• Ad Age, Tuesday, October 3, 2006 12:15 PM

Sony Corp. is looking for an agency to create a common message for the sprawling company that is infamous for its siloed business units. While each of the Sony units--including Sony Electronics, SCEA and the music and pictures divisions--aggressively market their products and services, corporate umbrella campaigns and efforts have not been a common practice. Andrew House, who was named to the newly created position of chief marketing officer in September 2005, is driving the search. Sony has already tapped Omnicom's Wolff Olins to analyze its brand globally, and sibling BBDO is said to be seeking the creative business. The marketer is known to have had talks with agencies owned by Interpublic and WPP, too. Sony's biggest division, electronics--which contributes some 70 percent of its revenue--has had ups and downs over the past few years. Its LCD flat-panel TVs, digital cameras and camcorders, and computers have some of the strongest brands--Bravia and Wega, CyberShot and Handycam and Vaio--and healthiest market shares in the electronics industry. Its ongoing thorn is its lack of any real presence in the digital-music arena, where the founders of the Walkman can't seem to find a product that clicks with consumers. The size of the media spending and the time frame for the effort is unknown.

Read the whole story at Ad Age »