Justin Bieber Brainwashing Teens to Buy Kinect

[Baldry]

AHHHH OMG OMG OMG JUSTIN BIEBER PLAYS KINECT OMG I WANT ONE!!!! I WANT 4!!!! WE LOVE YOU...Is what will soon happen.

In all seriousness as much as I hate the prepubescent crapbag this is quite a genius piece of advertising, but it happens quite often in the world of advertising.

 

[Treblaine]

LMFAO. It's Final, Kinect is a FAILURE of a product. GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE. YOU GOT HIM ADVERTISING?

Hang on...

The Kinect is a failure of a product, yet it's not even on sale yet, and you've never played it...but it's a failure? You're also implying that Justin Bieber, who is listened to by hundreds of thousands of people who are within the target market will make it worse somehow?

That's the silliest thing I've heard this week.
I'm glad you're not in-charge of any type of marketing.

I'm really disappointed by the response in this news post.
It's very smart marketing, plain and simple. If you don't like Bieber, that just means you weren't in the target demographic for this marketing stunt. And I fail to see how his marketing Kinect makes it worse. Does that mean the PSP sucks because I can't stand that Marcus kid? That doesn't make any sense.

If you don't like that fact that people are buying things because a celebrity was seen using one, then you'll have to rage on 90% of products out there. It's marketing, and it's not isolated to one product or celebrity. That's just the way it works.

If anyone was persuaded to buy a PS3 (Or PS3 game) because of the charming Kevin Butler commercials, it's the exact same crap. A spokesman appealed to a certain type of person, they liked the sales pitch, they bought the product. That's how it goes.

Your personal opinions, and mine, of Justin Beiber and his music aside, I can't see how anyone can deny this isn't smart marketing. Microsoft wants to reach out to the non-gamer community, and the Justin Beiber fans are probably right square in the middle of that. That's good marketing. It's good exposure, it's a good endorsement, it's smart marketing.

Geez, guys.

Depends largely on pricing, if the Kinect + Xbox bundle goes for much more than $250 then it has poor chances against the Wii and could lead to a fundamental split between Xbox owners, to the point where developers don't know what demographic they are selling to any more.

I wouldn't want to get into a price war with Nintendo, they have been making huge profits on Wii for years and could cut price and still make profits. I'm pretty sure if Xbox 360 (say the very basic Arcade model) bundled with Kinect for $199, that would still come with a significant loss.

but it seems the Arcade and Elite are being discontinued anyway, both replaced by the $299 "Xbox 360 S" as it is referred to on Microsoft's website. And that is just for the console, even $99 for Kinect, that is a $400 bundle. Apple may be able to sell a product like that but not Microsoft, I don't think Microsoft can convince people it is worth twice as much as Wii.

It is also bad business because it seems to ignore the 40 Million Xbox 360 consoles already sold with Halo and Gears of War as their killer aps, all those people chose 360 over Wii on the mantra of "Xbox is the committed Gamer's gaming console".

 

[rokkolpo]

Bieber is just the ultimate jackpot nowadays to use in advertisement.

just like hannah montana before him, and the jonas brothers before her. and the jackson five wayyyy before that.

 

[are.you.the.god.its.me.vader]

Heck, if the Bieb-ster has one, I need one!

 

[rokkolpo]

yer its your choice

how bout that marcus kid.

he's just as annoying as.....nevermind.

 

[aaronmcc]

Kinect: the games console of frustrated virgins abstinent christians

Can't wait to see Dom and Marcus bust a move as my Kinect dance avatars YAYS!!!

 

[MetalGenocide]

A pop star "stealthily" advertising some product? That's new! LOL

 

[punkrocker27]

Wow, borderline slander! How mature! No offense, Mr. Goldman, but really? Really?

Because he knows the target audience. Try finding a single writer in this site's staff that doesn't have some kind of agenda. This sin't the New York Times you know.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Does this kind of marketing campaign work on anyone really? Celebrity marketing I mean. Yes, it used to be the bomb ten years ago, but haven't people gotten smarter since then? How does watching a celebrity use a product change your view on it in any way? Ok, sure, maybe if you are a 15 year old child half-insane from the hormones you might fall for it, but I thought this was an age where the majority of gamers are over 18. Kinect is a cool-ish but horrendously overpriced gimmick, and I don't think that my opinion would change even if Microsoft reincarnated freaking Mozart to use it in front of a camera. Welcome to the age of reason, Microsoft. Show me a substabtial demonstration of how a "real" game, like Fable 3, utilizes Kinect in a pant-wetting way and I might reconsider. But this...really?

If Microsoft DID reincarnate Mozart, then that probaly would be useful for advertising. Still not buying kinect, but he would probably be a good advertising agent, and the 360 fanboys could attack the PS3 fanboys and the Wii fanboys and say "omg rofl, W3 R31Nc@rn@t3d m0z@rt u n00bz, w3 is b3tt@r th@n u!" And then that could start about 87 flame threads on this very site. Then the fanboys of each console would probably start cyber World War III.

 

[Communist partisan]

I hate Justin Bieber sooooo much and everything that have something to do whith him turns to shit that's so pure so you can use it like soap....

 

[HK_01]

That probably alienates as many potential customers as it attracts.

 

[Sebenko]

Well, fuck, Microsoft.

See? it's going to be popular, and I will be proved right- as I said before, I hate it and want it to die, but that won't happen.

 

[The Austin]

I like it how Justin Beiber's "crew" are acting like gangsters.

You hang out with a kid that works for Disney.
Get over yourself.

 

[The Grim Ace]

Really taking the Nintendo route here and throwing hardcore gamers and really just the average gamer in general out the window. Nintendo at least was well timed, it was tapping into the casual audience, gaming was fresh for them, it was waggling a wiimote but it was a fresh waggle. The Kinect is a bit late to the game to really capture too much in particular with Wii sales slowing down a bit, showing that casual gamers are getting tired of these gimmicks the same as most of us were when this stuff started. Otherwise, for as long as this lasts, let them enjoy it, just why the weird Canadian kid?

 

[soapyshooter]

What a lame marketing move. Most of his fans are tween girls, I doubt their parents will shell out $300 or so for Kinect because some talentless shit uses it