Olympic-sized TV spend for Mario & Sonic

There will be no escaping Mario & Sonic this Christmas as Sega ramps up its TV ad push.

The publisher has prepared its biggest ever TV spend for the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games title, which will be released for Wii on November 18th.

The bulk of ads will run on ITV around key family shows right through November and December to raise mass-market awareness.

Sega is primarily targeting housewives with kids and is confident it will reach almost everyone in this demographic.In fact, the publisher told MCV 90 per cent of this audience will see the Mario & Sonic TV spot at least 14 times each.

There will also be ads running around kids programming to reach younger gamers aged between seven and 12.

The festive TV push represents one of several parts in a mammoth campaign with Mischief PR. This kicked off in January and will run until the end of the Olympic Games in 2012, ensuring that Mario & Sonic rides the Olympic fever as the event approaches.

Complimenting the next two months of TV creative will be online ads expected to reach 40m impressions.Sega has arranged promotions with leading websites such as Cartoon Network, CITV, Nickelodeon and Miniclip, while gifters will be targeted through social media and mailouts.