Case Study for Agency
03-1014998-122

Portable Audio

Background

Nearly 20 years after the launch of the Walkman – the product that
taught music to walk, revolutionized the portable audio category and
created a new portable music lifestyle, the portable audio category was
in a rut. With limited product innovations and little emotional energy,
consumers had begun to make product decisions based on features and
price. This created a problem for the Sony portable audio portfolio, in
particular its lead product the Discman, which was having difficulty
commanding a higher average selling price and retaining its premium
status. As a result of consumer indifference, the Discman was facing a
declining market share trend in both units and dollars.

Challenge

Not only did we need to increase market share by 4%, but our greater
challenge was to cement a relationship with the allusive but critical
Gen Y portable audio target. Among this target, we needed to help Sony
justify premium pricing and set the stage for a meaningful brand
relationship that could halo to other music innovations.

Insight

The agency conducted a quantitative targeting study and not
surprisingly young, hip music enthusiasts, coined “The Beat,” emerged
as our portable audio target. These 14-24 year old guys and girls live
for music and the technologies that make music happen. “The Beat” has
the highest ownership of all portable audio products, their products
are the newest, they express an interest in buying higher tech portable
audio products and more of this age group listens to portable audio
devices and listen in more places.

Attitudinally the study confirmed that 14-24 year olds live and breathe
music. As a group, “The Beat” are more likely to be heavy music
listeners (20+ hrs/week) and strongly agree with attitudinal statements
such as “music is my passion,” “portable audio products were created
with me in mind,” “I’d rather watch/listen to music than watch
non-music TV programming” and “people like me need to have portable
audio products with them throughout the day.” Psychographically they
are trendsetting, on the go, creative, style conscious, urban in
attitude and experimental.

“The Beat” believes in the transcendental powers of portable music --
its ability to change your world by creating your own little world, in
a much bigger world that can’t always be controlled. Portable music
frees the mind from the body and its surroundings. Portable music is
both an out-of-body experience and personal environment control. In
order to experience the power of portable music, you simply need to
press the play button. Once you press play, you get a playground in
your head.

Solution

The transcendental power of portable music is the fundamental emotional
benefit of the portable audio category. This is the high ground that
Sony needed to claim in order to justify a premium price and what Sony
can rightfully claim. Not only did Sony create the portable music
category, but its brand equity lies in Sony’s ability to spark the
imagination with innovative products that deliver richer, more powerful
entertainment experiences. To recharge Sony portable music and create
relevant, but differentiated imagery, Sony needed to own the inherent
emotionally-charged playground for your head and execute it in a way
that was a few steps ahead of your imagination. With this, the “Let
Your Mind Play” campaign was born.

The creative, with its tagline “Let Your Mind Play,” is a simple
invitation from Sony to consumers: an invitation to play, to covet your
music, to have fun, to access the playground in your head and to be
mind-blowing and original like Sony. The play button icon used in all
the communications is a branding device that not only cements Sony as a
cultural icon, but also enables Sony to claim the emotional end-benefit
of the portable music category.

The media schedule utilized a two-prong strategy to reinforce the “Let
Your Mind Play” message among “The Beat:” high profile events (to
cement Sony as a cultural icon) and continuity within relevant
editorial environments (to generate top-of-mind awareness and increase
usage occasions). With only 6MM ( 4.0 MM in television and 2.0 MM in
print) we were able to sway Gen Y opinions.

Results

In a declining category, Discman unit market share increased to 37.89%
in 1999, up from 34.86% in 1998. This more than doubled our goal of 4%
to an 8.69% increase. Sales increased from 255 MM in 1998 to 274 MM
in 1999 resulting in a 3.17 return on advertising investment.

We quantitatively tested the :30 spot “Subway” with 70 target
respondents in three markets. “Subway” was compared to top teen ads
including Gap, Volkswagen, Taco Bell, Levi’s, Mountain Dew and
Snickers. Sony ranked the highest in all categories including “gets my
attention,” “speaks to me,” “improves feelings about brand,” “humor,”
“youthful,” “cool” and “interested in buying.”

Qualitatively, Gen Y Music Enthusiasts raved that “Subway’s” vibrant,
edgy, intense, shocking and fun style makes it stand out and feel like
it is speaking directly to them about what’s most important in their
lives -- music. Importantly, they claimed “the ad represents my
generation the way the guy is so into music. And he’s listening to
really hip music.” “Subway” set itself apart from other portable audio
advertising because it recognized how intertwined technology is with
the target’s lives but sold the benefit of the technology versus
pushing the parity features. The outrageous nature of “Subway”
reinforces the brand’s reputation as an innovator. They also wildly
appreciated the humor in the commercial and relished the idea that they
are the only ones who can fully appreciate humor -- “I couldn’t see
older people liking it because it’s too fast and not modest. But young
people would say, ‘don’t block that out!”

Most importantly, Gen Y believes that Sony is cool, hip and
experimental – a kindred spirit in eschewing conformity, creating
adventures, having fun and letting your mind play. The creative link
between the Sony brand and the enjoyment of the portable music
experience has been forged among Gen Y. The excitement is back.