It's hard to believe, but the official marketing for Halo 3 began nearly a year ago. It all started with the "Starry Night" commercial that aired in December of 2006. As the first piece of official, mass-marketed material concerning Halo 3, starry night was just the beginning of a very long and carefully orchestrated campaign (of course, if you look back to the trailer from E3 2006, it began even earlier). Brandweek takes a look at the Halo 3 marketing push, which is finally reaching its apex, beginning this week with a unique TV ad campaign -- the first part, "Museum," debuted earlier today. What's so interesting, according to Brandweek, is that most games are beginning their marketing campaign a few weeks prior to launch, whereas Halo 3's push is finally nearing the close. Brandweek's breakdown looks at the Halo 3 beta, Iris, the tangled web of marketing partners, and finally the launch festivities set to begin very soon. It seems like a helluva lot of work for a game millions will buy anyway, but Microsoft contends that such a push is necessary to maintain the appearance of "a big budget, mass media event." It's probably safe to say that such an image has been healthily maintained. All that's left is for Microsoft to deliver a product that lives up to the massive marketing put behind it. Only thirteen days until we find out.

[Via Joystiq]