PS4: This is for the Players

Every time a new generation of consoles launches it’s as if there is a brand reset. While any past brand baggage doesn’t go away, a new console launch provides an opportunity for a total reconsideration of the brand – one that will set the course for the next six or seven years of that console’s life cycle. If you don’t get it right you risk losing that generation’s console war.

Going into the 2013 launch of PS4, PlayStation was feeling the heat from all sides. Despite new gaming competition from the likes of Apple and Android, the biggest battle would still come from arch-rival Xbox.

It was a modern-day David vs. Goliath, with Microsoft outspending PlayStation across Europe and Australia by three to one. We couldn’t outspend them, so we had to outsmart them.

While Xbox One was giving gamers a back seat by positioning itself as a one-stop "entertainment" box, the strategy was to go back to PlayStation's roots as a brand by putting gamers and gaming at the very heart of everything PS4 stood for. In so doing, we rebranded those gamers in an own-able way that Xbox couldn’t – as "Players".

“FOR THE PLAYERS” became a Euro Effie Grand Prix winning launch campaign, and drove market leadership in 50 markets versus XBox.

The “FOR THE PLAYERS” platform transcended the launch to become a business driving idea that guided every aspect of the PlayStation business for the six years that followed. The platform also led us to develop an entire brand ecosystem, complete with a brand book including brand purpose, mission, tone of voice, behaviors, and Player segmentation.