Saints Row Goes for All-Out Marketing Blitz

If you haven’t got a clue as to what Saints Row is… wait till the pre-release marketing blitz begins. THQ announced that it’s not scrimping on its marketing budget for their hotter-than-hell Xbox 360 title. In fact, the global “buy-me” campaign is expected to be in the multi-million dollar level.

While Saints Row is set to explode on the Xbox 360 this August 29, the game’s Buzz Factory has been going on for quite sometime now. It kicked off with a highly successful pre-order DVD campaign and the release of a single player online demo that got  a record 350,000 downloads in its first week at the Xbox Live Marketplace.

That’s just the warm up. Today, THQ launches its worldwide advertising campaign with an exclusive Saints Row sneak preview during the season premiere of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV. To give you an idea of how serious THQ is about its promotion:

• Television ads in seven countries
• In-theater activity across Europe and Asia Pacific, including on-screen advertising and game kiosk placement for tailored retail and press events
• Print advertising in game enthusiast publications and men’s/lifestyle outlets
• Online campaigns targeting the mass-market consumer as well as grass roots level
• Video vignettes on game enthusiast web-sites highlighting varied game modes
• Online previews based on pre-release game versions
• Varied retail campaigns with multiple global partners
• A pre-order DVD featuring a game demo, “making of,” original music tracks and Marketplace icons and themes
• Select retail stores opening at midnight on August 29 for the game’s release
• Saints Row bundled with Xbox 360 hardware in France
• T-shirt deal with Headline Entertainment placing custom shirts in outlets such as Hot Topic
• A mobile marketing campaign that takes advantage of THQ’s Wireless SMS capabilities
• Daily updates on saintsrow.com

Rumors have it that THQ wanted to put up a billboard on the big enough to be seen from Earth through binoculars but then that would be beyond “global marketing”.

If you haven’t got a clue as to what Saints Row is… wait till the pre-release marketing blitz begins. THQ announced that it’s not scrimping on its marketing budget for their hotter-than-hell Xbox 360 title. In fact, the global “buy-me” campaign is expected to be in the multi-million dollar level.

While Saints Row is set to explode on the Xbox 360 this August 29, the game’s Buzz Factory has been going on for quite sometime now. It kicked off with a highly successful pre-order DVD campaign and the release of a single player online demo that got  a record 350,000 downloads in its first week at the Xbox Live Marketplace.

That’s just the warm up. Today, THQ launches its worldwide advertising campaign with an exclusive Saints Row sneak preview during the season premiere of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV. To give you an idea of how serious THQ is about its promotion:

• Television ads in seven countries
• In-theater activity across Europe and Asia Pacific, including on-screen advertising and game kiosk placement for tailored retail and press events
• Print advertising in game enthusiast publications and men’s/lifestyle outlets
• Online campaigns targeting the mass-market consumer as well as grass roots level
• Video vignettes on game enthusiast web-sites highlighting varied game modes
• Online previews based on pre-release game versions
• Varied retail campaigns with multiple global partners
• A pre-order DVD featuring a game demo, “making of,” original music tracks and Marketplace icons and themes
• Select retail stores opening at midnight on August 29 for the game’s release
• Saints Row bundled with Xbox 360 hardware in France
• T-shirt deal with Headline Entertainment placing custom shirts in outlets such as Hot Topic
• A mobile marketing campaign that takes advantage of THQ’s Wireless SMS capabilities
• Daily updates on saintsrow.com

Rumors have it that THQ wanted to put up a billboard on the big enough to be seen from Earth through binoculars but then that would be beyond “global marketing”.