Microsoft Advertising sets sail today with the announcement of a simultaneous three-screen ad campaign for the Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch”. The campaign, which spans MSN, MSN Mobile, Windows Live Hotmail, Microsoft Live Search and Xbox LIVE, is designed to drum up excitement for the premiere of the fifth season of the channel’s reality series about crab fishing in the waters off Alaska.
Discovery chose to devote the show’s entire online ad budget to this campaign. The main ad push will be happening across Microsoft’s Media Network today, when the new season debuts at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the Discovery Channel.
Discovery has purchased more than 90% of the ad inventory on MSNBC, Fox Sports, MSN, MSN Mobile and Xbox LIVE for 4/14 and will feature the first-ever home page conjunction takeover across MSN and MSN Mobile. The campaign will involve a variety of Microsoft-developed video, mobile and interactive media, as well as in-game advertising assets.
Microsoft will also participate in the first-ever CatchCon event – a “Deadliest Catch” one-day fan festival being held at the Bell Harbor Conference Center in Seattle, on April 25. The event will include an Xbox lounge featuring Greenwave’s “Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm” video game for Xbox 360.
