Microsoft has been making a big to-do about its upcoming Kinect peripheral, so it's not particularly surprising that the company has set aside a few bucks for marketing. The approximate size of that ad blitz might be enough to turn heads, however. According to the New York Post, Microsoft has set aside about $500 million for Kinect's holiday launch, in a campaign that includes TV spots, online ads, print ads, cereal boxes--you name it. That's an amount that rivals a traditional console launch, according to Microsoft.
"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 has enlisted the help of partners such as Burger King, Pepsi, and Kellogg's to get the message out. To put that in slightly more concrete terms, Pepsi will be emblazoning about 400 million cans of soda with Kinect messaging, and approximately 60 million boxes of Kellogg's cereal and snacks will carry similar ads.
On thing's for sure--it's going to be hard to avoid hearing about Kinect over the next few months. And that's kind of the point, really.