Xbox is preparing to launch the latest in its gaming franchise - Halo 4, with an “innovation-led” campaign backed by record levels of media and marketing investment.
UM London developed the campaign which has involved live TV ads that use consumers’ Facebook information in a ‘roll call of honour’ as well as displaying the real-time number of people playing Halo 4 on XboxLive.
As well as an additional spot campaign, digital activity and cinema advertising, the Microsoft-owned brand has also rolled out its biggest ever UK outdoor campaign for an Xbox game across 243 nationwide sites.
Andy Irving, senior product manager for Xbox UK, said: “Microsoft is breaking new ground for the industry’s marketing by launching Halo 4 as a landmark entertainment event on par with a major Hollywood movie. Past Halo campaigns have already set the gold standard for creative marketing and social innovation, and this latest launch will prove that the marketing is as much a part of the Halo experience as the game itself.”
Rory Behrman, account director at UM London, added: “This is without doubt the biggest and most innovative campaign we have planned for Xbox, and it takes the brand’s ‘challenger’ ethos into even more exciting territory. Halo is no longer just a game; it is a record-breaking entertainment franchise, so the media has to be big, bold and above all brave.”
The campaign has followed from the launch of Xbox’s live-action series called “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” which recently began airing on Machinima Prime on YouTube, HaloWaypoint.com and Xbox LIVE.