Yep you read that title right, McDonalds and New Line Cinemas are bringing Austin Powers to Xbox Live Video marketplaces, as an ad-sponsored download. The video has already shot to the #1 download on Xbox Live Marketplace. With people eagerly grabbing the free 14 day rental that is available for download Now until June 28th and will be made available again for download between July 13 and 19th.
Microsoft is in talks with studios and other companys to do more sponsored downloads as it expands its advertising push on the service. This is the first on the Movie side being sponsored by McDonalds, but the sponsored downloads has been seen in the gaming arena already with T-Mobile sponsoring free demos of new games that users can try before they buy it.
For the Austin Powers feature Xbox gives McDonalds a new area branded BurgerCon, where users can download the film, or enter and play or win in a contest. Microsoft sees the sponsorship model as a way to bring advertising dollars to get users who haven’t tried out the video download the service.
Basically McDonalds gets advertising for sponsoring and Microsoft gets the ability to spark peoples interest that might rent movies again for a fee later down the road. Microsoft hasn’t divulged exact numbers but has said that one-third of all Xbox Live users in the US have downloaded a movie through the service at least once.
Source: VideoBusiness
