Sony is going all out and spending far more than usual in advertising this calendar year, betting that 2006 will be a pivotal period for all things HD. According to published reports, Sony had been working with an ad account worth about $100 million annually, but it nearly doubled its typical ad spending toward the end of 2005 to push its flat-panel HD-ED sets and other DTV devices.
Sony had some catching up to do starting around 2001, as its competitors ramped up their flatscreens and discarded their bulky CRT units, and now Sony is apparently catching up with a vengeance. Preliminary sales figures for the past few months for flatscreens and HD-ED sets have been higher than anticipated by analysts. That's good short-term news for Sony.
Sony now plans to spend several hundred million ad dollars in the next 12 months, according to Reuters, even before the delayed launch of its PlayStation 3 (with Blu-ray drive) next November. Sony officials see their dramatically accelerated spending as an investment in their future, and told Reuters that U.S. ad campaigning in the next year likely will set Sony spending records.
The company said about 75 percent of its overall U.S. ad dollars will target HD flatscreens, HD and SD digital camcorders and next-gen Blu-ray players.
