A Look At Halo 3's $10 Million Ad Campaign

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. "

Comments

Redundant.

[Seumas]

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?

Re:Redundant.

[MyLongNickName]

What is this 'Halo'?

Re:Redundant.

[Applekid]

So grandparent first post is redundant and parent post is a troll? Yipes.

Can I meta-moderate again today, please?

Re:Redundant.

[king-manic]

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 its not a ad campaign seeking new customers but re-enforcing value in current customers.

Ditto with the Halo 3 ad campaign. It re-enforces the value of peoples purchase. Saying "hey you bought a winner."

Re:Redundant.

[uolamer]

What is this 'Halo'?
Halo

Re:Redundant.

[archen]

Sorry to break this to you dude... you're dead.

We all have halos up here.

Re:Redundant.

[buckadude]

And how much did /. get out of that budget? I mean that is two halo 3 stories today..... *ducks*

Re:Redundant.

[ToasterMonkey]

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 these ads are probably meant to counter all the misinformation with, well... hey, it's not all false. I want to know, how the hell could they let so much bad word of mouth get around unchecked for so long?

Re:Redundant.

[pokerdad]

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 its not a ad campaign seeking new customers but re-enforcing value in current customers. Ditto with the Halo 3 ad campaign. It re-enforces the value of peoples purchase. Saying "hey you bought a winner."

I think your analysis of the Apple ads is spot on, and it explains the phenomina that Apple users seem to think the ads are brilliant, but other generally not as much (ranging anywhere from "kinda funny" down to "I HATE THEM").

But if that is the strategy of the Halo 3 ads, then it it hugely misplaced. Apple has a customer base that is going to need more computers in the future, but who on earth would need multiple copies of Halo 3?

I think it is far more likely that MS knows where the money is coming from. Do you really think that Halo 2 did as well as it did solely from the wallet's of fanbois? Without a doubt there were more than a few casual gamers who bought a copy, never mind the countless parents who bought a copy for their little brat.

This ad campaign may not be targeted at anyone who visits Slashdot, but that doesn't mean its money down the drain or "feel-good" money.

Halo 3

[CrazyJim1]

Playing this game will fix dead Xbox 360s.

Re:Halo 3

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, 360 owners are losers and the gaming world is laughing at you.

Red ring of deaths, disc scratching, rebuying new models, the same tired old Halo crap(look! bright lights on shiny green metal! drool...).

Losers. Complete and utter losers.

Re:Halo 3

[Anonymous Coward]

Aww, is somebody grumpy that the best game on their PS3 is a 3 year old port from the XBox?

Oh wait... I forgot, you're probably just annoyed that you're swamped in kittens.

Re:Halo 3

[G Fab]

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 of perfection. Your desire to see one platform destroy the others as evinced by demonizing people who have different preferences is just pathetic.

People who treat other people unfairly, hurt people, who lie, etc... are losers. People who work hard and come home to play a game they personally wanted are what makes the world fun. This weird fanboy fight thing reflects on you, not on the people enjoying their products. But for the 360 the PS3 would be crap and vice versa. But for the PS2, there would be no Wii. But for the N64 the PS1 would not have been so full of variety. You should love the fact that people are buying the 360, even if you play a different platform. Even PCs benefit a hell of a lot from console gaming.

The Nintendo is full of rehashed titles (done very well for the most part), Sony isn't full of rehashed titles but I really wish it were (GT:5 MGS:4 FFXIII will all be the best games on that system).

It's call refinement. You improve as you redo.

How much?

[E-Sabbath]

How much was Bioshock's advertising campaign?
How much advertising did they get?

Re:How much?

[fishybell]

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.

Re:How much?

[Applekid]

How much was Bioshock's advertising campaign? Clearly not enough to get a story about how much advertising they spent.

I've got an idea to help

[deathtopaulw]

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

Re:I've got an idea to help

[C0rinthian]

For those of us who follow the story, shut up. The Covenant are still bad. The Elites and Hunters left the Covenant.

Yes, I realize how geeky I am.

Re:I've got an idea to help

[OK PC]

They aren't evil, they are just religious nuts!

Re:I've got an idea to help

[C0rinthian]

Well, from my perspective: Any group that is trying to annhiliate my race is bad.

Force multiplier

[Chris Burke]

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.

Re:Force multiplier

[_Sprocket_]

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:Force multiplier

[nEoN nOoDlE]

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...

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

A Look At Halo 3's $10 Million Ad Campaign

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:And Slashdotters care because...

[Anonymous Coward]

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 it to the death and people who think the game is nothing special and will quickly point out a game they think is better -- usually something that's at least 5 years old. Flamewar ensues.

The fourth type are those who go ape-shit insane when someone makes a broad generalization that puts people in one of a few groups. Flamewar ensues.

Re:And Slashdotters care because...

[ThosLives]

The first are people who are indifferent to the Halo franchise

You forgot the category into which I fall, which is "Still disappointed at Bungie for defecting to Microsoft."

Re:And Slashdotters care because...

[poena.dare]

You forgot the category into which I fall, which is "Still disappointed at Bungie for defecting to Microsoft, but I understand you needed the money, on the other hand, you didn't have to be such a big whore about it, ok, I'll bite and buy an Xbox for Halo and Halo2, wait Halo3 requires an Xbox360, in that case Jason Jones can suck my cock."

10 million profit?

[Turn-X Alphonse]

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?

Re:10 million profit?

[archen]

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 buying a new console you'd consider a Xbox360 first since everyone is talking about Halo, and you only get that on the 360.

Honestly I think 10 million on such a campaign is ridiculous, but this is probably proof that gaming is big business now - with nearly as much weight as the movie and music industries.

Re:10 million profit?

[east coast]

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.

Come back and question the motivation when you've made as much cash as Coke has without advertising your cola.

Re:10 million profit?

[revengebomber]

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? Microsoft makes toilet paper under the brand "Windows".

Re:10 million profit?

[The One and Only]

For some reason, I'm reminded that I like Coca-Cola. Mmm, Coca-Cola.

Re:10 million profit?

[d0rp]

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).

Re:10 million profit?

[Kwirl]

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 with some trend history from previous halo launches kind of points in that direction. Even if those numbers ARE dramatic, something that triggers a relatively large increase in stock value, even temporary could mean a lot to someone holding on to tons of shares of microsoft that wants to unload afterwards to turn a quick dime.

Re:10 million profit?

[Sean Riordan]

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. :-)

Marketing Over Substance

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft is mocking the gaming industry with their Halo 3 marketing campaign.

They are essentially telling the gaming world we don't even need a decent game to sell millions.

If you take away the fact that Halo is Microsoft only real exclusive franchise of any significance you are left with an incredibly mediocre set of games that have lived of massive hype and little substance.

Graphically the Halo games have never been very good relative to other fps on all other platforms. The Halo games appeal to the fairly niche crowd of US PC gamers who think the pinnacle of graphics is making things look shiny. Shiny metal everywhere 24/7/365 appears to be the Bungie philosophy.

Now with Halo 3 they are easily at the bottom of the barrel graphically compared to all other games out in 2007. Halo 3 looks like Halo 2 with a bump up in resolution. The same silly shiny metal that most gamers stop being impressed with years ago once again is the focus.

While the rest of the gaming world has moved on to modern rendering techniques like skin, facial animation, hair, cloth and clothings, sweat for characters, Bungie remains stuck in last gen with a character that is conveniently completely covered in the cheap to render shiny metal suit.

With games like Crysis and Killzone 2 out there right now Halo 3 makes all of those claims from developers about the 360 being nothing more than an Xbox 1.5 ring true.

I guess when you have the ability to throw insane amounts of money at marketing you really don't need to bother making a decent piece of console hardware or even a game that is in the same graphical generation as the competition.

Re:Marketing Over Substance

[valathax]

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/ It is clear that when the colors on Halo 3 are desaturated the graphics look much better.

Re:Marketing Over Substance

[Pojut]

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...

If you take away the fact that Halo is Microsoft only real exclusive franchise of any significance you are left with an incredibly mediocre set of games that have lived of massive hype and little substance.

Right, because Sony has never had a title with massive hype and little substance.

Graphically the Halo games have never been very good relative to other fps on all other platforms. The Halo games appeal to the fairly niche crowd of US PC gamers who think the pinnacle of graphics is making things look shiny. Shiny metal everywhere 24/7/365 appears to be the Bungie philosophy.

While I agree that comparitively Halo has never been the graphics champion, it most certainly does NOT appeal to PC gamers...in fact, ask most long-time PC FPS players and they will respond with things ranging from "halo sucks" to "it's decent but not really that special"

Now with Halo 3 they are easily at the bottom of the barrel graphically compared to all other games out in 2007. Halo 3 looks like Halo 2 with a bump up in resolution. The same silly shiny metal that most gamers stop being impressed with years ago once again is the focus.

Not really. Load up a couple of pictures of Halo 2, and then load up some pictures of Halo 3 on IGN...not pictures of the beta (because in the beta they WERE using Halo 2 models and textures), actual in-game shots of Halo 3 single player. Again, not the most fantastic graphics out there, but they still have quite detailed textures and some very nice looking particle effects going on. Then again, Halo's artwork never strived for "ultra-real".

While the rest of the gaming world has moved on to modern rendering techniques like skin, facial animation, hair, cloth and clothings, sweat for characters, Bungie remains stuck in last gen with a character that is conveniently completely covered in the cheap to render shiny metal suit.

Right, because when you are fighting in a futuristic war with lord knows what kind of weapons and radiation, you want to be wearing cloth and have skin exposed.

With games like Crysis and Killzone 2 out there right now Halo 3 makes all of those claims from developers about the 360 being nothing more than an Xbox 1.5 ring true.

Links? Quotes? Just look at the massive difference between Fight Night Round 3 on Xbox compared to on 360...

I guess when you have the ability to throw insane amounts of money at marketing you really don't need to bother making a decent piece of console hardware or even a game that is in the same graphical generation as the competition.

You keep talking about graphics...that does say quite a lot about you as a gamer. Ironically, it puts you in the same group as the very people you were railing against in the beginning of your post.

Just to preempt you, yes I am a fanboy. A fanboy of video games. I own an Atari 2600, NES/SNES/N64/Gamecube/Wii, GBA, Genesis, PS1/PS2/PS3, PSP, Dreamcast, Xbox/Xbox 360, and a respectable gaming PC.

Play as many games on as many different platforms as you can. Being a brand whore only limits what you as a gamer get to experience. But hey, that's your decision.

Too bad...

Re:Marketing Over Substance

[Anonymous Coward]

Who knew you could post to Slashdot from a fast food register...

Re:Marketing Over Substance

[Pojut]

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...

Re:Marketing Over Substance

[Stormwatch]

in fact, ask most long-time PC FPS players and they will respond with things ranging from "halo sucks" to "it's decent but not really that special"

Maybe PC gamers just aren't used to play games with proper game controllers. ;)

Re:Marketing Over Substance

[Pojut]

That is the biggest flamebait I have EVER read

Re:Marketing Over Substance

[Anonymous Coward]

You and anyone else who believes this are retarded. Just look through your own photo album. Look for the times you went to the beach or an amusement park on a bright and sunny day, and note the bright colors everywhere. Are those photographs somehow "less realistic"? That doesn't make any fucking sense. It's one thing to defend a game title because you're a flaming retarded fan boy. It's another thing to invent some bizarre psychology that doesn't even stand up to casual assault (the home photo album test I just mentioned) to try and defuse other people's contention that the game "doesn't look that good", which probably stems more from the art direction than the actual technical graphical quality of the title.

How about Europe?

[trillex]

I'm an European person and I have never seen any sign of advertisement. Are we really not that important?

Re:How about Europe?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not that Europe isn't that important but with your UID being so high you're less likely to be taken seriously. Find a European user with a lower UID and maybe you'll get a better response.

Re:How about Europe?

[I'm Don Giovanni]

You guys used to rule the world, but you killed off much of your "importance" with WWI, and finished yourselves off with WWII. Hey, it happens.

Math time

[Plocmstart]

$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.

Re:Math time

[DesertBlade]

But with out advertising they ould have only sold 500,000 copies.

Re:Math time

[ajanp]

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 make the 1/6 ratio you mentioned above significantly different.

And to add to the fuzziness... Halo 3 is also a console-selling game... they are spending 10 million in marketing to sell a game that will also sell a console. Assuming the marketing is done even remotely right (and seriously... the game sells itself... MSFT bashing aside... they could screw it up and it still won't hurt sales too much at this point), then they are likely to have an increase in console sales. People who were on the line about getting a second console (basically people who bought a wii) or getting their first console might be convinced that this is the time to get a 360. Either way, Halo3 is a big enough title that it's going to sell both a large volume in the game itself, but it will also boost sales for the Xbox 360 console for an extended period of time (including Christmas time at which point all stores will be fully stocked with both the console and the game)... and... well... that makes the prediction/fuzziness/math even harder to pinpoint.

Considering how strong the competition is and the fact that they will undoubtedly make a strong profit margin on this game, spending 10 million to promote it seems perfectly fine considering more money on advertising will eat away at people's willpower (to buy both the game and the console) much more than a $10 price cut would.

Concept of 'evil' is alive and well on Slashdot...

[mattgreen]

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. :)

What Ad Campaign???

[newgalactic]

I haven't seen a single commercial on TV ...hope they kept their receipt.

Re:What Ad Campaign???

[toleraen]

Been to a place that sells soda recently? I'm guessing PepsiCo didn't make a new (arguably disgusting) flavor of Mountain Dew for free.

Re:What Ad Campaign???

[newgalactic]

...Oh, I forgot about the soda "End-Cap". Sounds like money well spent.

Redundant? Redundant?!?

[AnotherHiggins]

How can the first comment posted be moderated as redundant?

"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:Redundant? Redundant?!?

[UbuntuDupe]

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.

[M]ake casual fans interested

[Dorceon]

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?"

Re:Concept of 'evil' is alive and well on Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

So are you saying that Slashdot is inhabited by 5 year-olds now? Add nine years. You know what, make that eight.

Iris sucked (server dont let me get my prize...)

[Doug52392]

I was in Iris, and was ripped off. I hapeen to be on my computer when Server 4 opened, got a key, but when I tried logging in with my Windows Live ID to claim my prize, it says "Server Error in /tr89ex application". NOO! This entire artical is a lie, Microsoft, the masterminds of sucking money out of everyone, spent next to nothing on Iris.

$10 surcharge

[Anonymous Coward]

1 mil. pre-orders, 10 mil. ad-campaign... so nice to know you get to pay ~$10 surcharge for the game you've been waiting for that they need to cram down your throat and waste your time by advertising.

Re:$10 surcharge

[nonos]

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...

Re:$10 surcharge

[Anonymous Coward]

What surcharge? Pre-ordering at basically any decent retail outlet goes toward the price of the unit. There is no surcharge, unless you really ARE getting ripped off. At most stores, pre-ordering is literally guaranteeing a copy of the game for free, with no strings attached, other than having to plop down a percentage of the final total while you're there (which is usually always refundable, in cash, even if you don't pick up the game).

Unless you're an investment guru who's claiming you could invest that $5-$10 for those months and make a return, there's really no cons to pre-ordering.

Bad Product tie-ins

[RyoShin]

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...