Marketing approach from 343i is ingenious

Games Other Halo
1

For those of you who haven’t noticed:

343i is putting together a massively plotted out and wonderful marketing campaign.

Whoever is in charge of Marketing over there at 343i, congrats. You’re good. Damn good.

They did a wonderful job of “stirring up the pot” within both major groups in the gaming community (competitive and casual) and have kept the fire kindling ever since… gaining a lot of hype…

The reason why they are unveiling things slowly is to keep this fire going, baby.

The GI issue caused a lot of chaos within the Halo community…making a huge portion of the community confused or disgruntled about the game… these were addressed weeks later, almost all hope was restored.

They choose exact verbiage when announcing something new, just to stir the pot. Smart.

Keep in mind folks that Microsoft has stated many times that it wants Halo to be the King of Shooters once again. Microsoft will throw money at 343i to accomplish that goal, Halo is Microsoft’s baby, they want to see it prosper once again. This means some serious marketing and advertising campaigns in the near future…As we all know, it isn’t going to be an easy feat beating CoD… but they’re going to sure as hell try!

With smart marketing/advertising strategies the hype will be massive. Microsoft will feed their efforts to make it happen.

I just wanted to congratulate the marketing team over at 343 industries. You guys are doing a great job so far and are gaining massive hype across the board. I’m anxious to see your entire marketing/advertising campaign start to unfold. Hold on to your seats Halo fans, it is going to be a bumpy ride…

I am going for my MBA with a focus on marketing. I love the field, that’s why I got so excited when I realized this is all part of a wonderfully plotted out marketing approach to Halo 4…

Just for reinforcement on what they have said several times: Halo will make a comeback. 343i knows what they are doing. Trust them.

Do you see that little blue word that says “thanks” on the top of this post? Do me a favor and click on that bad boy… :slight_smile:

Topics to Discuss:

Are you as excited as I am to see what 343i will do with their advertising approach and hype building?

Do you think they are doing a good job so far?

What sort of marketing/advertising strategies and events would you like to see from the guys over at 343i?

Do you think that they have nailed this approach to marketing so far?

What’s worked for Halo marketing campaigns in the past? What hasn’t?

Do you think that the team at 343i could be doing something differently with their approach? If so, what would you suggest?

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yeah they are doing great i think the less we know the better the game will be. but if you read all the new books you can piece it together. i just think that when “MC” finds out the oni arrested docter Hasley he is not going to be so happy . and how he was never told that other Spartans aka “kelly” where around left to thing he was the last and he wasn’t . he is gonna be like ffffuuuuuuuuuu.

3

Just wait for a H4 commercial, then they show all the video games who’s boss.

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They want to get word out about the game, what better way than have a bunch passionate loudmouths erupt over a controversy, to get word out, then restore faith in Halo 4 by putting the controversial information into context. This is basically free advertising for Halo 4.

5

Hmm… they’re doing alright I guess.

I’d just really like to see some huge promotions. The kind of crazy advertising campaign that Microsoft could just throw money at; TV spots, drinks, publicity events, viral campaigns online, etc.

I’m not disappointed that I haven’t seen much of this yet. It’s early days! But I’m just saying, it felt like the marketing that Halo 3 had was huge. So it would be sweet if they went all out on this with Halo 4. Not that I’m saying they’re not going to. This is early days. We’ll have to wait and see. :wink:

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I don’t think it would be wise to characterize the frustration going around the forums as hype.

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I think the clip they showed on Conan was an ingenious way to show us the strafing capabilities of the game

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> Hmm… they’re doing alright I guess.
>
> I’d just really like to see some huge promotions. The kind of crazy advertising campaign that Microsoft could just throw money at; TV spots, drinks, publicity events, viral campaigns online, etc.
>
> I’m not disappointed that I haven’t seen much of this yet. It’s early days! But I’m just saying, it felt like the marketing that Halo 3 had was huge. So it would be sweet if they went all out on this with Halo 4. Not that I’m saying they’re not going to. This is early days. We’ll have to wait and see. :wink:

agreed, the hype that was generated for Halo 3 was gigantic, I would venture to say that it was the most hyped up game of all time. People were going nuts about it pre release

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i dont understand why you would want to know so much i mean i want to crap my pants and never see things comeing. sorta like in gears of war you know the part that a brick could have played but they kill dominic anyways stuff like that . blow my pants off please 343

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> I don’t think it would be wise to characterize the frustration going around the forums as hype.

More or less, everyone is waiting for the game. A majority are excited. Whether they’re excited to play the game, or excited to watch it fail, people are anxious to see what happens and what is coming next.

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if your talking about the game then you are hyping it good bad indifferent lol. it is to get you involed with the game and talking and you are .hype is born

12

No publicity is bad publicity

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> > I don’t think it would be wise to characterize the frustration going around the forums as hype.
>
> More or less, everyone is waiting for the game. A majority are excited. Whether they’re excited to play the game, or excited to watch it fail, people are anxious to see what happens and what is coming next.

True, after all most “frustration” is just based on misinterpretation, prejudices and outright lack of though (most, not all). If people would sit down and think for 5 minutes before they entered rage mode, they wouldn’t make fools of themselves when 343i a few days later explains the new info, and shows that “no, once again it seems like they’re professionals doing a great job, not intentionally trying to ruin Halo and getting themselves fired”.
Hate is more often then not based on love, and the fear of loosing that love. Those who complain the loudest people who really care and are afraid to see a bad Halo game, since they would be (somewhat) lost without it. I can agree, having 360 LAN without a good Halo is a pain (Reach ain’t close) but still, Gears and Horde does a decent job. Yet I dare to believe in 343i and Halo, and not let my judgement be clouded before I can see actual gameplay that proves that Halo 4 is bad/a CoD clone/reach 2.0 or what ever…

OnT:
And buzz is good buzz, and 343i need people to talk about Halo, no matter what they say they need people to talk and discuss, since more people will hear about it and take part in the discussion and hence learn of the game and maybe buy it. “Everyone” hates CoD, yet it sells like crazy, same goes for WoW, or any big game.
Ads costs a lot of money, CoD had between 1:3 and 1:5 times more money put into ads then the actual game, Battlefield had something similar.
But still, Tv commercials and magazines are only national, the best way to create a “buzz” and spread the word world wide is free, the word of moth. Any new and potentially upsetting piece of news dropped by 343i gets spread world wide, to people who’s never even played Halo. It’s effective, it’s free, and bad buzz an easily be corrected when the definite info is released, or gameplay, or an interview. Anyhow, people who’s heard about it will search for more info, to know if they heard right, and hence 343i is a winner anyhow.
Great work from a smart marketing team who does not spent money just for fun, but saves it for when it’s needed, and then blows out minds ^^

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Keep in mind folks that Microsoft has stated many times that it wants Halo to be the King of Shooters once again. Microsoft will throw money at 343i to accomplish that goal, Halo is Microsoft’s baby, they want to see it prosper once again. This means some serious marketing and advertising campaigns in the near future…As we all know, it isn’t going to be an easy feat beating CoD… but they’re going to sure as hell try!

With smart marketing/advertising strategies the hype will be massive. Microsoft will feed their efforts to make it happen.

Long live Halo.

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This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not flame or attack other members.

*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

Oh wow, so youre a marketer OP? Explains a lot.

Not a very good one though, because theres a huge flaw in your plan. Deliberately stirring the pot of the existing playerbase over multiplayer minutiae is idiotic, because these are the people who are already well aware of your product, are already invested, and you just risk -Yoink!- them off by being overly cryptic with whats going on. Its pretty obvious theyre gunning for a slice of the COD market (which is huge), and to do that they need to announce features that might appeal to those people. It could be that the vagueness is a balancing act between appealing to the existing HIGHLY FICKLE AND SENSITIVE customer base, and potential customers as they try to capture mindshare from COD, but your original hypothesis is dumb.

> Do you see that little blue word that says “thanks” on the top of this post? Do me a favor and click on that bad boy… :slight_smile:

Nope.

16

I agree. 343i is doing a great job at keeping things under lock and key.

17

Agreed, the marketing campaign is already awesome and will only get more amazing.

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> Just wait for a H4 commercial, then they show all the video games who’s boss.

That will be awesome.

19

I hope Kiki is at E3. Lol.

OT: Yes, they’re doing great. I hope Microsoft pump millions into the franchise.

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> I think the clip they showed on Conan was an ingenious way to show us the strafing capabilities of the game

I noticed that as well. There was a very good reason for showing that clip.