By James Wells
SYDNEY: Sony will release the third of its trilogy of high budget Bravia ads this Sunday night which features hundreds of Play-Doh rabbits running through the streets of New York City to a Rolling Stones soundtrack.
Sony Australia head of strategy and brand development, Toby Barbour, told Current.com.au today from the Sony Central conference in Perth that the campaign will receive a million dollar budget and will incorporate free to air television commencing this Sunday, outdoor advertising from November, Pay TV in early December as well as a unique set of mobile kiosks appropriately called ‘hutches’ to reinforce the rabbit theme in an ambient experiential arm to the campaign.
This is the third in the ‘Colour’ campaign series which was preceded by Balls which was set in San Francisco and Paint which was set in Dublin.
“It is very important that we view this as the Bravia Trilogy of Colour. Just like Balls and Paint, it is a very daring and inspiring spot and we are extremely confident that it will be another iconic and classic Sony advertisement,” he said.
The 60-second advertisement is a compilation of 100,000 still images following the stop-animation of 40 animators which generated just four second of footage from four hours.
Over two and a half tones of Play-Doh was used on set in New York City to create 189 two-foot high bunnies, 150 one foot cubes, a purple wave measuring 10 feet by 20 feet in size and a 30 foot giant rabbit.
The advertisement breaks the record for the largest number of animators working together on a single scene and features hundreds of multi-coloured bunnies modelled from 2.5 tonnes of Play-Doh appearing all over downtown New York. The advertisement is set to the classic Rolling Stones track, She’s a Rainbow.
The new advertisement will screen on free to air TV, pay TV and cinema until Christmas, supporting the 26 new models of Bravia LCD TV including 10 full HD models and will be broadcast throughout special program promotions arranged with the Seven Network during hit television shows – Heroes and Prison Break.
“We received tremendous responses for the first two BRAVIA ads from both retailers and customers alike,” said Barbour.
“The Bravia ads have always broken the mould in terms of TVC production, releasing 250,000 bouncing balls in San Francisco and creating a pyrotechnical paint display in Glasgow. We believe this latest Colour ad will really inspire customers and drive them into stores for the all-new Bravia LCD TV range.”
The Play-Doh colour campaign will extend online where visitors to the Bravia microsite will be enticed to “follow the rabbit” in and out of burrows to learn more about the range as well as enter into a competition to win a Bravia LCD TV. There will also be large format outdoor billboards appearing across the country.
A vast collection of point-of-sale material featuring the delightful rabbits will decorate retail stores, including ceiling hangers, screen bezels, posters, toblerones, gateway sleeves, shop-front window displays and stacking cubes.