Susan Arendt
Culture

Dissecting <cite>Halo 3</cite>'s Ad Campaign

An interesting piece over at Brandweek dissects Halo 3‘s five-pronged ad campaign, set to culminate this week with TV spots estimated to have cost a jaw-droppinig $10 million. The goal of the campaign is to bring non-Halo fans up to speed on the story so far–think of it as "Previously on Halo" and you’ve got […]

Halo3_logo
An interesting piece over at Brandweek dissects Halo 3's five-pronged ad campaign, set to culminate this week with TV spots estimated to have cost a jaw-droppinig $10 million. The goal of the campaign is to bring non-Halo fans up to speed on the story so far--think of it as "Previously on Halo" and you've got the right idea.

Halo 3 is a guaranteed hit, though, so why bother with such a massive PR onslaught? Says Jason Anderson, director of research at the International Development Group:

While Halo 3 may have some of the strongest title awareness of any videogame since Grand Theft Auto 3, that awareness isn't free. Part of what sustains that critical mass is the perception that Halo 3 is a big budget, mass media event.

In other words, part of why Halo 3 is going to be so huge is because they keep telling is it's going to be huge. This last phase of the campaign, dubbed "Believe," will use tournaments, making-of specials, TV commercials, and finally, the launch itself to whip us all into a Halo-buying frenzy.

Strategy: Anatomy of an Onslaught [Brandweek, via Next-Gen]