Intelligence Gathered: Sony's Global Skyfall Campaign

October saw Sony launch a global product ad campaign, ‘Intelligence Gathered’, to amplify its sponsorship of the latest Bond film on the very day of the movie’s UK cinema release. The MI6-led spy initiative spans several elements – from in-film product-placement, through digital media to traditional advertising platforms.

The multi-product, multi-category campaign is spearheaded with a TV ad that shows James Bond under surveillance by a mystery woman using Sony technology.

The creative, from Wieden & Kennedy Portland, features a narrative based around James Bond infiltrating a heavily guarded compound, while dispatching adversaries as he advances towards the control room.Bond’s movements are followed by a mystery woman who is watching his progress on Sony Bravia screens, Vaio laptops, Xperia tablets and the Xperia T smartphone.

The objective of the initiative is to demonstrate and drive home the seamless communication capabilities across the range of Sony devices.

The TV ad, which includes both 60-second and 30-second versions, ends with 007 walking into the control room and asking the mystery woman enigmatically – ‘Looking for someone?

The Hollywood-style spot features original Bond assets including an Aston Martin Vantage V12 and a Frauscher speedboat. It was launched during the first break during UK television’s highest rated current commercial station programme – X Factor and it was produced by RSA Films.

The small screen work is supported by cinema, print and digital activity (the latter elements are running on both bought digital media as well as the brand’s own platforms including Sony websites, Facebook page and Twitter feed).

The campaign is running in 26 different markets, including the UK, US, Germany, France and Mexico.

Comment:

In addition to the central global campaign promoting the range of Sony products, individual markets also produced product-specific creative as part of the brand’s wider movie partnership.

For example, Sony in the UK ran this Xperia T smartphone (the new official James Bond handset – which gets copious screen time in the movie itself) TV ad.

This is also a Bond-style spot, featuring a man on a mission, driving a speedboat, car and climbing over buildings. However, the actually phone is not showed on screen until the end of the ad the man’s Bond mission is revelled to be getting to a shop to buy the new Xperia.

While Sony Brazil ran an alternative Xperia T smartphone spot which takes a distinctively product-led approach (rather than Bond movie-led).