By Martin Vedris
SYDNEY: As the major world economies seem to be teetering on the edge of a recession, and the Australian dollar has been savaged, Sony Australia is continuing underterred with its plans to advertise Blu-ray.
Sony released a statement yesterday announcing that it had launched what it called a major TV campaign to promote Blu-ray as the ultimate in high definition viewing for home entertainment.
The TVC was scheduled to air on Network Ten from 5 October 2008 and it will star former Neighbours household name, Craig McLachlan. Sony says that in the advertisement, McLachlan says that watching standard definition content on a HDTV set is a “waste”.
“HD represents 99.9 per cent of all value sales in the LCD TV category,” said Sony Australia head of Strategy and Brand Development, Toby Barbour, quoting research from the Sony High Definition Benchmark; Q2 2008, compiled by GfK Marketing Services.
“So consumers are certainly embracing high definition when it comes to choosing their flat panel TV.
“However, many consumers are watching standard definition movies through their DVD player on their HDTV, which doesn’t deliver the best image and sound quality possible. We want to ensure that consumers are making the most out of the amazing image and sound quality high definition delivers, by ensuring that their HDTV set is matched with the best quality source — a Blu-ray player.”
The TVC airs in conjunction with the release of two new Sony Blu-ray players — the BDP-S350 (RRP $449) in October, and the BDP-S550 (RRP $649) in November.