Truth, the nations largest smoking prevention campaign for youth, is teaming up with MTV Games on a new dance-related initiative that includes an online dance contest, grassroots tour stops, and online outreach. All efforts are built around the video game Dance Central-a highly-anticipated new immersive dance video game exclusively for Kinect for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft that will release on November 4, 2010.

Dance Central is the first controller-free, body tracking, fully immersive dance video game - with choreography for both beginners and experts. Players will be introduced to more than 650 dance moves, and more than 90 dance routines created by professional choreographers.  Players can groove to hot hits and classic dance beats from a wide variety of classic and contemporary artists, including Cascada, Kool & The Gang, Kylie Minogue, Lady Gaga, Nelly Furtado, Rihanna, and Technotronic. 

Gaming is a very popular form of entertainment among teens. According to the Kaiser Family Foundations January 2010 report (Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds), young people spend 17 minutes per day playing video games online, second only to the time spent online on social networking sites (22 minutes). In addition, this research found that the majority of gaming – 49 percent -- is being played through traditional gaming consoles; Dance Central is such a console-based game.  truths primary audience is youth ages 12 to 17 who are most likely to engage in rebellious behavior such as smoking.

The initiative between MTV Games and truth will have several different elements, all designed to drive teens to an online dance contest:

Online Dance Contest:

The contest entry period will run from today through November 25th. At the Web site, teens can show off their own freestyle dance moves by uploading videos of themselves dancing, as well as share videos with others. From November 26th to December 17th, users can log in, register and vote for their favorite dance video. The dance contest winner will be announced at the end of December 2010, but all registrants will be eligible to win prizes just for registering. 

Prizes for participating in the Killer Routine dance contest will include:

• Grand Prize: the winner of the dance contest will receive a dance party at the winners house with a DJ there to spin tunes and a visit from one of the choreographers who helped develop the game. The winner will also receive six full Dance Central gaming systems, including an Xbox 360, a Kinect Sensor, and the Dance Central prize package. 

• Top 5 Prizes: The winners of the next five most popular dance videos will each receive an Xbox 360/Kinect Sensor/Dance Central prize package.

• Ultimate Gaming Sweepstakes: One randomly-chosen registered Killer Routine participant will receive an Xbox 360/Kinect Sensor/Dance Central prize package. 

• Daily Sweepstakes: Every day, starting November 26th and ending December 17th, select registered users will win truth gear – fashion-forward items like t-shirts that contain tobacco-related facts or information. The two t-shirts featured in the Dance Central video will be part of the giveaway.

Game Packaging:

Two of the back-up dancing avatars in the Dance Central game will be sporting truth gear – fashion-forward t-shirts that highlight tobacco-related facts.

• 353 t-shirt – highlights the fact that every day in the U.S., 353 people die from lung cancer caused by Big Tobaccos products.

• 1 in 3 t-shirt – highlights the fact that one out of three youth smokers will eventually die from a tobacco-related disease.

Grassroots Tour:

truth extended its popular national summer tour into the fall, making stops at teen-oriented musical and sporting events through October. At select tour stops throughout the country, teens will be able to experience Dance Central through a full game set up, and see signage about the game. truth tour riders -- young people in their early 20s that discuss tobacco use with teens through experiential marketing – will hold dance contests in the zone. truth tour riders will send tweets from the road related to the contest, and post videos and info online at thetruth.com. The Dance Central/truth tour stops have and will include:

Video & Web

To promote the contest online, truth and MTV Games produced a new 30-second spot featuring a young man showing off his killer routine.

• The spot will play on television channels such asVH1 and The N; on websites such as thetruth.com, myyearbook.com, and dancecentral.com/killerroutine; and at media sites popular with teens and the truth audience, including: FUEL, Vevo, Gamespot, BET, and Hulu. Digital banners will also drive people to the contest website,www.dancecentral.com/killerroutine.

• The video will also be shown on video monitors at select Champs Sports/Foot Locker stores in the Tampa and Chicago areas. In addition, the spot will air at select Wendys restaurants in the Dallas and Washington, DC areas, and in malls in Los Angeles, Tampa and Chicago.

• Online banners driving users to the contest website will be featured on websites including MTVs dancecentral.com and rockband.com,

• Social media: Information about the contest and the videos will be streamed from both Dance Central and truths Facebook and Twitter pages. Weekly postings about the contest will run on truths Facebook page, and top dance submission videos will be featured.

• E-cards to truths database will point truth followers to the contest and website.  

Content Integration

• FUEL TV- the cable channel devoted to action sports - will make an appearance at the truth truck and tour zone at the AST Dew Tour Finals in Las Vegas. A televised segment with a truth tour rider will focus on the Dance Central/Killer Routine contest, and feature a leading action sports athlete.

The Viacom/truth collaboration continues a long working relationship between the two youth-centric brands. Since the campaigns inception in 2000, truths edgy, iconic advertisements have been an established fixture on the MTV channel; additional opportunities extended truth advertising through broadcast, online and outdoor advertising.   

For more information about the Dance Central gaming system, visit this page.