Halo 3 Marketing is Supreme

Halo 3's creative use of limited availability is a master stroke in today's over-stimulated marketing world. Let me explain how Microsoft's Halo 3 marketing campaign completely impacted my 13 year old son's life, and made him a fan of Halo 3's for life.

Several weeks ago, he found out that he could only obtain a copy of the exciting new video game by preordering it. This meant he needed to head down to his local video game store and, for $5, reserve his own copy of Halo 3 when it came out 9/25/07. He was quite excited knowing that he had gone through the process that 80% of his friends hadn't.

Then, yesterday, on the launch date of Halo...he could barely concentrate. School dragged on and all he could think about, and talk about with his friends, was getting his copy of Halo 3 after school. He had worked himself and his posse into a feverish pitch.

After school, I drove him back to the store and when we entered the store the lines were 7-10 people deep and there was excitement in the air. We waited our 15 minutes in line, and then finally, he had his copy. On the way home, we saw some of his friends, and he bragged to them that indeed, he had it!

Long story short, he's been playing it since he brought it home and it's all he and his friends ever talk about. Man, does Microsoft know how to create a buzz around a product or what? Seriously, would my son be even close to this level of excitement if the product had just been launched to the mass market?

I'll be talking about this more in my next issue of Marketing Tips and Tools  but for now, let's leave it at this: One way to generate demand for your product or service, is to make it appear more scarce than it really is.  Just like Microsoft's Halo did.