Deep Silver breaks the bank for Dead Island

Publisher Deep Silver is pulling out all the stops to make sure its new IP Dead Island can stand toe-to-toe with its blockbuster rivals.

The publishing face of Koch Media has invested its biggest global marketing spend ever in the hotly anticipated zombie blaster.

A major pillar of the UK campaign will be TV advertising. 20-second ads will be shown on a variety of channels throughout September, including all those owned by ITV, Channel 4 and Five. Ads will also air during key football matches on Sky Pub.

Pre-roll trailers will run on various web TV services and as MPUs on sites such as IGN, GameSpot, Eurogamer, GameTrailers, GamesRadar, VideoGamer.com and CVG. There will also be pre-roll activity on Machinima’s YouTube channel and video ads on Facebook and Google.

Deep Silver will also be targeting consumers in public places via London Underground billboards.

The publisher has already secured extensive coverage in the specialist and lifestyle press since the game’s unveiling back in February.

Finally, Deep Silver is reaching out to gamers with a range of Dead Island merchandise. T-shirts are already available, and Bantam Books is publishing a novel the day before the game’s launch on September 9th.

This is the biggest global marketing spend in the history of Deep Silver,” said Koch Media’s head of marketing & PR Amy Namihas, adding that the company has seen strong pre-order levels for the title.