Sega serves up £1m ad campaign

Virtua Tennis 4 has been backed by a 1m marketing plan to ensure it’s a smash hit with gamers.

The Sega sports title will benefit from a series of online, TV and print advertisements around the game’s release on Friday, April 29th, the day of the Royal Wedding. Ads will also run throughout Wimbledon.

TV activity kicks off on Monday, April 25th, with 20 and 30-second spots running on Channel 4, E4, Sky Sports, Sky, ITV2 and ITV4. Online activity will appear on specialist games websites while magazine ads will be printed in Sport.

Virtua Tennis 4 – the first game in the series to feature motion controls on Xbox 360 Kinect and PS3 Move – will be promoted further from June 20th to July 3rd. It will hit PC later this year.

With over a million pounds invested in marketing, this is our biggest spend on a Virtua Tennis title to date,” Sega’s senior product manager Anna Downing told MCV.

Activity will create awareness at release, with a second execution to capitalise on grand slam fever during Wimbledon.”

This year also marks Virtua Tennis’ tenth anniversary after arriving on arcades in 1999 before heading to consoles. The latest game is out before the bank holiday weekend.

The No.1 tennis series is releasing on what is a pretty significant date,” added Downing. For many, that will be the Royal Wedding, but for gamers it signifies the start of the gaming tennis season, and with the bank holiday a few extra hours of play.

Virtua Tennis 4 is the only tennis game to include motion control functionality across all platforms.”