Via Next Generation, a post on the Brand Week website that goes into some detail on the massive advertising campaign for Halo 3 orchestrated by Microsoft and the McCann-Erickson group. "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. "
A $10m ad campaign for Halo 3? Isn't that like having a multi-million dollar campaign to let everyone know the sky is blue?
You know the Apple switcher ads? My thoughts on them are that they aren't to entice people to come to apple as they are so ridiculously silly as anyone who would switch would likely return the box because it didn't come with windows. The ads however comically play to What Apples user base already thinks. It re-enforces brand value in the people who already reside in the apple camp. So it
I think only the more technical PC users feel like they're getting a cheap shot with those switcher ads. There are plenty of PC users that aren't emotionally attached to their computer, and find the ads funny. I grew up with PC's, and bought a new Mac last year. The amount of misinformation that circulates unchallenged among PC users about Macs is astonishing. No software, they're slow, they suck, no games, too expensive, waste of money, etc. The iPod and iPhone are helping rebuild Apple's image and the
Some people (not me, I'm just speaking generally) take a broader conception of "redundant" and apply it to any overdone, overcliched kind of post about an issue. For example, saying, "Gee, not so final, is it?" on a story about the lastest installment in the Final Fantasy, would be considered "redundant" by some, even if it's the very first post. Why? Because it doesn't offer anything new that you haven't heard already.
Then again, maybe that time you just referenced, it was just a vindictive mod.
You know, PC gaming isn't the hallmark of ease and reliability either. 360s have the best games. The best online content. And the worst reliability. It's also the most expensive console (this is an opinion, but I've certainly spent more on my 360 than my PS3 without counting games).
The idea that a buyer of one console is a loser because he values the games over reliability (or he made a mistake in choice) is just ludicrous. Thank God every car is not a Honda Accord. We need variety even at the expense o
I don't know, but inside the my local brick & mortar store there was a 7 foot tall Big Daddy. I don't what it cost, but it's awesomeness surely pushed many people to at the very least ask about the game, and probably many to go ahead and buy.
don't say "defeat the evil Covenant."
for the 5 other people who may be following the story, ITS NOT THE COVENANT WHO ARE BAD NOW
come on, "evil" is rarely the case in stories meant for people over the age of 5
Take any technology story and you will see the terms 'evil' and 'good' bandied about as if they had any actual meaning in a discussion of technology.
So are you saying that Slashdot is inhabited by 5 year-olds now? That seems a bit harsh. Usually it is best to cloak those sorts of remarks in more erudite terms and lace your posts with enough sarcasm such that they get modded funny.:)
One of the best things about a $10 million ad campaign is that you can get news agencies/blogs/teh intarweb to discuss the advertising campaign itself, which is automatically advertising for the product the ad campaign is promoting that doesn't come out of that $10 million.
Advertisers are sort of like Satan. I hate them for their unmitigated evil, but I do sometimes have to admire their savvy.
Advertisers are sort of like Satan. I hate them for their unmitigated evil, but I do sometimes have to admire their savvy.
I have a guilty pleasure of studying advertising. I equate it to studying infosec attack methods. I'm not inclined to be involved in hacking random public targets (whether that target is a system or human nature) in such a manner. But I do find the techniques fascinating. And it helps to understand some aspects of the world around me - and protect myself from said techniques.
How do you know that the news agencies talking about the $10 million campaign isn't part of the $10 million for the campaign, as a sort of meta-campaign? It costs money having people call up news agencies and say "Hey guys, we're spending a ton of money on this campaign! Give us a story and we'll put rent some ad space with it!"
And Slashdotters care because they are marketing geeks?
Or is this kind of an in-joke among the editors: Microsoft's spending $10M to promote interest in Halo3 so we'll give them free press on a mostly anti-Microsoft site too! (Heh-heh-heh...)
And Slashdotters care because they are marketing geeks?
There are four types of people on slashdot when it comes to this issue. The first are people who are indifferent to the Halo franchise (you appear to be one of these). This group tends not to post in these discussions because it doesn't really interest them. When they do post asking questions such as you did, a flamewar generally ensues that has nothing to do with Halo.
The second and third types are people who are rabid fans of Halo and will defend
How much are you expecting to make back if you spend this much on advertising?
All Halo 3 needed was a trailer every couple of months, a place holder website and to let magazine/online previewers play "demos" of areas every so often and it would still sell as well as it will now. It's like advertising toilet paper when you're the only people on Earth who makes it, why would you spend good money on such stupidity?
Simply put, because it's an exclusive for a console. There isn't much to really discuss if it's on all consoles. Even if it's on one first, many if not MOST people have the patience to wait for a while. But it's different with an exclusive and a huge franchise one at that. The more you can get people hyped about it and talking and excited, the more buzz is generated around the console. Maybe those who got a PS3 are thinking that they'd like to play that awesome Halo game too. Perhaps thinking about bu
It's like advertising toilet paper when you're the only people on Earth who makes it, why would you spend good money on such stupidity?
What is all this banter? Where was all this naysaying when there was big advertisements for the iPhone, The Wii or Gears of War?
And just as a side note: Coca Cola is one of the largest spenders of advertisement dollars on a single product. Coca Cola is far far better known compared to any video game ever. Coca Cola also turns a pretty hefty profit.
This is why I often wonder why the local power company (PNM in my case) bothers to advertise (they put up billboards and run television commercials), its not like there is anyone that they are competing against, and unless your Amish, you're probably going to need power (and there aren't many Amish in New Mexico).
In the case of PNM, they probably need the advertising to bring people back from the edge before blowing up their building downtown due to customer service issues.:-)
Look at it from another point. While people KNOW about Halo 3, what they are attempting to do is create 'excitement' about the title. This excitement will increase the number of people who rush out to buy the game on the first day of release.
Microsoft has 60,827,000,000 shares of stock currently, so a 25 cent per share increase due to an amazing day of sales means an increase in net worth of 60,826,999,975. I'm no financial expert, but a few minutes of stock research via wikipedia and google finance wi
$10 million ad campaign... 1 million preorders... so roughly $10 of your $60 preorder goes to advertise what you're already buying. They should have skipped the advertising and lowered the price.
If you wanna turn it into a little more fuzzy math, then you can consider that they are likely going to sell more than just the pre-orders on Day 1 alone bringing a one day total close to, if not greater than, the previous high of $125 million in sales in a single day.
Not to mention this game is practically a part of pop-culture at this point (CMN.. it's been on/. like five or six times already)... point being that the sales are going to continue being strong even after the first day... atleast enough to
Been to a place that sells soda recently? I'm guessing PepsiCo didn't make a new (arguably disgusting) flavor of Mountain Dew [wikipedia.org] for free.
I think Microsoft is deluding itself if it thinks any amount of marketing will make casual gamers ask themselves, "Hmm... do I want to play Cooking Mama, or Halo 3?"
They have a radio commercial for Halo 3 that ties into some 7-11 slurpee flavor. The announcer talks about you giving strength to Master Chief, then asking where you get your strength. This is followed by a sound effect that is probably intended to be a person trying to suck the last of a slurpee out of a cup, but instead sounds like a long, liquid fart.
I laugh every time. However, I definitely remember the commercial and products, though perhaps not in the way they wanted...
I disagree, the graphics of Halo 3 use brilliant colors instead of the usual dull green / brown monotone games out there. Judge for yourself:
http://blogs.ign.com/ShishouMatt/2007/08/07/62622/ [ign.com]
It is clear that when the colors on Halo 3 are desaturated the graphics look much better.
Normally I don't feed trolls, but I'm bored at work...
Microsoft is mocking the gaming industry with their Halo 3 marketing campaign.
I don't think they are mocking people...it may be stupid of them, but hey if they want to blow that much money on marketing a game that really needs no marketing, let em.
They are essentially telling the gaming world we don't even need a decent game to sell millions.
Games don't sell millions if they aren't at LEAST decent...
Beh, I wish...at least back when I was 16 and working at McDonalds (as opposed to 23 and working at a Pharmaceutical Consulting group) I got free food...
Early adopter pay R&D costs, Pre-orderers pay marketing costs. Why do you pre-order games ? For a console ok, hardware is hard to make but for a disc media wich can be mass produced at nearly no cost, I don't see the point, never seen a shortage of a game lasting more than 2 days at release...
Redundant. (Score:4, Funny)
Isn't that like having a multi-million dollar campaign to let everyone know the sky is blue?
Re:Redundant. (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3)
Can I meta-moderate again today, please?
Re: (Score:1)
Halo [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:1)
We all have halos up here.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Isn't that like having a multi-million dollar campaign to let everyone know the sky is blue?
You know the Apple switcher ads? My thoughts on them are that they aren't to entice people to come to apple as they are so ridiculously silly as anyone who would switch would likely return the box because it didn't come with windows. The ads however comically play to What Apples user base already thinks. It re-enforces brand value in the people who already reside in the apple camp. So it
Re: (Score:1)
No software, they're slow, they suck, no games, too expensive, waste of money, etc. The iPod and iPhone are helping rebuild Apple's image and the
Redundant? Redundant?!? (Score:1)
"Flaimbait"? Sure. The first posts often are.
"Off Topic"? That's often the case.
"Redundant"? Impossible.
The subject is "Redundant.", so I guess someone was using a mod point to try to make a joke?
Re: (Score:2)
Then again, maybe that time you just referenced, it was just a vindictive mod.
Re: (Score:1)
Halo 3 (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
360s have the best games. The best online content. And the worst reliability. It's also the most expensive console (this is an opinion, but I've certainly spent more on my 360 than my PS3 without counting games).
The idea that a buyer of one console is a loser because he values the games over reliability (or he made a mistake in choice) is just ludicrous. Thank God every car is not a Honda Accord. We need variety even at the expense o
How much? (Score:2)
How much advertising did they get?
Re: (Score:2)
Re:How much? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
I've got an idea to help (Score:1)
for the 5 other people who may be following the story, ITS NOT THE COVENANT WHO ARE BAD NOW
come on, "evil" is rarely the case in stories meant for people over the age of 5
Concept of 'evil' is alive and well on Slashdot... (Score:3, Funny)
So are you saying that Slashdot is inhabited by 5 year-olds now? That seems a bit harsh. Usually it is best to cloak those sorts of remarks in more erudite terms and lace your posts with enough sarcasm such that they get modded funny.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, I realize how geeky I am.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Force multiplier (Score:5, Interesting)
Advertisers are sort of like Satan. I hate them for their unmitigated evil, but I do sometimes have to admire their savvy.
Re: (Score:3)
Advertisers are sort of like Satan. I hate them for their unmitigated evil, but I do sometimes have to admire their savvy.
I have a guilty pleasure of studying advertising. I equate it to studying infosec attack methods. I'm not inclined to be involved in hacking random public targets (whether that target is a system or human nature) in such a manner. But I do find the techniques fascinating. And it helps to understand some aspects of the world around me - and protect myself from said techniques.
Re: (Score:2)
And Slashdotters care because... (Score:2, Interesting)
And Slashdotters care because they are marketing geeks?
Or is this kind of an in-joke among the editors: Microsoft's spending $10M to promote interest in Halo3 so we'll give them free press on a mostly anti-Microsoft site too! (Heh-heh-heh...)
Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
There are four types of people on slashdot when it comes to this issue. The first are people who are indifferent to the Halo franchise (you appear to be one of these). This group tends not to post in these discussions because it doesn't really interest them. When they do post asking questions such as you did, a flamewar generally ensues that has nothing to do with Halo.
The second and third types are people who are rabid fans of Halo and will defend
Re: (Score:2)
You forgot the category into which I fall, which is "Still disappointed at Bungie for defecting to Microsoft."
10 million profit? (Score:4, Insightful)
All Halo 3 needed was a trailer every couple of months, a place holder website and to let magazine/online previewers play "demos" of areas every so often and it would still sell as well as it will now. It's like advertising toilet paper when you're the only people on Earth who makes it, why would you spend good money on such stupidity?
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
What is all this banter? Where was all this naysaying when there was big advertisements for the iPhone, The Wii or Gears of War?
And just as a side note: Coca Cola is one of the largest spenders of advertisement dollars on a single product. Coca Cola is far far better known compared to any video game ever. Coca Cola also turns a pretty hefty profit.
Come back and question
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
How about Europe? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Math time (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Not to mention this game is practically a part of pop-culture at this point (CMN.. it's been on /. like five or six times already)... point being that the sales are going to continue being strong even after the first day... atleast enough to
What Ad Campaign??? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
[M]ake casual fans interested (Score:2)
Bad Product tie-ins (Score:2)
I laugh every time. However, I definitely remember the commercial and products, though perhaps not in the way they wanted...
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think they are mocking people...it may be stupid of them, but hey if they want to blow that much money on marketing a game that really needs no marketing, let em.
Games don't sell millions if they aren't at LEAST decent...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)