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Channel 4 PlayStation 4

PlayStation and Channel 4 unite for PS4 launch campaign partnership

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By Gillian West, Social media manager

November 22, 2013 | 3 min read

PlayStation and Channel 4 have forged an exclusive partnership to promote the launch of the new PlayStation 4 console.

Running across TV and digital platforms from today (Friday 22 November), the campaign was created and developed by PlayStation, Manning Gottlieb OMD and Channel 4 Sales, working alongside 4Creative and KentLyons.

Inspired by Channel 4’s on-air marketing idents bespoke interstitials have been created using gameplay from PS4 games Killzone Shadow Fall and #DRIVECLUB. Rather the using post-production 4Creative and KentLyons worked directly with the game developers – Guerilla Games and Evolution – to create the interstitials that will features at the beginning and end of selected ad breaks from Thursday 28 November.

Two-second ‘blipverts’ and ten-second teaser ads have also been created to build up to the launch weekend, driving people to tune-in on Friday 29 November for a set of competitions marking the UK release of the games console. The competition spots will run in the ad breaks of key programming across the weekend including Charlie Brooker documentary ‘How Videogaming Changed the World’.

The competition itself is inspired by computer game cheat-codes with viewers asked to ‘Crack the Code’ on a purpose built HTML5 site, using their second screen devices. Competition entries will then be made via Twitter. A second video-on-demand based competition gives time shifted viewers another chance to enter.

In order to ‘Crack the Code’ viewers will be encouraged to rewind the second ad break in Sunday night’s Homeland back to the first break, with the final ad break taken over by PS4 to broadcast its short film, created by Drum, celebrating the history of gaining since 1995.

PlayStation’s marketing director Murray Pannell, commented: “Partnering with Channel 4 brings scale, creativity and innovation to our launch, adding another level to the ATL brand campaign and continuing to demonstrate that PS4 is for the players.”

James Thompson, comms planning director at Manning Gottlieb OMD, added that the partnership enabled “awareness of the PS4 launch whilst also delivering a campaign with engagement and gamification at the very heart of it.” Channel 4 agency principal, Chris Braithwaite, described the deal as an “innovative partnership between two natural bedfellows, focussing on the visual power of both brands and asking our viewers to engage in a completely new way with advertising.”

The PlayStation 4 is officially launched in the UK on Friday 29 November.

Channel 4 PlayStation 4

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