The VIBE Game Club College Tour featuring Yardfest is expected to reach some 40,000 videogame and hip-hop fans at some of the top historically black colleges and universities in the country. The tour will kick off on October 24, 2005, at Texas Southern University and will run through November 18, 2005.
Arguably, the hottest intersection in entertainment is video games and hip-hop. With legendary hip hop labels like Def Jam not only providing music for game soundtracks, but creating their own game titles, and hip-hop superstar 50 Cent coming out with his own game, “Bulletproof,” it is clear that there is tremendous synergy between these two entertainment genres.
Marc Ecko even announced this week that his new game will feature four tracks co-produced by P-Diddy. The increasing visibility of hip-hop in the gaming world was the catalyst that inspired the development of the Vibe Game Club College Tour.
The African-American audience are huge gamers and an important demo for brand marketers. It only made sense to combine the music and games in one platform, creating the first-ever videogame lifestyle tour to hit this audience. In order to enhance credibility, the tour partnered with Vibe Magazine to take their Vibe Game Club in-book section and bring it to life on tour.
Gaming and other forms of entertainment, including music, share relevant and authentic cross-over opportunities that hold great potential for brands looking to target otherwise hard to reach consumers. That is what the Vibe Game Club accomplishes by connecting existing urban culture staples like Vibe and hip-hop music with video games, and why there has been such demand from brands to participate in this revolutionary tour.
Some very high profile and progressive brands will being using this tour as a vehicle to communicate with this audience, including presenting sponsors Boost Mobile and Motorola, as well as AXE Body Spray, who will be showcasing their new custom branded game MojoMaster as part of their experience on tour, Xbox, and Alienware.
Source: Press Release.
