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Can You Smell That? It's Microsoft's Brilliant Stealth Marketing Strategy For 'Destiny'

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This article is more than 9 years old.

Microsoft is prohibited from running any advertisements for Destiny, Activision and Bungie's wildly anticipated first-person shooter. While it's not an exclusive title for Sony platforms, that clause is part of Sony's exclusivity agreement with Activision. So Microsoft isn't advertising Destiny the game. They're advertising Destiny the fragrance instead.

Recently www.DestinyFragrance.com came into existence, promoting "the new fragrance by Xbox" alongside an image of a cologne bottle bearing the word "Destiny" and the Xbox Logo. Clicking through, Microsoft fesses up by saying:

"Destiny is actually an epic new first-person shooter, available on Xbox. Thing is, we didn't have permission to run adverts for the game. So we didn't."

The website ultimately leads to an "Order Now" page promoting various Xbox One bundles including Destiny and Halo: The Master Chief Collection at UK retailers Game, Tesco , and Amazon UK.

The whole "Destiny Fragrance" gag seeped into the public eye via a tweet from the official Xbox UK  Twitter account. Talk about spunky with a splash of humorous. Perhaps their sales and marketing team should move into US territory?

Ah, but Xbox US has their own stealthy marketing campaign for Destiny.

Yesterday the company launched a "Buy Xbox One, get any game for free" deal, and there's no restrictions on what title you can get bundled in for free. Not even Destiny. The only restriction is that the game must be disc-based, and the promotion is only valid September 7 through September 13.

Destiny releases right in the middle of that window on September 9. Remember, they can't show the box art, but you're kidding yourself if you don't think this is aimed squarely at potential Destiny fans.

It's a compelling promotion on its own, and it gets even more tempting when you realize the free retail game can be stocked on top of existing Xbox One bundles like Madden 15.

This is more than Microsoft getting crafty in the name of sales. It's directly one-upping Sony; there's a Destiny + PlayStation 4 bundle but it costs $449.99, netting the consumer a $10 savings. If you pick up an Xbox One next week, you can potentially get a game like Madden 15 with Destiny for the cost of the console itself, $399.

It's Microsoft getting aggressive on behalf of its fanbase, or more likely its future fanbase. Not to mention the sustainability of the Xbox One platform itself. Sony may have timed exclusive content for Destiny in their corner, but Microsoft's giving away the game for free, and that speaks much louder to me.

Will it speak louder to consumers? Time will tell, but I guarantee September's NPD numbers will be fascinating to report on.

RELATED: How Bungie's Destiny Beta transformed me from disinterested to true believer

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