Media Blitz

You may have heard - Halo 3 releases tomorrow. September 25th, 2007 will no doubt go down in history as hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in a single day on a single video game. Nearly everyone knows this, even if they are not familiar with the Halo series of video games, have never played Halo 1 or 2, or don't even know that this "Halo thing" is a video game at all. Why? Because Microsoft has spent millions upon millions of dollars putting Master Chief's (the main character of the Halo games for those few of you who might be unfamiliar with the series) face on anything and everything that they can. Here is a quick photo I found (through flickr) of the limited edition Mountain Dew "Game Fuel" with Master Chief's sexy mug on the front.



From Mountain Dew to TV advertisements to action figures, Halo has been everywhere for the past few weeks. The launch tonight/tomorrow at 12:01 AM has generated an even larger hullabaloo, and everyone wants a part of it. Even Seven-Eleven stores have been taking preorders. The launch at the Times Square Best Buy in New York is the largest, including a Halo 3 branded Pontiac (picture courtesy of Kotaku.com) out front:


What does this mean in terms of digital media and convergence? It shows us a fantastic example of the recent convergence of more traditional advertising methods and new media. Normal advertising techniques of placing brand images on anything and everything (food, cars, etc) are being used to promote an upcoming video game, as well as many online, tv, and even radio ads. Microsoft also started a viral marketing campaign called "Iris" several months ago involving all kinds of interesting new marketing techniques. New media and old - new marketing and old - combine to create a media frenzy like none other to promote what will most likely become the largest media phenomenon ever (a title currently held, as far as I know, by Halo 2). I will be in line to pick up my copy at midnight tonight - will you?