Blog Report: October 14th

Blog: Official Sony U.S. Playstation Blog
Blogger: Roy Stigall III // Sports Lifestyle Marketing Manager, EA Sports
Post Title: EA SPORTS NCAA Football Challenge Tour Coming to a Campus Near You
Date: October 9th, 2009
Link: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/10/ea-sports-ncaa-football-challenge-tour-coming-to-a-campus-near-you/

That’s right, its football season again. And what better way to support your inner athlete than by running the gridiron against some local competition. If you win, you get a new PSP and a trip to the Rose Bowl for the finals, where the grand prize is $10,000. Why is this important to PR? Well, it’s kind of important, because they are going to stop in Denton and Dallas on October 27th – 28th. But looking more closely at this post, there is something more important. The Blogger is not any employee at Sony! Roy Stigall is actually a marketing manager at EA, the publisher of NCAA Football 2010. It makes sense, since this seems like a joint promotion because the truck being used is Sony branded and utilizes PS3’s, but I like how the Playstation Blog also incorporates external influencers to promote their brand. I suppose this kind of helps to create a sense of harmony, as Sony can work closely with 3rd parties. Microsoft is no newcomer to this philosophy, since they are spearheading support behind the third party title Modern Warefare 2, which appears to be in the running for the highest selling multi-platform game of our generation. Either way, it is a perfect example of how company’s in the industry build channels of communication around certain intellectual properties, despite the occurrence of their exclusivity. Good luck to Sony and EA on this campaign and maybe I will stop by for some football.

Blog: ‘Set on Stun’
Blogger: Shawn Deena
Post Title: Flashback — Mario The Ultimate Videogame Icon
Date: October 8th, 2009
Link: http://setonstun.com/2009/10/flashback-mario-the-ultimate-videogame-icon/

Think about any brand that was the innovator, the first brand to successfully differentiate itself in a given market, become a leader and experience brand longevity. Brands like Coca-Cola or Levis Strauss, but if you were to ask someone about video games, Mario would probably be the pop icon we all remember. He is 28 going on 30 and is still Nintendo’s must successful brand to date. It is funny to think, when he first premiered in1981 on the arcade hit Donkey Kong, he still didn’t have a name. Apparently, he was named in the sequel to Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. And he was named after an angry warehouse manager, who was upset about back rent. In Donkey Kong Jr., the original character (now Mario) had kidnapped your father Donkey Kong, and you had to get him back. Mario was actually a villain in his first named appearance! As time would go on a universe would be built around the character, he would be featured in 200 or more games, many of which had his name in the title. He would also continue to be the mascot of Nintendo, to this day. The reason this is significant is because, much of Nintendo’s success is linked to this plumber, who travels to a mushroom kingdom and saves a princess year in, year out. Nintendo has played off of two strengths over the course of its life in the video game market; innovation and Mario. Now moving forward the Wii is starting to shows signs of its sales reaching a plateau. Hopefully, with the new Mario coming soon, they still remember those two strengths.