• by John Gaffney , May 3, 2002

Microsoft’s recent multi-front promotional plan for the X-Box gaming platform has emerged as a key strategy as the brand competes against Nintendo and Sony for market and mind share among teens.

“If we’re going to win in the game space we’re going to win by reaching the consumer in a real and creative way,” says X-Box group manager of national consumer promotions and sponsorship Cindy Spodek-Dickey. “We’re not going to win by following in someone else’s footsteps.”

X-Box will team up with several major brands and partners over the spring and summer to promote the gaming platform. Among the partners: the Pop Disaster Tour, featuring blink-182 and Green Day; the Number One Parts Inc. (NOPI) drag racing series; Pepsi's new SoBe soft drink, Mr. Green; the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP); Vans extreme sports; and Zumiez, a chain of youth-oriented apparel stores. Spodek-Dickey says the strategy is aimed at hitting teens where they live in the spring and summer, which is on the beach, at the mall and at concerts.

X-Box is locked in a format battle for video games with Nintendo’s GameCube and Sony’s PlayStation. Spodek-Dickey says the current strategy of aligning the brand with compatible partners will be repeated later in the summer and in the fall. It will double as a branding effort as well as a competitive foil

“We’re still building this brand from the bottom up,” she says. “Kids are embracing it as a real and genuine brand. We’re going to associate it with properties are part of the excitement around it. There’s more to come.”

Spodek-Dickey says the alliance with the NOPI Drag Association is exemplary of the kind of effort and partner the brand wants to work with. NOPI drag racers will compete for the X-Box Cup, the year-end trophy awarded to the top points winner of the NOPI Drag Racing Association (NDRA). X-Box will be a series sponsor for the inaugural season of the NOPI The Fast and The Furious Racing Series. A full onsite interactive video games area will be located at each series event, featuring Microsoft Game Studios' "RalliSport Challenge" and "Project Gotham Racing. X-Box also will receive title sponsorship at the premier event in the series and the largest compact auto show in the United States, the NOPI Nationals Motorsports Supershow.

The cross-promotion with Pepsi’s SoBe brand may yield the most media exposure among all the X-Box deals. SoBe is launching a new flavor called “Mr. Green.” X-Box consumer and Mr. Green drinkers will get an exclusive chance to win a rare green X-Box unit by entering a contest on the Mr. Green website, http://www.mrgreen.com. In addition, X-Box consoles, games and accessories will be given away by three Mr. Green touring vehicles that will travel to 31 cities nationwide offering consumers samples of Mr. Green for approximately 20 weeks.