Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Brandweek wrote a very interesting article describing Microsoft’s advertising campaign for Halo 3.

Strategy: Anatomy Of An Onslaught: How Halo 3 Attacked
Ten months in the making, Halo 3 went gold weeks before launch.

September 10, 2007
By Kenneth Hein

This week, Microsoft breaks its Halo 3 "Believe" TV ad campaign touting the Xbox 360 title’s highly-anticipated Sept. 25 launch. The estimated $10 million-plus effort centers on an immaculately constructed diorama depicting the great battles of lead character Master Chief. With this as a backdrop, warriors that did battle with the game’s hero provide testimonials as to his greatness in the ads created by McCann-Erickson, San Francisco.

The goal of the campaign is to bring Halo fans and nonfans up-to-speed as to where we are in Master Chief’s epic battle to defeat the evil Covenant. While most major game titles begin their ad campaigns weeks before launch to build buzz, Halo 3 differs greatly. This mass-market push is actually the end of the of Halo 3 campaign.

The TV push is the grand finale of a five-pronged attack Microsoft quietly launched last December. The carefully orchestrated onslaught was designed to make casual fans interested and core fans rabid as Microsoft aims to eclipse Halo 2’s record-breaking $125 million in sales on day one. To date, Halo 3 is already on the books for one million preorders and counting.

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FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/magazine/current/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003637129