Amazing. I wonder how many dings in people's cars they had to pay to get removed afterwards.

did the frog survive?

The Bravia monitors are great too.
Bob.

while it's got interesting visuals, it's a common "madison avenue" type pitch, with a tangentially related long lead-in, mentioning the product only as an afterthought at the end.

I'd like to see more direct marketing, focusing on showing us the monitor/tv and it's benefits/features, how it's different, comparisons etc... not a bunch of bouncing balls.

though it's "cool visuals", it's not the type of marketing I respond to myself... other than from the videography/filmmaking interest aspect..

the commercial doesn't show me a single benefit, nor explain why I should want their tv.

maybe I'm too practical. but hey the balls are cute.

ken

Ken, Ken, Ken, you're in marketing you should understand this.

What are the benefits of this commercial.

1 It made me watch it. I even downloaded a commercial. I watched the whole thing.

2. It was so good I emailed a couple of friends.

3. It made me aware of the brand of Bravia which I wasn't until today. Now my friends are too.

4. It made me feel good, thus I have positive feelings the next time I hear Bravia.

5. The commercial wasn't tired and boring and everyday. Makes you think that Bravia is foward-thinking, revolutionary, etc.

The stuff you are talking about can be found out at the electronics store.

good point ... it got the "A" : Attention, of the AIDA/ Attention-Interest-Desire-Action part of the marketing message across... I'd like to see a bit more "meat" re benefits/what's in it for me", vs balls..

perhaps it's like the burpee sign approach, eg future commercials will reveal more/be more heavily balanced towards the benefits/features, vs just catching attention ... agree ..

ken

I think they're going for assimilation. The "cute" commercial that has a brilliant concept will definitely be remembered by most folks. Couple that memory with who made it and for what product, it adds recall to the mind of someone who is standing in Best Buy trying to decide on a television. For the cost of television time, they're likely looking for max impact and association rather than trying to push facts, figures, and other very forgettable information that people won't retain for any length of time anyway.

Is this TV sold in the US? Does it use the same brand?

Question is, does it come with a free rootkit? Sorry, being a bit facetious.

Well, someone said it got them to watch the WHOLE thing. I can't say that. I watched the whole thing because someone said it has something special about the ad itself.

Oh, well. After about 3 seconds I had seen the special effects, but I didn't realize that that was what I was supposed to be looking for. Nothing special, in other words. Interesting for 3 seconds, I suppose, once.

As far as the ad itself, more boring that usual. No, it won't be a good ad. After enduring it once I can guarantee you that I'll be doing something else if I am ever blessed with it appearing on my TV.

http://www.bravia-advert.com/commercial/index.html

Check out the behind the scenes for how it was done.

It mentions on that page that all the cars parked on that street were the crew's.

We asked for one with our Bravia but the pretty young thing in the Sony shop looked rather offended and suggested we try the pharmacist down the road.

And for those of you who don't understand Strine:

Pharmacist = Chemist = Drug Store.

And just for Grazie:

rootkit = Durex :)

Bob.

Is there a way to get these files to open in Vegas? I want to recut them for fun. All I get is the audio track.

I wonder what, if any, precautions they took to keep those balls from going all over town. Like confetti, I'd bet the residents are going to finding those things for years to come.

Great insight DSE re impact & association ... creating something memorable ... then they can look up the specs/benefits once they're in the store trying to remember which TV to look at... interesting points!

ken

According to crew members, not only did they have to cover every drain, man hole, and other opening in the streets, but they also placed huge 40' safety nets at the bottom of all streets, and hired 75 people to do nothing but pick up balls after the two day shoot. Additionally, they told all the neighborhood kids that they'd get a buck for every ball turned in after the crews left. Between iFilm and a bunch of photosites, there is a lot of information about this particular shoot due to its very unusual nature.
I don't know about anyone else, but this is one of the most beautiful ads I've ever seen. Music and color cut straight to the emotion, making the commercial a work of art, and the Sony logo and product take a very hard backseat to the impact of the message. Personally, I hope to see a lot more of this sort of inspiration.
We were involved in a similar type of shoot a few years ago at the University of Utah, but only 1000 balls were used. That was cool, but nothing even imaginable compared to the 250k balls they used for this San Francisco shoot. All of our balls were red (University of Utah colors) and the multicolored balls in this shoot were awesome. One thing I'd like more info on is how they did the frog. It's there to promote the music, I think, since the name of the musician's management is "Peacefrog." I'd like to know exactly how they did that, coupled with the lighting through the frog foot.
Reading this thread, I know some of you didn't care for the commercial but for me....it was not only creative as hell, it was inspiring and artistic. I could happily quit this business after having created something so awe-inspiring.

The spot looks intriguing.

But I ain't gonna download QuickTime just to watch it.

Note to Sony: There ARE other video formats besides QuickTime.

If you don't have Quicktime, that would suggest you don't use stock media, tifs, or other Quicktime required formats? Quicktime is required for H.264 and tiff use, plus if you use stock media, most of it comes in a Quicktime package of one kind or another.
I can't imagine using Vegas without it. I hate it as a streaming format, but it is indeed the only cross platform codec at this time that's worth using.

QT is a CODEC?
Sorry I thought it was just a wrapper like AVI.
Apart from the wrapper, did Apple actually write anything in there, mostly it seems to be Sorenson etc. Well OK they wrote their own H.264 codec but by all accounts that's nothing to boast about.
Bob.

QT *IS* a wrapper for many codecs. But many applications use the Quicktime reader for certain file types, and in the case of Vegas, you can't open many files/most files wrapped in QT unless you've got the application. Try putting a .tif file on the timeline in Vegas. It won't go, unless you've got QT on your system, because Vegas uses the QT decoder for .tiff files. There are other examples as well, but that's probably the most notable one.

Regarding the frog, i'll have to watch the behind the scenes sections again, but i'm pretty sure there's a shot in there of someone "tossing" (very gently, i'm sure) the frog onto the sidewalk. It looks like they only dropped him a few inches, just enough to get the leg spreading reflex. It also looked like they waited for the balls to go by to make sure it didn't get hit by any.

I want to buy the product - not because I am convinced of its superiority, but to encourage that kind of ad-making.
(I won't do it though, but it is a nice thought.)
Tor