Machinima Make Marketing Deal With Microsoft… In Secret – News
Machinima have launched a campaign where its video partners earn an extra $3 CPM (cost per-thousand views) for posting videos featuring positive content about the Xbox One.
The promotion led by Machinima and Microsoft was leaked to Ars Technica. A Machinima UK community manager also confirmed the offer in a tweet that has since been deleted. To qualify, Machinima’s partners needed to post a video that included at least 30 seconds of Xbox One game footage and that explicitly mentioned the Xbox One, along the tag XB1M13.
The contract also stipulates that video creators are not allowed to say anything negative about the Xbox One or any of its games, nor can they mention any details about the promotion in the first place.
The extent of the promotion is unclear as a lot of YouTube’s content creators have used the tag as a rallying flag, so that they can create a video-rant about the botched promotion. The earliest videos containing the tag, however, are roughly a month old.
While the promotion knocks a lot of confidence in Machinima (who have since apologised for the promotion), it draws a lot of light on to Microsoft’s confidence in its own struggling brand.