Peter Dille wants to go camping with you!

by Nick Doerr { Apr 6th 2007 at 5:30PM }

Not exactly. He wants to be more open and let people inside the workings of Sony... so, sorry. No camping yet. Anyway, a large review of Sony's and the PlayStation 3's performance was posted a few days ago. It's interesting, but most of the fresh meat comes from the last few paragraphs. Everything else is, admittedly, recap of what we as gamers have seen and experienced. Feel free to read it from the beginning. We'll work from the end.

Will Sony engage in negative advertising -- attacking the competition (like saying you have over 100 titles right before a new console launches)?

Peter Dille: "Our position hasn't changed. You generally see the number 2 guy be negative. But when you're the market leader, with 110 million PS2s sold, you act differently. People will come onto PS3 in their own time; that's not something people talk about, but we have a large rabid fan base. We'll communicate with gamers in a way that doesn't talk down to them by speaking to gamers' expertise."

Have you noticed all the Sony-hatred out there in the past year?

Peter Dille: "We're not blind to some of the tonal things out there. It's an ongoing education effort. We need to have people understand the value of the console with the technology that will drive the product for 10 years. We believe that we approach the product a little bit differently. We need to not be defensive about analysts or press reports, because they might not understand the business or where we're coming from."

You guys at Sony used to be pretty closed to the public. Tell us about your changing ways!

Tha' Dille: "For 10 years, we engaged the outside world in a certain way. There are some new faces in the management team; I left and came back, but I've brought a new approach to PR. We want to be more open, we want to share more, let them inside the tent and challenge us, and that didn't always happen. We kind of made our own bed. It can't be done overnight, but we want to tell the story. I think we've tried to change. We weren't always open, so it reflects a shift."

Great! What do you guys think, will the PS3 successfully market a decent comeback over the next year, or will they remain in a negative light? Will anyone want to get inside the tent with them? We'd like to think Dille is onto something... so we'll stroke our beards and mutter incomprehensible babble as we wait and see.

Tags: Peter Dille, PeterDille, PlayStation 3, Playstation3, PS3, Sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Colin @ Apr 6th 2007 9:50PM

It is absolutely critical that Sony becomes more transparent with the Playstation side of their business at the very least. Nintendo and Microsoft have gone out of their way to cater a certain form of their PR directly to the fanboys.

Sony needs to realize that the hardcore demographic is worth appeasing. And the hardcore demographic wants an advanced look into what's coming down the pipeline, and all nitty gritty details that encompasses.

Sony doesn't have to change their PR approach to focus on it 100%, but they need to devote SOME resources to work with blogs, community message boards and fan sites. Hopefully Dille will help make this happen.

-Colin

mccomber @ Apr 6th 2007 10:50PM

I think they are definitely moving towards that. What they need is someone who works for sony, but appeals to and is a part of the community. Sorta like that Major Nelson person seems to be. Like Colin says, that's the biggest thing that Nintendo and MS are doing right now, they both have this appearance of really catering to and being a part of their fanbase, and Sony still seems standoffish. They need to take all these seperate ideas (PS Underground, home, the PSN, the ps store) and put them all together with a total focus on the ps3 and psp owners.
Also, some advertising that isn't trying so hard to be clever would be great. I like the Motorstorm commercial a lot, and I think more quick spots of the ps3 in the white room with a game on the wall behind it for 30 seconds would be great. PSP commercials should be similar, like a game on the screen of a psp in someones hands as they are walking down the street or riding a bus/train etc., but focusing on just the psp and making everything else just the background around it.
Some of the recent moves they've made are much, much better from a PR standpoint, and the people they seem to be putting out there and talking are a lot more likable than people they've had in the past. They just need to get more in-line with their userbase and the rest will come together from there.