Sony Vegas marketing? good/bad? opnions?

Jay Z wrote on 5/9/2007, 2:10 PM

I agree...The first Vaio I bought had Premiere 5.1 installed on it...So did the second one (v 6.0 I believe actually)...I used that as a platform to go the upgrade route, currently on PPro 1.5. What has bothered me about Adobe, is that they never issue bug fixes, they only address them in version upgrades...Also, things like making you pay $300.00 for the AC3 encoder plug-in, $200.00 to edit mpeg, painfully slow and no full-featured internal DVD burning (approvals only), and a growing list of cameras they do not support leads me to believe they are getting behind the curve. I went to their presentation at NAB as well, looking at CS3, as possibly my next upgrade path...They really didn't show me anything that made me go "wow! Gotta have THAT!"...Especially at the price I was going to have to pay...Now, I can afford them...However I don't like being nickle and dimed to death, and even CS3 leaves out things you have to pay even more for...Left me with a real sour taste in my mouth. The Sony software presentations I saw, along with the private demo; alayed my fears and concerns about switching platforms...At least, I felt good about my decision when I ordered the software, where with Adobe I felt sick about the whole thing...Which is really too bad, because I do like PPro...It just doesn't do what I want, and need it to do now...I think the Vegas platform will...

busterkeaton wrote on 5/9/2007, 3:16 PM

I got my Sony newsletter in the mail. They are promoting Sound Forge 9. So the newsletter has an article on "Mastering in Sound Forge Part 2." Nowhere in the email or the Part 2 page was a link to Part 1 of the article. It's things like that make think that Sony is a little tone-deaf sometimes.

DGates wrote on 5/9/2007, 8:34 PM

I can only guess that Sony didn't really pay that much for SoFo's product line. For Sony, it was probably just from the change they had under the sofa cushions. Because any substantial investment requires a substantial return.

Maybe slapping their name on the consumer Movie Studio software was all they were really interested in.

The bottom line is that Vegas is Sony's property to do with as they please. If they don't want to market it to compete with PP or FCP, then that's ok. If it doesn't bother them, then it doesn't bother me. They compete were they need to, and that's in acquisition.

jwcarney wrote on 5/11/2007, 9:44 AM

To be honest, it was word of mouth that convinced me to jump to Vegas (ver 3), mainly Spot and a couple of others who took the time to explain the product and what it did. Then I downloaded the Trial, then I purchased.

One thing that used to help, was having a student priced version that had the same features as the pro version. Get them in cheap, then get the upgrade revenue.

Is that still available?

Coursedesign wrote on 5/11/2007, 10:10 AM

Google says "yes."

Panasonic is currently sending out a super-expensive very heavy insert in pro magazines talking about their expanded range of P2 cameras, and start out with a spread on the Alaska Iditarod race and how "Panny's cameras were the only ones to survive the grueling freezing temperatures and harsh conditions of this race, thanks to the glorious P2 technology."

In fact, it looks like a copy of a spread that Sony used to run for their XDCAM cameras, where a pro shooter talked about how his XDCAM gear worked perfectly all the way...

Spot|DSE wrote on 5/11/2007, 10:30 AM

Odd you'd bring up this marketing campaign, Course.
A bunch of us were sitting at dinner last night poking fun at and lamenting the Panny campaign suggesting they are the first to record the Iditerod in HD, when in fact, it had been recorded 2 years previously by Sony cams, and last year was shot with several XDCAM HD units, one of them being deliberately left in wet conditions during which the camera was completely covered in ice. The camera continued to record intervals even though the body was totally crusted over.
This was accomplished before the HVX shipped.
And....XDCAM HD certainly survived the last Iditerod as well. The shots of the camera mounted to a dog sled that overturned and dragged the camera into ice/snow is very impressive.
IMO, Sony's biggest marketing challenge is their conservativism. They don't mislead or make broad statements against the competition, and in the process, occasionally get their backsides handed off to them because of market perception. The biggest thing that turned me off in this business over the past three years was when one manufacturer spent so much time calling HDV "fake HD" because the imagers weren't full-raster imagers, or because of pixel interpolation. This gave the market the *impression* that their forthcoming camera was going to be full raster, when in fact, it ended up being the smallest imager in the price class.
Sony could definitely stand to become more aggressive and combative in some of their marketing, particularly on the image aquisition side of the discussion.

Coursedesign wrote on 5/11/2007, 2:18 PM

Good points, Spot!

Considering Sony has demoed XDCAM cameras running inside freezers at NAB, and had the ad spreads with pix from Iditarod, why not call Panny on the direct lie in their ad?

Sony could even file a formal complaint with the FTC, because this ad is as clear a violation as I have ever seen.

(Not that the FTC would actually do anything. Well, maybe if Sony enclosed a copy of a receipt of a contribution to the RNC, assuming the FTC has top level political supervisors like the FDA, etc.)

farss wrote on 5/11/2007, 2:38 PM

For sure lots drank that kool aid but from what I hear it'll be a very long time before they ever look at anything from that company again. That 'clever' campaign will probably deliver more sales to Sony over the next few years than anything Sony marketing could come up with.

Bob.

Edward wrote on 5/14/2007, 8:49 PM

I always see ads in mags like Video Maker and HD Video Pro (I have subscriptions to them)... Then again, I see every other NLE there as well.

roy g biv wrote on 6/21/2007, 3:06 PM

>>Somehow it feels like a product for a different era (anyone else agree with me on this?), and I suspect they could make more money by spreading the functionality differently across their product lines.

Why would you feel Sound Forge is a product for a different era? Is digital audio editing a lost art?

riredale wrote on 6/21/2007, 8:29 PM

This thread has been here since April and to be honest I haven't read it. I still haven't read it, only the last dozen or so comments. The reason I never read it in the beginning was because I assumed that when a product is as powerful and reliable as Vegas is, then the only reason for it not to dominate the industry is because of an utter failure in marketing. Of course, it's easy to armchair quarterback, but my gut feel is that if "I" were in charge I would make many changes. The idea, of course, is to spread millions of copies of Vegas without killing off the user base willing and able to purchase it.

(1) 180-day trial without the chance to reinstall and bypass the clock (it can be done);

(2) Vegas Studio bundled with laptops and desktops at a price to the vendor that insures that if they pick any NLE it will be Sony's;

(3) Very low educational institution pricing for editing labs and special support afterwards;

(4) Financial support for videographers using Vegas for professional projects, along with rights to tout that Vegas was the NLE of choice on the project.

That's just top-of-the-head ideas for starters. You play up the "fact" that FCP is the editor for Apple Kool-Aid drinkers, mocking their slavish idolatry of Steve Jobs--that kind of thing. Vegas is a MAN's editor, solid as a truck and just as versatile.

The world runs on marketing, and IMHO Sony has done a terrible job with Vegas. But then of course it costs me absolutely nothing to criticize. I'm not the one in the hotseat.