The marketing wheels at Microsoft Corp are grinding into motion as the
software giant gears up to launch its Xbox video game console, which it
envisions not only as a gaming machine but an entertainment hub for the home.
With less than a month to go before the Nov. 15 debut of Microsoft's big foray
into the $20 billion-a-year global video game market, the company is marshaling
everything from Mexican food to 18-wheel trucks to preach the Xbox gospel,
executives said on Friday. ``On the marketing side it's all about building
buzz,'' said Robbie Bach, Microsoft's ``Chief Xbox Officer'', told Reuters in an
interview.
The first advertisements are just now starting to appear in gaming magazines,
marking the beach-head of a half-billion-dollar campaign to sell the Xbox over
the next year and a half. Soon, ads on youth-oriented television stations like
MTV and WB will start beaming the message to legions of potential buyers, mostly
the 15-to-25-year-old males Microsoft sees as its key audience.
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