Sony's "Michael" PlayStation 3 Ad Took Five Months And 15 Publishers To Create

We've got some new details surrounding the amazing "Michael" ad that Sony released celebrating video game characters. If you missed the ad, you should definitely watch it, as it features over twenty different video game references and they're all charming and extremely well done.

While Sony characters like Nathan Drake, Sweet Tooth, and Sack Boy were well represented in the ad, characters from third party games also made an appearance. Characters like Chell, Snake, and even Ezio were all featured. "We got all of the developers on board," said Jason Elm, the executive creator director at Deutsch. "They helped us, giving us costumes they had, or giving us digital assets we used to create the weapons."

"There was a little bit of reticence at first, but because people liked the idea so much, they trusted us," said Elm. "Sometimes we had to beg a little, and sometimes they were right on board."

Overall it took Deutsh and Sony five months to create the spot, working together with 15 publishers. "No one has ever done a spot with multiple characters from many different games. No one has ever done anything with all those characters in one commercial, especially live action," said Elm. "There was a lot of head scratching about whether we would be able to pull this off. We didn't want this to feel like a costume party." 

In the end it seemed that Elm really understood why gamers would love the ad so much, saying, ""We wanted to make something that really demonstrated what it's like to play games and why gaming is so amazing. We want them to say, 'Yes! That's how I feel.'"

According to Scott Steinberg, Vice President of Product Marketing at Sony, the company plans to be very aggressive with the ad. They plan to spread the campaign to Facebook with an interactive component once it has reached around 50 million view. "We have a lot more of the campaign coming out in social and digital marketing, that turns over some aspects to our fans to personalize. That kind of customization is almost a game itself. It's very interactive and very personal."

Five months is a long time to create an ad, but I think that they pulled it off brilliantly and I love watching it over and over picking out all of the characters. Plus, how cute is Sackboy? I know you've all discussed the ad to death when we posted it earlier, but after learning about how much work went in to it, do you like it more?

Source: Fast Company

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