Sony Begins ‘Upfront’ Sales of Ads for PlayStation 3

The Sony Pictures Television division of Sony Pictures Entertainment is selling ad units in advance, like those that fill the welcome screen of the PlayStation Store, which game players see when they switch on the console. Instead of going by the fall-to-spring calendar of the television business, these sales are being made on a calendar that runs from July 1 through June 30.

The welcome-screen pitches, which are being called Mosaic Zero ad units, have already been sold to the Walt Disney Company, to advertise the coming movie “The Lone Ranger,” and the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner, to promote the TNT television series “Falling Skies.”

In addition to entertainment marketers, who seem natural advertisers for a video game system, other buyers of Mosaic Zero ad units include packaged-goods makers like ConAgra Foods, for Slim Jim jerky and meat sticks; the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, for Dr Pepper soft drinks; Mentholatum Brands, for Rohto eye drops; and Reckitt Benckiser, for Clearasil.

Sony Pictures Television estimates that it will sell about $10 million worth of ads in this PlayStation upfront market, which would represent about 90 percent of the available Mosaic Zero ad units and about 50 percent of the regular ad inventory. There is a $300,000 minimum on ad buys to take part in the upfront.

Because there is limited availability of the Mosaic Zero ad units, said Amy Carney, president for advertiser sales, strategy and research at Sony Pictures Television, a decision was made to sell them “in an upfront kind of way.”

One reason the television upfront market operates the way it does is that there is limited availability of commercial time in the shows that viewers like to watch.

There are 60 million registered users for PlayStation 3, Ms. Carney said, and 80 percent are men ages 18 to 49. Because men tend to watch less television than women, they are an elusive target audience that is “still difficult to reach even with the other upfronts,” she added.

During the 2013-14 period that the PlayStation ads are being sold for, Sony will bring out PlayStation 4; the timing is likely to be in the fall, ahead of the Christmas shopping season. PlayStation 4 will face off against the next generation of Xbox from Microsoft, Xbox One.

“PlayStation 4 is getting a lot of interest,” Ms. Carney said, “and it’s creating buzz around what we’re doing.”

There have been more upfront markets and upfront presentations this year than ever before. In fact, the Time Warner Cable Media unit of Time Warner Cable hosted an upfront presentation Thursday evening at the Time Warner Center; the event followed upfront events sponsored by Time Warner Cable Media in Dallas and Los Angeles.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/29/business/media/sony-begins-upfront-sales-of-ads-for-playstation-3.html?partner=rss&emc=rss