X-1: Microsoft's Advertising Juggernaut 

Ready or not, the Xbox is coming. Microsoft’s video game console is gearing up to hit the U.S. market full-force for its November 8 release. And already the first winds have been felt from the impending Xbox advertising hurricane of epic proportion.

Microsoft has recently entered into market-saturating advertising deals with SoBe drinks, Taco Bell, and Vans sneakers. The company is preparing to unleash a record-breaking $500 million advertising blitz priming to sack the PlayStation-dominated U.S. gaming market with Jevon Kearse ferocity.

Bill Gates needs all the exposure he can get for his foray into the console wars. At $299.99 for just the system itself, gamers have to be convinced that the Xbox is a worthwhile investment. Especially on the heels of the announcement of special enticements for retailers selling the initial shipment of Xboxes in bundles at around $500 bucks a pop.

That steep cost hasn’t seemed to deter hard-core gamers from their interest in purchasing an Xbox. Toys R Us has already sold out its online pre-order of bundles in a ridiculously short 30 minutes. That’s impressive considering the Xbox is facing tough competition from the much less expensive and equally impressive Nintendo GameCube, which will be released one week after the Xbox.

Electronics Boutique has stopped taking pre-orders, too. The 1.5 million or so Xbox units should be long gone by the end of that first week. But like all hardware producers, Microsoft will be aiming to attract gamers to its true cash cow: the software.

That’s where the big deals come in. Taco Bell is Microsoft’s largest sponsorship endeavor by far. Taco Bell will feature the Xbox in its upcoming television commercials. And the next time you need to feed that chalupa craving, expect to run into prominent Xbox displays in the close to 7,000 Taco Bells nationwide.

SoBe’s Love Bus tour will carry along Xboxes for the ride, which anybody can play for free. Started this month; the eight-strong bus fleet will travel around the country the next 90 days stopping from town to town, at music and other outdoor events.

In a major coup, Gates torpedoed the PlayStation’s hull of console market-share supremacy by signing away the Vans Triple Crown series of extreme games competitions from Sony. This is a major sponsorship event that Sony has been a part of the last two years until their contract expired. Microsoft joins Mountain Dew and Rolling Stone magazine in bringing product awareness to the valuable 14-to-24-age crowd that generally attends the Vans events.

The Vans pact is for a reported seven figures over the next three years, small change for Mr. Bill. If the Xbox gains a foothold in the minds of all those extreme fans, then it will be money worth spent.

Not relying just on the Vans and SoBe tours, Mr. Bill is also launching his own inflatable arcade excursion trekking to 40 major cities this fall, loaded with Xboxes for free play. Combining the deals and tours with the continually updated Xbox Web site, Microsoft is expecting the enormous Xbox exposure to generate sales dollars.

Don’t think advertising ain’t important to carry a name brand into the consciousness of the gaming public, Bub. Without the Japanese market of gamers, who can’t get their hands onto the Xbox until early 2002, Mr. Bill is relying on the heavy concentration of advertising in the U.S. market to thrust his Xbox prolifically into the gaming sphere.

It’s worked for the other success stories of video game days gone by. Sony’s unofficial mascot Crash Bandicoot’s commercials helped create the PlayStation’s image as a rebel with a cause: the domination of the console world. PlayStation now controls an obscene 70% of the console market.

Over a decade ago, Sega’s scream (SEGA!) was one of the most successful advertising campaigns ever to hit the gaming market. Everybody was familiar with the quirky commercials that ended with the memorable SEGA! It helped carry Sega’s Genesis into the top spot of the 16-bit marketplace. Do you think Sega would have lasted as long as it did in the hardware business without screaming its way to the top of the 16-bit console mountain?

Nintendo is no stranger to successful advertising either. My favorite Nintendo ad is the hilarious commercial for Super Smash Brothers, where mascot-like versions of the game’s characters start pounding each other after skipping along in seeming harmony to the song "So Happy Together". And the instantaneously recognizable flagship character Mario is so ingrained into the minds of gamers and non-gamers alike that Nintendo is a marketing force with little effort, especially in Japan.

But even with all the money Mr. Bill will be spending shilling his game machine, it still comes down to the one thing that Sony, Nintendo, and Sega have had: game quality. The Xbox system and games better be good. Players won’t support a system without a stable of top-flight titles to choose from, especially with PS2 and GameCube as alternate gaming options.

Gates wants to be the top dog in the console market. Let’s see if his Xbox has the bite to match the loud bark of $500 million in advertising.

Next month: Microsoft’s X Games

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