LADYDRAGON.COM - Xbox Launches First Television Advertising Campaign on MuchMusic Tonight

Thursday September 06, 2001

Xbox Launches First Television Advertising Campaign on MuchMusic Tonight

Microsoft Canada Co. today announced it will launch its first television advertising campaign for the highly anticipated Xbox video game system. Set to air tonight on MuchMusic during the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, the new Canadian commercials will be the first Xbox television advertising to air anywhere across the globe.

"Xbox is going to change people’s perceptions about gaming forever and this theme is reflected in our new television advertising campaign," says Ryan Mugford, Marketing Lead – Xbox, Microsoft Canada Co. "With our recent sponsorship of the iDance Toronto electronic music festival combined with our commercials appearing on MuchMusic we are implementing a surround-sound approach to our marketing communications plans to reach our target audience across a multitude of communications platforms they regularly access."

Xbox will showcase three separate, 30-second commercials created exclusively in Canada as part of the company’s marketing strategy for Xbox. The original creative commercials feature a prophet who has received the message of how Xbox will change gaming forever, and then begins to deliver this message to consumers. Xbox worked closely with Toronto-based MacLaren McCann to develop the commercial sequence that focuses on building awareness for the new brand launching across North America on November 8^th.

"By choosing to premier our new television advertising campaign on MuchMusic, we have an excellent opportunity to reach our core Canadian gamers who love music," continues Mugford.

Xbox offers unprecedented sound and audio capabilities in the video game console sphere including unparalleled graphics, broadband multi-player capabilities and 256 channels of audio with 64 channels in 3D.

Microsoft aims to spark widespread interest in Xbox titles with its diverse launch line-up across a variety of genres. In Halo, gamers battle aliens on a mysterious ring-world with the objective of uncovering Halo’s horrible secrets and destroying mankind’s sworn enemy. In Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee, players make their way through the trials of Oddworld. Project Gotham Racing is a circuit-based racing game where players compete in photo-realistic downtown environments. In Amped, players experience freestyle riding down real mountain slopes with the goal of becoming one of the world’s snowboarding superstars.

About Xbox

Xbox is Microsoft’s future-generation video game system that delivers the most powerful games experiences ever. Xbox empowers game artists by giving them the technology to fulfill their creative visions as never before, creating games that blur the lines between fantasy and reality.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software – any time, any place and on any device.