$150 Mil. PlayStation to Deutsch/LA

NEW YORK Sony PlayStation has tapped Interpublic Group's Deutsch/LA in Marina del Rey, Calif., to handle its estimated $150 million ad account following a review.Eric Hirshberg, president, CCO at Deutsch/LA, said, "This is one of the world's great brands, world's great products and world's great advertising accounts. Of course we are ecstatic. A lot of us have been preparing for this account since we were about four years old. We live and breathe this stuff, and the client could feel it."Hirshberg said that during the pitch process the client "just asked us to give them our smartest thinking. There were no boundaries or limits." He characterized Deutsch's presentation as "a completely integrated campaign with local marketing, online, in-store, as well as some spectacular stuff in traditional media."PlayStation wasn't the shop's only big addition today. It also picked up more Saturn business from Gereral Motors, adding online duties for the brand, including the Saturn.com site, per sources. Publicis Groupe's Digitas, the i-shop in Boston, had handled the assignment. Agency officials declined comment. Kyle Johnson, Saturn director of communications, said only "there is no paperwork" indicating that such a move is being made. Online spending for Saturn could not immediately be determined.On PlayStation, Deutsch/LA succeeds Omnicom Group's TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif., which worked on the business for a dozen years.The shop adds both creative and media, the latter moving from Omnicom's OMD. In terms of winning media, Deutsch/LA president Mike Sheldon said, "We built a fully integrated agency 10 years ago knowing that having all that business under the client's roof was the way to drive the client's business. That's one of the reasons we did so well in the review."Along with Deutsch/LA and TBWA\C\D, the other finalists were Publicis in Seattle and independents RPA in Santa Monica, Calif., and Venables, Bell & Partners in San Francisco.Consultancy Select Resources International in Santa Monica oversaw the review process."We were part of something special and rarified in this industry," said Carisa Bianchi, president of TBWA\C\D. "Over the 12 years of our partnership, we established a legacy brand, a cultural force in the gaming industry. That's significant and rare, and when it does happen, damn, we're proud of it."Informing the agency that it has lost its bid to retain PlayStation business yesterday, TBWA\C\D ecd Rob Schwartz paraphrased tennis great Boris Becker: "I told them, 'We love winning, we can take the losing, but most of all we love to play the game,'" said Schwartz. "Ultimately, we live to create, so bring on the next assignment."Of TBWA\C\D's years on the brand, Deutsch/LA's Hirshberg said: "We have nothing but respect for the work that's been done and admired it for a long time. It is our job to take that great advertising and make it even greater."Deutsch/LA added major assignments from Saturn as well as Tesco, the U.K.-based supermarket chain, earlier this year.This story updates an item posted earlier today with confirmation and quotes about Saturn and news that Deutsch/LA added more Saturn work..

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$150 Mil. PlayStation to Deutsch/LA

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