Only days out from a mass sacking of staff, Sony Australia has confirmed that they are set to spend millions on TV advertising with the Seven Network.
It has also been revealed that Sony Boss Carl Rose in an effort to get a better bang for his marketing dollar has decided to dump $4M worth sponsorship of the new Ten Network HD digital TV Sports Channel in favour of a better deal with the Seven Network who are believed to have offered Sony a package which in a “good market” would have been worth over $6M dollars.
At an internal event last Friday Seven Media sales executives were bragging about their “Sony Coupe” say insiders at the TV network.
Sony is also ramping up their PR operations in an effort to milk free publicity for their products from specialist media and online web sites with an executive from Sony PR Company Hausmann Communications admitting that “product PR is critical because TV advertising does not explain the benefits of the product. It simply builds a brand”.
One executive who recently left Hausmann Communications after working on the Sony business said”Sony are a smart Company. They invest a lot of money into PR because like Apple the media follow their brand. They get all this publicity for nothing. The TV networks will not give them the same coverage that the technology and lifestyle media do”.
Carl Rose in an interview with the Financial Review admitted that he had axed the proposed $4M deal with the Ten Network claiming that the deal was not “commercially viable”.
“We’ve gone with Seven Media because its Friday night AFL matches stack up for us in terms of the audience. We can also work with them across several other programs”.
