If you tuned into the season premiere of The Walking Dead on Sunday night, then you may have noticed some new commercials alongside the familiar line-up of Hyundai advertisements. Microsoft began its marketing push for Windows 8 with a bang by releasing a series of Windows 8 and Surface-related advertisements.
Although the ads were shown during commercial breaks of The Walking Dead on Sunday night, Microsoft wants millions more people to see those advertisements by the time Windows 8 is released on October 26. In fact, Microsoft is spending a grand total of $1.5B marketing Windows 8.
That number might seem meaningless to you, but Forbes is reporting that a $1.5B launch would make Windows 8 the most expensive product launch in the history of the tech industry. Think of all the operating systems, programs, hardware devices, and video games that have been released over the years. The marketing blitz for Windows 8 will blow all of these campaigns out of the water.
Forbes.com is also reporting that the campaign could cost as much as $1.8 billion. Advertising budgets like that are usually reserved for presidential elections, and Microsoft’s second biggest product launch was with Windows 95, which cost $200 million.
In any case, Microsoft will have to sell a lot of copies of Windows 8 to pay for the advertisements it’s about to display to the world over the next month. Start preparing your eyes and ears for the advertisement onslaught, because you’re about to see Windows 8 popping up just about everywhere.