Xbox launched in Europe on 14th March 2002 with an award-winning advertising campaign (developed by Bartle Bogle Hegarty) and online brand experience, playmore.com.  The campaign has been successful in building a consumer brand from scratch - brand tracking studies in Europe conducted by Microsoft show the Xbox brand enjoys a recall rate of 96% among European gamers.

Now that the Xbox installed base is growing and bringing in new Xbox fans outside of the committed gamer segment, new, non-traditional marketing activities are underway.  These initiatives uniquely promote Xbox trialling and will clearly demonstrate the powerful features of Xbox to consumers:

• “Difference” – an interactive DVD showcasing the unique features and abilities of Xbox
• Playmore.com – a revitalisation of the much-lauded Xbox brand experience web site.
• The Xbox MegaCruiser - a unique mobile brand experience for Xbox
• Robbie Williams partnership – Xbox is one of the headline sponsors for Robbie’s first European tour in two years and is working with him on a range of other initiatives

These initiatives are backed by a substantial marketing budget, which will allow Xbox to reach consumers in ways that enable them to see, feel, hear and play for themselves.

“With these initiatives Xbox continues to break new ground as we build our brand in Europe,” said Neil Thompson, European Marketing Director, Xbox.  “As one of the fastest-growing new consumer brands ever launched in Europe, we’ve made great headway into the European consciousness courtesy of our award-winning advertising campaign, which featured the ‘Champagne’ viral piece.  Besides winning a number of prestigious awards, Champagne was one of the most-viewed viral marketing pieces ever – it’s impossible to provide completely accurate figures, but we know that Champagne was downloaded over one million different times from playmore.com and forwarded on many more times.

“But now it’s time to broaden the appeal of the Xbox brand in innovative ways,” said Thompson.  “That’s not to say we won’t continue with activities that had been successful for us, like advertising.  In fact, we have a new viral piece currently making the rounds, called Ear Tennis, that perfectly reflects and expands on the Xbox brand.  All the initiatives seek to break new ground in what we do, whether in delivery or in content.

“Xbox is, simply put, the best value in video game systems available,” said Thompson, “with a strong portfolio of great games and unique features and abilities that offer more of what consumers want.  We wanted to make those advantages clear to all consumers in Europe, in a way that is true to the Xbox brand – playful, inclusive, and innovative.  These three new marketing initiatives do just that, interacting with gamers and further demonstrating the Xbox difference.”

 “Difference”

The unique DVD, created with BBH and entitled ‘Difference’, aims to drive awareness of the superior features of the Xbox.  Two million DVDs will be distributed to potential customers across Europe via specialist magazine cover mounts, direct mail, Xbox trial events, special events such as Stuff Live in the UK and a Vodaphone/Ferrari event in Greece, and through retail partnerships.

The ‘Xbox Difference’ is the unique set of features and abilities that sets Xbox apart from the competition. A built-in hard disc, together with unrivalled graphics and Dolby 5.1 surround sound, revolutionary gameplay, and top-quality DVD playback, lets gamers get even more from their Xbox.  The Xbox Difference is further amplified by the advent of Xbox Live, the revolutionary online gaming service, which will be available in the UK France and Germany later this year.

The “Difference” DVD brings those features to life.  A unique feature of the DVD is that it pauses at regular intervals to give the viewer the opportunity to interact with the film to select content that focuses on one of the product features of the Xbox. These features are grouped together according to the way they amplify the senses:

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• MORE GRAPHICS POWER THAN ANY OTHER CONSOLE: Montage of Xbox games that truly demonstrate state of the art graphics.
• MORE MOVIES. IT’S NOT JUST GAMES - WATCH DVDs TOO: Hollywood movie Trailers (The Hulk and Die Another Day) to show that gamers can view DVDs through Xbox.

Hear More

• MORE ADVANCED SOUND WITH DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1: A trailer for Brute Force that allows you to switch between Dolby 5.1 and standard audio settings so you can hear the difference.
• MORE MUSIC – PUT YOUR FAVOURITE TRACKS INTO OUR GAMES: Video clip to demonstrate that you can rip your own personal music CD’s to the hard disc and playback during gaming.

Feel More

• MORE INNOVATIVE GAMEPLAY THANKS TO THE XBOX HARD DISC: Highlights games that are only possible thanks to the built-in Xbox™ hard disc
• MORE OPPONENTS - PLAY’N’TALK ONLINE WITH XBOX LIVE :Specially shot promotional video for Xbox Live, which also highlights voicemasking
• The world famous game developer, Peter Molyneux, talks exclusively about what makes the Xbox so unique

Additional content includes music videos from Gorillaz, Primal Scream, Fischerspooner and Ministry of Sound, plus game trailers to exclusively preview the awesome games coming soon to Xbox.