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Microsoft is gearing up for a massive marketing push to launch Kinect — a controller-free Wii-killer for the Xbox — and blow away the competition come Christmas.
Backed by a half-billion-dollar budget, the tech giant is rolling out a major movie-style marketing blitz aimed at driving its motion-sensing device to the top of holiday wish lists.
Like a much anticipated summer blockbuster, Kinect will appear on everything from soda cans to cereal boxes and will span television, magazines and the Internet.
The company began planning the launch 18 months ago with the help of Hollywood producer Steven Spielberg.
Microsoft, which has fallen behind competitors in areas such as smartphones and tablet computers, wants to ensure Xbox remains a major player in the video game business.
“Kinect is the largest, most integrated marketing initiative in Xbox history, bigger than its launch,” said Robert Matthews, general manager of global marketing communications for Xbox. “We are going to be spending millions to launch this globally.”
Microsoft launched Xbox in July 2000 with a $500 million marketing campaign, but part of that went to subsidies to make the hardware more affordable.
This time around Microsoft has struck a promotional partnership with Burger King. Roughly 400 million cans of Pepsi and Diet Pepsi will plug Kinect, along with 60 million cereal and snack boxes from Kellogg’s.
Meanwhile, some 7,000 retailers will stay open past midnight on Nov. 4 — the day Kinect goes on sale — to stimulate demand.
Kinect uses a sensor, camera and microphone to detect players’ movements and translate them into on-screen actions, such as kicking a ball, dancing and driving a race car. The device will also respond to voice commands, such as “play a movie.”
Unlike with other consoles, including the Nintendo Wii, on which Kinect is modeled, there is no handset. As an Xbox attachment, Kinect costs $149 for just the sensor and $299 for the console and sensor bundle.
Kinect will take over YouTube’s home page and have a big presence on Nickelodeon and Disney digital properties. Microsoft, with the help of its media-buying agency, Universal McCann, is spending ad dollars in places it doesn’t normally to target moms as well as kids.
TV spots, created by AgencyTwoFifteen, will pop up on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” next Monday and on Fox’s “Glee.”
The print ad buy includes titles such as “People” and “InStyle,” among others. Microsoft’s Xbox team is also organizing a major outdoor event in Times Square, where many of the huge billboards will show Kinect ads.
The new device will face off against many other rivals, including the just launched Sony PlayStation Move bundle and perennial favorite Nintendo Wii.
The launch should help goose an industrywide slowdown in both video game hardware and software.
According to the latest NPD Group data, videogame hardware sales across the industry were down 19 percent in September compared to the same month a year ago.
So far this year, hardware sales are down 13 percent, to $3 billion, while video game software is off 8 percent to $4.93 billion.