Renault is promoting its introduction of the car to the UK with a cross-platform campaign that kicks off this week with a range of activity across Microsoft's media properties.
Ads promoting the model will run through Xbox Live games including TOCA Race Driver 3, NeedForSpeed, Trackmania United, PGR4 and Juiced. This week will also see MSN homepage takeovers by Renault, as well as banner advertising on sections including MSN Cars.
The deal was brokered by media agency Carat Digital and Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, and represents the most extensive use of Microsoft UK's in-game ad offering.
Microsoft bought in-game advertising specialist Massive in May last year for an undisclosed fee. Since then, Microsoft has promoted in-game as a key advertising channel within its network.
Renault is targeting young males with the launch of the Twingo. Amanda Mahoney, account director at Carat, said that Renault had been wanting to trial in-game advertising for a while and that this had emerged as the right campaign to do so.
Last week, official research from the Internet Advertising Bureau found that UK gamers had a positive approach to in-game ads. The survey of 3,000 gamers found that three out of four did not have a problem with ads and that the medium was increasingly being used by advertisers to target young males.
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