Comment: Bizarre Sony "Rolly" campaign continues to torment us

The Birdie song? A rolling marble? Stop already

22 August 2007 0:00 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

"It is. It is the audio commodity. Is. As for that you are not wrong, is. Until now the feeling which is not. It is that securely."

So says the Japanese Sony "Rolly" blog according to the helpful, yet ultimately unhelpful, Google translation.

The mysterious viral-style site, which many hope will prove to be the launch pad for an exciting new Walkman branded MP3 player from Sony, may be hard for non-Japanese speakers to grasp.

In an interesting move in a wider state-of-the-media sense, Sony has turned to the informal and blog-friendly viral format that Nokia are currently also dabbling in with their forthcoming N81 launch.

The online data from the Rolly properties is a confused mix of buzzwords, blog entries, imagery and video.

Videos are universal though - they should shed some light ... Nope, not if it's hand-held style footage of three (slightly tipsy?) girls doing a strange version of the birdie-dance or a helmet spinning on the floor.

More video clips show wheelie tricks on a bike, a marble rolling across the floor and a woman donning multiple t-shirts. It's too much. What has this got to do with a marvelous iPod-beating media device?

Why are companies tormenting us with these carefully controlled viral-style campaigns? Do they really think we're hanging on every PR-filtered word? Well, okay, so maybe we are.

So, what do we know? Not much. According the site itself, some facts are clear:

"1. The name, 'Rolly'
2. Sound entertainment player
3. New audio commodity"

The 27th of August looms large as the launch date for the device, just days before IFA, the German tech-fest, suggested as a European venue for the unveiling, so it's all plausible.

Will Sony finally make a move out from the iPod's shadow and give us a portable music-playing device, that doesn't just have the technical elan of their current top-end players, but a bit of gumption too - a device that is finally deserving of the iconic Walkman brand name?

The sensible thing to do would be just go about your business in a calm and orderly manner until then. Don't waste time endlessly staring at the viral site as if it holds clues you could only understand if you "got" it.

Absolutely. So, I'll be checking back in about another, ooh, half an hour or so and I'll see you there...