E3: Sega’s Marketing and Internet Strategy

A modem, massive promos, and a re-confirmed price? What more could you ask for? Here’s the article from Next Generation:

Sega has confirmed today that it will include the modem with the Dreamcast when it releases the machine on September 9, 1999. The modem will be 56K, and will be included in the price of $199.

So far there is no announcement of any pack in of a game with the machine, though a Sega source says that with the modem included a game is “highly unlikely.”

Sega’s current software line-up has 15 titles at launch. When E3 opens tomorrow morning, there will be 46 games for the Dreamcast on the show floor — a step up, Sega crows, from the PlayStation’s 8 titles when it launched.

Bernie Stolar, COO of Sega of America, has also confirmed that there are now 60,000 preorders of the Dreamcast. Sega now is estimating internally that the system will have 300,000 preorders by the time it ships.

Sega of America has also unveiled its marketing plan, at least in part, coming to a head with a primary sponsorship of the MTV Music Video Awards, which will be broadcast on 9/9/1999, the day the platform ships.

The company will also have a heavy duty TV ad buy, with more than 950 TV spots in rotation from July, 1999 to March, 2000.

In addition to all of that, Sega has allied with Pepsi for a pre-movie trailer called “Hot Topics.”

The trailers will focus on what’s hot in pop culture, with two pieces promoted: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s next film and the Sega Dreamcast. The trailers will be a light-down affair, running before other previews, and will be appearing before movies like Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace and Wild, Wild, Wild West.

The trailers will appear on 11,000 screens nationwide, will start in July and will run until March.

I am asking a friend, who will be seeing The Phantom Menace, to look out for any Dreamcast promos. If you are going to see TPM and see a DC promo, please notify me ASAP.

This post was originally written for TSSZ News.