Halo 3: When to Jump on the Viral Bandwagon

One might expect a video game company to beg a huge corporate-sponsored chain like 7-Eleven or Burger King to support its title. However, as AdAge points out, they and others have spent millions to jump on the Halo 3 gravy train.

One of the huge number of promotions included "a short episodic online series" produced by Peter Jackson, after talks of a Halo movie did not come to fruition.


Discovery was able to strike a deal with Microsoft, the publisher of Halo 3, to gain exclusivity on displaying the final episode for one week, starting September 25th - the same day that the game is released, and it will continue to carry their branding afterward. Discovery is using it as a cross-promotional tool for an upcoming series, Last One Standing, which is looking to draw a similar demographic as Halo. Click on the picture above to view the video and promotion.

Not only did Discovery make a wise decision by jumping on the Halo 3 bandwagon, but they joined into an already existing viral promotion that has been proven to draw visitors by the thousands. They didn't have to develop the content, but instead were able to just jump right in. In addition, Microsoft is promoting the video already on msn.com, Facebook and other sites.

And to top it all off, it is believed that they paid a lot less than others to become a part of the Halo promotional entourage. This is the type of "Perfect Storm" that marketers dream about. Good job Discovery!