XBox TV Ad in Canada Tonight (1 Viewer)

[Graeme Clark]

The TV Campaign is starting tonight in Canada with 3 ads during the MTV Video Music Awards.
From TeamXbox.com:

Microsoft Canada 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 plan 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 8th.
"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.

I don't get MM, so I won't be able to see what MS has come up with.
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[Steven_V]

Those three commercials were some of the WORST videogame commercials I've ever seen!

What was MS thinking?

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[Adam Nixon]

Man, they ARE pretty bad. They can be downloaded at Link Removed
You know, for a company that insists it has hardware superiority you would have thought they might actually try to showcase some graphics. Instead, we have these cryptic ads that do nothing to educate the consumer about this machine. If you haven't already heard of the X-box, you're out of the loop. A poor decision by Microsoft, as this campaign does nothing to sell anyone on the X-box.

 

[BrianB]

They're teaser ads - they're not supposed to educate or inform. Instead, they're supposed to create a buzz - "What the heck is XBox??" etc.
I'm sure ads featuring gameplay will come. It's just over two months till release...
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Nothing In Particular

 

[Adam Nixon]

It's one thing to create a "teaser" for a film release. It's quite another to gamble on a product launch as massive as the X-box's. Microsoft does not have any image yet as a console maker, why obscure it even further? If you didn't know what the X-box was, would you have had the least bit of interest in these ads? More than likely people said, "whatever" and went back into the kitchen to get a drink.
The whole point of advertising is to expand your target audience, not cater to a select few that have already sought out your product.
[Edited last by Adam Nixon on September 07, 2001 at 01:56 PM]

 

[Graeme Clark]

Funny that, in one of them, the guy pics up a computer chip (or something like a computer chip) and it changes to a big bug.
What's this supposed to say? Anything computer related that MS touches becomes buggy?
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[Adam Nixon]

LOL!! I didn't think about it like that. I can just see it now: X-box exclusive for Christmas 2002 -- "Stack Overflow"

 

[Dean Cooper]

Heh, I think they did exactly what they were supposed to do. I had three people ask me about the Xbox today because of them. Love the way you saw the bug thing I think its really supposed to represent the ease of turning chunky graphics in to a life like representation.
Dean

 

[Dan B]

Those really remind me of the teasers that Sega ran before launching the Dreamcast. Remember those?
-Dan

 

[BrianB]

Those really remind me of the teasers that Sega ran before launching the Dreamcast.

Heh. Didn't Sega start advertising the Dreamcast with a push at the MTV Video Music Awards in '99 too? Or is my memory playing tricks on me?
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Nothing In Particular

 

[Graeme Clark]

URNOTE
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[Sean Oneil]

Those ads work. Hip, Edgey ...gets the consumer wondering what in the heck is this thing. MacLaren McCann is the agency handeling the X-Box in Canada, and before that (oddly enough) their previous employer was Sony up until early this year. I think that they know what they are doing.
Time will tell, but so far the response seems pretty positive (in terms of system demand)
Odd that the day after these ads were shown, EB online has 'sold out' on pre orders for the X-Box bundles for the time being. They sight an 'overwhelming demand' (always is when that want to make people anxious)

as the cause for the cessation of X-Box bundle pre orders. If you ask me it is all part of the strategy behind marketing the system. I am sure that they will pick up and begin taking pre-orders again soon. At which point people will no-doubt be clammoring to get in a pre-order.
[Edited last by Sean Oneil on September 08, 2001 at 05:57 AM]