My, what green eyes you have
Bigger spend than the Xbox 360 launch
We're just weeks away from Kinect's North American launch, so news that its high-profile marketing campaign is about to kick in shouldn't raise too many eyebrows. The names and numbers attached to that campaign might surprise some though, with a reported $500 million being spent to get the Kinect brand familiar to... well, everyone.
The campaign will span the usual outlets of television, online, print media and food and drink, with Burger King, Pepsi and Kellogg's all on board in the edible side of things. Hopefully the irony of Kinect's "get up and play" ethos and cavalcade of fitness titles isn't lost on Burger King's marketing team.
Some 7,000 midnight openings are thought to be taking place all across the US, with many European retailers doing the same, though their impact is likely to be lessened by the arrival of Call of Duty: Black Ops the previous day.
Robert Matthews, Xbox's general manager of global marketing communications, sums it up neatly:
Kinect is the largest, most integrated marketing initiative in Xbox history, bigger than [the Xbox 360’s] launch.
It seems soon you won't be able to move for Kinect advertising. Double irony.
User Comments
1. WolfRamHeart
27 Oct 2010, 22:54 BST
I wonder how much of that 500 million was spent to advertise and give away Kinects on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
2. James Newton
27 Oct 2010, 23:09 BST
$498m, I heard. The rest was to pay two American families to jump around looking "happy".
3. cheetahman91
28 Oct 2010, 22:21 BST
More than the 360? Jeez.
4. slapshot82
28 Oct 2010, 23:42 BST
The fact that they are pushing a periphial harder than the system itself at launch is a little worrying in my opinion.
5. danschemen
29 Oct 2010, 01:26 BST
yeah i've seen a lot of commercials for the kinect so i can believe that.