As a business student, we're beaten into our heads the importance of marketing. I am actually quite curious, what other people think of the marketing stratagies that we have seen from the three big consoles?

 First though, an important note: We are not the target market. We actually seek out our own information and base our values on what we experience and value. Adds for most of us are idle amusement. However, for the other consumers, that vast 95% that don't spend an hour each day reading IGN, Kotaku, Joystiq, VGCharts, 1Up, Penny-Arcade or whoever else you use as a review/preview/news site for games, marketing is essential.

 But here is the marketing strategy of the Big 3, at least originally, also, my perceptions of them:

Microsoft started with an impressive fun campaign, the Jump In campaign, the 2 I best recall (and quickly can youtube) being the banned one with the fake gun fight and the more literal jump rope campaign. However, both ads showed multiple ethnicities, ages, types having fun in a group activity, with an actual implication that the X-Box360 when you "Jump In" will be just as fun.

 Nintendo had the "Wii Would like to play" adds, showing once again, a variety of ages, and even house settings, including families and blatant stereotypes, but showed them all having fun in a group environment, and also showed game footage. Recent adds have shown games that are soon to be released, but the overall idea comes in: Wii comes, everyone has fun, no matter who they are.

Then the PS3's Play B3yond campaign.  This included such surreal sights as a freakish baby who may be Chucky's Son babbling and staring at a floating Ps3, ravens and crows, rooms splitting and some other surreal sights. The ads often highlited some technological aspect of the PS3, such as the SIXAXIS, Blue Ray Capacity, ability to play DVD's and RIP CDs. Then there was the European  "This is living" Campaign in Europe. Which involved a variety of charecters doing... well, things. A suitcase of money explodes, and that is it. Game footage is shown in some ads, and not shown in others, and no one is even seen playing the PS3, it's often just floating in a white room, and only in the "This is Living" campaign are people ever having fun... or doing anything for that matter.

Now, remembering that console advertising is used to sell things to consumers who are less informed that average, who do you think was the most effective in marketing their product? Marketing can always be improved, so how much do you think a new ad campaign would affect 360/Wii/Ps3 sales? 

Of course, this is limited to TV spots,  and I without question missed some ads that some people may presume to be important, ignoring some regions as well. I'm not perfect, just curious to see some perspectives in this.

The Nintendo ads are my favorite video game ads in a long time. I don't know if I've really seen Nintendo commercials since before the launch of the Wii, the only thing I can remember are those N64 VHS cassettes that I got with Nintendo Power magazine. The Wii ads are great in the same way those cassettes were great, you get to see gameplay. I don't decide which games I want to play based on how good the cutscenes look, I decide based on what you get to do in the game. A lot of companies are getting better about this, and it really is the perfect way to show off the Wii since the whole point of the console is that you DO something other than pressing buttons. :)

The 360 "jump in" ads were great viral marketing and fun to watch, but they utterly failed to make me want a 360. I do actually want a 360 but suffice to say that these ads had nothing to do with it. :) Very entertaining though, and it does get the word out about the system and creates a buzz about Xbox Live, which is a great platform for online gaming.

The Sony ads are polarizing, and I'm on the "these ads suck" pole. I can appreciate shock advertising and trying to highlight the plusses of your hardware, but I feel like the only people these ads truly reach are the people who already wanted a PS3 anyway, the "YES OMGZ PS3 HARDWARE IS TEH BOMB!" people. I think people are better at seeing through the BS than Sony realizes, too. "This is how much content fits on a standard DVD." Right, so I'm supposed to trust Sony to give me an accurate visual comparison between DVD and Blu-ray, the new optical format they're trying to push? DVD = a flower, HD DVD = a handful of flowers, Blu-ray = a mile-wide field of flowers, riiiiiiight... Sorry, but even Joe Customer knows that the difference between 50 GB and 5 GB is not a hundred thousand flowers compared to one, and 50 vs 30 isn't 100,000 to 10.  When you make obvious exaggerations, your viewers come away thinking they can't trust you.

On the other hand, if I haven't changed the channel or gotten up to get a soda during the Sony commercial, it goes on to show me some gameplay footage while the voiceover talks about the physics processing of tracking pieces of shrapnel from a grenade, more AI power, etc. The clip is fairly exciting and well-illustrated with the voiceover. This is good stuff that I think starts to reach beyond the fanboys.

Sony has great ads, to bad they Never freaking put them on tv.

What they do put on tv is crap made by a bunch of emo/goth freaks, ads that have nothing to do with their great hardware.

Play B3yond - Capacity
Play B3yond - Higher Definition
Play B3yond - Smarter
Play B3yond - Control
http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=2185

Great adds that should be on tv, they do a great job to conway the message of PS3s superior hardware over it rivals.

I suppose I should note that I watch about an hour of TV a week so my advertising exposure is limited. I had included the Play B3yond as part of the Sony Marketing (If you read the descriptions, they should be familiar), but if they were never aired in any Markets, well, that's just bad. Because then their advertising is just the name.

Mayhaps they were hoping for a "Gabbo is coming" type mystery, yet there really was no mystery.

looking at the PS3 ads, I wouldn't even know what the hell they were selling. There's no information there, if I never heard of the PS3 I would be sitting there going "ok, sounds cool and all, but what the hell are they selling me?"

not a good marketing campaign at all.