Ubisoft to spend $10 million on Shaun White ads

Ubisoft is planning to spend USD 10 million in a marketing blitz for its upcoming game, Shaun White Snowboarding, according to Brandweek.com.

The publisher has bought out advertising spots for the first two episodes of the new South Park season on US television. Ubisoft will run three separate two-minute spots for Shaun White Snowboarding, Prince of Persia and Far Cry 2 titles, while the second episode will feature only ads for Shaun White Snowboarding.

"It's the first time they are going to see the game, so we wanted to give them a nice grasp of what it looks like," said Danny Ruiz, associate director of brand marketing. "This is a better alternative to running a bunch of 30-second ads that piss people off because they've seen them so many times."

White, the Olympics gold medallist, will follow up advertising spots by appearing on ESPN's shows to talk about the game throughout November 16. Three days later at 10pm Ubisoft will launch a "White Out" across a variety of channels including: MTV, Spike, Comedy Central and others. During this, the viewers' screens will turn into snow for five seconds, then the two-minute trailer for the game will launch. Ads will also run during the Family Guy and NFL games.

"We're not sure what the return-on-investment will be, but if we follow the traditional route, it will bore our audience," said Ruiz.