Topic: Cammie Dunaway on Wii Fit

[Halbred]

NOA’s vice president of sales and marketing talks the Wii Fit ad campaign.
 http://nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=15854

 Wii Fit is almost here. Its stateside release date is May 19, but you’d hardly know it. NOA has done little to promote the game, despite its obvious marketability. How are people going to know the game exists if they don’t hear about it? Addressing this concern is Cammie Dunaway, NOA’s vice president of sales and marketing, who sat down with the Wall Street Journal to talk about how their unique marketing strategy is going to work. Of course, if you already read Nintendo World Report, we’ve got you covered as to Wii Fit news!    

Dunaway addressed some important points.  Among them:    

•   Advertising will not begin until the week of the game’s launch.  Its ad slogan will be “How will it move you?”, and will feature pictures of people balancing on the Wii Balance Board.  
•   NOA will be trying very hard to reach women and, in particular, moms. The reason for the delayed ad campaign is that NOA doesn’t believe that your mother is going to mark “Wii Fit” on the calendar weeks before the release. Rather, mom hears about the game on the radio or through a magazine, becomes interested, and buys it. She might also be bugged to do so by her kids.  
•   Rather than going all-out on television and magazine ads, NOA is preparing a massive public-relations campaign. Diane Sawyer already tried the game and said that “it really does make you work.”  
•   The thinking here is that women and moms are more influenced by family, friends, and the news than TV and magazine ads.  
•   Unlike most exercise equipment, Dunaway does not believe the Balance Board will end up in the garage. Wii Fit tracks your progress over time, which Dunaway believes will keep people motivated.    

For the full interview, click the link above.

[that Baby guy]

What's my real issue with this?  Nintendo does this for absolutely everything.

They wait until the week-of to advertise, they manage PR and attempt to attract celebrities to their products, and they try to manage everything through word-of-mouth, as well.  The only thing they didn't do this with was Brawl, IIRC.  They did it with Metroid Prime 3 (aside from that lame preview channel, I mean), Mario Party 8, Super Paper Mario, Super Mario Galaxy, and practically everything they've released on the Wii.

This strategy works well for this particular game, like it did for the Wii in general (as well as Mario Party , but it doesn't work for these other games very well.  What sold Super Mario Galaxy?  Mario did, not Nintendo's ads.  What sold Super Paper Mario?  Mario, not ads.  Battalion Wars was doomed from the beginning.  Mario Strikers sold, but it wasn't thanks to advertising methods.

Why is it that we've been seeing GTA IV commercials all month long?  Why is Master Chief plastered everywhere.  Nintendo would be better off just saying that they don't need to advertise to sell games, because the fact is, the competition's advertisement strategies are much more comprehensive.  Maybe it's just me, or perhaps they don't hit smaller cities, but Nintendo's ads haven't done much in a very long time, from my perception.

[GoldenPhoenix]

All I have to say:

Cost vs. Benefit vs Profit.

The End

[that Baby guy]

I don't disagree.  Not one bit.  My only point is that Nintendo's been using this same strategy for probably years now, and it's nothing impressive or different than anything else they've done.  They aren't doing anything, or at least anything notable than what they did for Super Mario Galaxy.

[Plugabugz]

I started seeing ads for both GTA IV and Wii Fit from the moment Mario Kart got released 2 weeks ago. There's a huge double page cover ad on the front of the Metro for Wii Fit this morning.

Wii Fit used the exact same "what's this?" introductory-style ad as the Wii itself. It worked very well at describing what it is and what it does.

That said, I'm still seeing ads for NSMB and Nintendogs 3 years later.

[vudu]

Cammie Dunaway on Wii Fit

  Surely I can't be the only one who made a frowny face after reading that.

[Morari]

THIS POST HAS BEEN CENSORED FOR YOUR PROTECTION

--Bureau of Internet Morality

[Kairon]

Didn't Cammie Dunaway used to work for Frito-Lays before Yahoo and Nintendo? Maybe she needs to be on Wii Fit.

When Cammie Dunaway gave part of the presentation for the morning conference at the Nintendo Media summit, she was sporting a broken wrist that she claimed was from (real) snow-boarding. She's probably uber fit.

[IceCold]

I started seeing ads for both GTA IV and Wii Fit from the moment Mario Kart got released 2 weeks ago. There's a huge double page cover ad on the front of the Metro for Wii Fit this morning.

Wii Fit used the exact same "what's this?" introductory-style ad as the Wii itself. It worked very well at describing what it is and what it does.

That said, I'm still seeing ads for NSMB and Nintendogs 3 years later.

When I was in London I saw lots of Nintendo ads too.. And didn't you show us that picture of the huge Mario Galaxy mural on that building?