Nintendo marketing
The video game developer and publisher Nintendo has engaged in a variety of marketing campaigns, ranging from early efforts to appeal to teenagers with "Play It Loud!" to the more open-ended "Who Are You?" campaign. Nintendo also sometimes markets its various consoles and games with lavish promotions.
Facilities
Originally, all marketing operations for Nintendo of America were based out of the company's Redmond, Washington headquarters. It opted not to expand that headquarters, although it owned 550,000 square feet of property for potential expansion. In May 2007, the company announced plans to move its sales, marketing, and advertising divisions to either San Francisco or New York City. The company established its new office in Redwood City, California.Personnel
joined Nintendo in December 2003 as the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. He was responsible for all sales and marketing activities for Nintendo in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Fils-Aimé shot to fame in May 2004 with the opening line of Nintendo's E3 press conference: "My name is Reggie. I'm about kickin' ass, I'm about takin' names, and we're about makin' games." His theatrical antics, flying in the face of Nintendo's long-standing "kiddie" image, gained a cult following soon after, with many gamers calling him the "Regginator". Following the conference, many images of him spread across the Web. Fils-Aimé is considered to be responsible for revamping Nintendo's public relations in North America, leading many fans and members of the press to dub his arrival the "Reggielution". He speaks highly of the "blue oceans" strategy, which attempts to bring in people who are not traditionally gamers. His expertise is with youth marketing, although he made an effort to reach out to the elderly using games like Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! and Nintendogs. In October 2007, Fils-Aimé was promoted to president and chief operating officer of NoA. On February 21, 2019, Fils-Aimé publicly announced that he is now retiring and handing over his presidency of Nintendo of America to Doug Bowser.Cammie Dunaway took up the role following the promotion of Fils-Aimé. Dunaway was named one of the 100 top marketers by Advertising Age. She appeared onstage for Nintendo's E3 2008 press conference, demonstrating Shaun White Snowboarding and Wii Sports Resort. She also made numerous more appearances that day. Dunaway also appeared at Nintendo's E3 2009 press conference. Dunaway left Nintendo of America in October 2010. She joined KidZania as the global chief marketing officer.
Dunaway was succeeded by Scott Moffitt in May 2011. Moffitt previously worked at Henkel and PepsiCo, and was tasked with providing new life to the Nintendo 3DS and Wii. In August 2015, Scott Moffitt was succeeded by Doug Bowser as the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Bowser had previously been the VP of Sales, coming to Nintendo in 2014 from Electronic Arts.
Nintendo engages non-employees to do marketing too, an example being NintendoCade Gaming. In late May 2020, Nintendo dropped several Brand Ambassadors, including Wood Hawker, without giving specific reason.
Brand campaigns
The Best Play Here
"The Best Play Here" campaign was aimed at children and adults. It was relatively mild and not as emphatic as the "Play It Loud!" campaign that would follow. Leo Burnett U.S.A. produced the campaign.Play It Loud!
Facing intense competition from Sega, Nintendo decided to alter the trajectory of its marketing and pitch a new image to the public. The Play It Loud! campaign marked a departure from traditional marketing practice by Nintendo. Instead of focusing on one particular console or game, it promoted a particular corporate image. The campaign was aimed at Nintendo's core market: teenage boys. Dan Coyner, marketing manager at Nintendo of America, noted that previous campaigns felt "like an adult talking to a child," while Play It Loud! appealed more directly to a younger audience. John Montgomery of Burnett said the ads were intended "to capture what kids are in their music, their clothes, their attitudes."The advertisements extensively used youth slang of the day, advising viewers to "hock a loogie at life" and "give the world a wedgie." They also utilized "provocative imagery," such as a tattoo reading Play It Loud! Advertisements used music extensively, marrying hard rock music with video games. One early advertisement featured the Butthole Surfers, an alternative rock band.
Many were concerned that the campaign would seem too fake, as if adults were trying to pander to children and pretend to be "hip."
The campaign ran from July 1994 to September 1996. It had a $10 million budget and was produced by Burnett.
Nintendo Power released the Play It Loud Original Soundtrack: Volume 1 on April 1, 1996, as a gift to subscribers. It contained 41 tracks of different music from past Nintendo games.
Who Are You?
"Who Are You?" was a campaign back in 2003 intended on promoting Nintendo's console and handheld systems, the Game Boy Advance and the GameCube. The campaign was developed in conjunction with the Chicago advertising company, Leo Burnett. The promotion would take the form of advertisements in places such as cinemas, print, billboards in major cities, transit, mall banners, and in-store merchandising. There was also an official website containing interactive advertisements of the campaign that has since been taken down.Too Much Fun
Nintendo of Canada adopted an ironic approach to marketing itself in 2004. The "Too Much Fun" campaign jokingly presented "N" as an illicit drug. The campaign stated that "Four out of five doctors agree that using 'N' leads directly to Too Much Fun." Its Ministry of Fun Suppression was said to offer possible remedies. As a remedy, the company suggested self-help groups including Nintendo and other fan sites.Product campaigns
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo promoted its Nintendo Entertainment System using the slogan, "Now you're playing with power!" It would go on to modify and adapt the slogan for other consoles. It is also important to remark that this slogan was used for several campaigns.When promoting the miniature, classic NES, the original NES slogan was brought back in its YouTube trailer.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
In the United States, Nintendo promoted its Super Nintendo Entertainment System using a modification of the slogan for the console's predecessor, "Now you're playing with power; SUPER POWER!" or "Now you're playing with power. Super power." This slogan is also used in a few commercials from the Netherlands and Australia.In the UK, its commercials promoting the system used this slogan: “Will you ever reach the end?”.
For the promotion of the SNES Classic Edition, Nintendo used the slogan "Now you're playing with super power."
Game Boy
The company promoted its Game Boy line using a modification of the slogan used for the Nintendo Entertainment System, "Now you're playing with power; PORTABLE POWER!"Virtual Boy
Nintendo extensively advertised the Virtual Boy, and claimed to have spent US$25 million on early promotional activities. Advertising promoted the system as a paradigm shift from past consoles; some pieces used cavemen to indicate a historical evolution, while others utilized psychedelic imagery. Nintendo portrayed the system as a type of virtual reality, as its name indicates; it was to be more than just another gaming console.Confronted with the challenge of showing 3-dimensional gameplay on 2-dimensional advertisements, the company partnered with Blockbuster and NBC in a coordinated effort. American viewers were encouraged via television advertisements on NBC to rent the console for US$10 at a local Blockbuster. This made it affordable for a large number of gamers to try the system, and produced 750,000 rentals. Despite its popularity, the rental system proved harmful to the Virtual Boy's long-term success, allowing gamers to see just how un-immersive the console was. Nintendo promoted the console using the slogan "A 3-D game for a 3-D World.". In some commercials, Nintendo used its regular slogan "Play it Loud".
Taken as a whole, the marketing campaign was commonly thought of as a failure.