Marketing and Promotion

I'm looking forward to the day when the iTest can market and promote itself and its competitions to the level that Fortune 500 companies do leading up to a major product launch.

Take a quick look at everything Microsoft is doing to ensure the success of its vaunted Halo 3 launch, occurring in September just like the 2007 iTest (courtesy of Microsoft promotion blog/marketing vehicle Gamerscore):

- Mountain Dew will unveil the first beverage co-branded with a video game, Mountain Dew Game Fuel. Game Fuel has the same great taste of Mountain Dew with an invigorating blast of citrus cherry flavor and added caffeine for maximum intensity. Game Fuel will come in 20-ounce bottles, 2-liter bottles and 12-packs of 12-ounce cans and will be available nationwide for a limited time starting Aug. 13, 2007.
- In a few select markets, Mountain Dew will offer a special-edition aluminum bottle of Mountain Dew Game Fuel with an exclusive design created by Bungie Studios, the developers of Halo 3. This bottle will be available in very limited quantities, making it a highly sought-after collector’s item.
- 7-Eleven today confirmed its plans to support the launch of Halo 3 through a variety of in-store promotions, including three Halo 3-branded collectible Slurpee cups. In addition,7-Eleven will run a Halo 3 promotion with Mountain Dew Game Fuel and Doritos, with thousands of Halo 3-themed prizes, including, as grand prize, a chance to win a minor role as a voice actor in the upcoming Xbox 360 video game, Halo Wars, by Ensemble Studios.
- Pontiac will host Pontiac Gamers Garage events in select locations, providing consumers with a chance to play the game for the first time before its release. In addition, in support of the launch of its upcoming high-performance G6 GXP Street, Pontiac is offering 1,000 consumers a chance to win a copy of the game; one lucky gamer will win a limited-edition Halo 3 G6 GXP Street car.
- Burger King Corp. will continue its sponsorship of Xbox 360 with national, in-restaurant support from Sept. 24 through Oct. 22. Halo 3-themed packaging will offer customers access to exclusive content by logging on to http://www.bk.com/halo3 beginning Sept. 23. Graphics will be featured on select packaging, including the 42-ounce cup and King FRYPOD.
- Comcast has also joined the Halo 3 campaign and will host exclusive video content, including user-generated movies and machinima, on its Web sites http://gameinvasion.net and http://www.ziddio.com. Comcast will also feature standard- and high-definition Halo 3 videos on its signature ON DEMAND service.
- Halo 3 is also the official sponsor of the Projekt Revolution tour this summer, which includes bands Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance. Exclusive Halo 3 VIP events will take place in select cities on the tour, where attendees will receive Halo 3-themed merchandise and have an opportunity to meet the members of Linkin Park.

This is the standard of excellence the iTest needs to emulate. Doesn't matter that we're a non-profit and Microsoft is a massive very-much-for-profit. They do good work and their product tie-ins and marketing ploys are good stuff.

Wouldn't it be a huge success, in and of itself, if marketing tools were used to get more and more high school students to participate in math? Or academic competitions in general?