out the offbeat humor Kevin Butler brought to them stayed consistent and gave the PS3 a new, pleasantly snarky vibe that made gamers rewind their TiVos. Even if the game being advertised, unlike Uncharted 2, did not have a wisecracking tone the ads still did. Sony successfully managed to tie all its first party games together, from God of War III to the new MLB game featuring Joe Mauer, inside the Kevin Butler mystique and make them work. It gave their ads stopping power, at least to the target market, and in this economy that's exactly what you want to do.

At GDC this year I had a chance to sit down with Sony marketing VP Scott Steinberg and ask him about Kevin Bulter. He assured me Kevin will be a central part of the PS3 marketing campaign throughout 2010 and presumably beyond. Personally, I can't wait to see what Kevin does next.