Saturn Advertising

 What will Sega of America do to get you to part with $400 for a new video game machine?

Whatever it takes.

That's the concept behind $50 million worth of "guerrilla marketing" planned for the week school lets out that will blitz 1 million households with Sega videotapes.

Redwood City-based Sega will also air television ads with a secret second sound track available to those channel surfers armed with remote controls that have a SAP button.

The marketing frenzy is being driven by the killer competition between Sega, and its new Saturn game machine, and newcomer Sony Computer Entertainment, which is entering the market with its $300 PlayStation. Sega is also trying to maintain its lead over archival Nintendo, which announced a yearlong delay for the release of its highly touted new Ultra 64 machine.

Sega also faces trouble from personal computers. A Japanese newspaper reported Wednesday that Microsoft Corp. and Softbank Corp. were setting up a joint venture to sell computer game software. In response, Sega's shares fell 7.72 percent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in early morning trading.

To combat its old and new foes, Sega has set up a self-described "SWAT" marketing team. Armed with textbook marketing gigs like keeping a lid on the number of Saturn machines available so they're always just sold out, the team has one mission: create the hype, make it hip and make those Saturns sell.

To succeed, they have done a deal with Coca-Cola - Sega Saturn machines will appear at summer festivals and concerts in Cherry Coke vans. Print ads will jump across the pages of Playboy, Wired magazine, Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated, trying to snare Saturn's market of 18- to 35-year-olds.

But some of Sega's marketing gimmicks strike industry watchers as a sign of desperation. "Sony has a clear shot at winning," said Christopher V. Sherman, editor and publisher of Multimedia Wire, a daily newsletter that covers the game industry from Maryland. "Sega is probably in a mild state of panic."

Panic maybe, but child's play for sure.

At last month's game convention in Los Angeles, Sega stamped the Saturn logo on hotel room television sets and men's urinals, even covering up Sony bus stop signs. In a move more like fans rushing the field, a Sega team crashed Sony's premiere party in Los Angeles by driving around the studio lot and projecting huge images of the Saturn on Sony walls.

That's the kind of kid stuff that drives the $1.6 billion market for the game machines. It's also what drives Michael Ribero, executive vice president of marketing for Sega, who explains the strategy like this: "Do we really think we are big enough to stand in the middle of the ring and slug out a giant like Sony? Or are we better off running circles around them and when they set their sights on us, we're not there any more?"

When he arrived at Sega from Hilton Hotels in March, Ribero handed out the classic text "The Art of War."

Perhaps it helped the Sega SWAT team come up with the unusual idea of making television commercials that would have a second commercial running underneath, accessible only by pushing the SAP button (secondary audio programming) on your remote control. Many television stations, such as KOFY, Channel 20, offer up a second language, such as Spanish, to go with the English language programming. Sega claims it's the first to advertise another message beneath the commercial.

Are two messages really better than one? We may never know, because the quirky aphorisms, such as "I'm self conscious of the size of my head" and "Never throw a surprise party for a psychic," aren't advertised anywhere. Sega says it would rather let people discover their SAP button by word of mouth.

Sega has also promised your standard straight forward sabotage during the $40 million launch of Sony's PlayStation in September. Chip Herman, vice president of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment, said he takes Sega's kamikazi advertising as "the highest form of flattery."

"To me, that's the ultimate compliment, when someone is following you and trying to cover up things, so that you are less effective," he said.

The Saturn, available now in selected stores such as Toys R Us and Software Etc., will begin its national roll out in Minneapolis during July.

Until then, the videotapes of Sega commercials will pile up in homes and Sega SWAT teams will battle to turn crazy tactics into profits.