It may just be me, but it seems like for the last year there has been a noticeable change in Nintendo’s marketing strategies lately. To truly appreciate it, I feel that we need to look back at what they’ve done the past decade.
Back in 2006, the Wii launched to massive success. Along the way they had the iconic “Wii would like to play” commercial series. With this series, they were able to succinctly and expertly explain what made the Wii unique. Now, many people I have noticed on GAF and elsewhere aren’t the biggest fans of these commercials, but I believe they played a big role in sparking and sustaining the Wii’s presence in the cultural consciousness.
However, in 2008 they started making some questionable changes. The first of which that made everyone scratch their heads was the official change from classic Nintendo red to plain old grey for their logo. In an effort to perhaps get away from their kiddy nature and be more open to more demographics, they followed Apple’s cue and saturated the color right out. It’s sterile.
I believe this signified the beginning of the end for Nintendo’s competency when it came to marketing. Whether it was increasingly bad E3 conferences or cutting off the goodwill of their most dedicated fans when it closed down the NSider Forums, their effort to explore more of this blue ocean left them drowning.
Then came the Wii U, and boy was it abysmal. At E3 2011 this is what they showed off, and it left people utterly confused. We see a tablet kinda like the UPlay Tablet, Wii games being played, some Wii controllers, OOH a new Zelda? Wait, it’s called Wii....U? So is it an extension of the new Wii that somehow adds processing power? What?
Journalists and gamers alike were confused after that press conference, and it was only downhill from there. The following E3 conference was disappointing (cue: Nintendoland fireworks), their initial batch of Wii U trailers didn’t come close to truly establishing that the console was separate despite the commercials emphasizing “new”, and even their showings on late night shows MADE THINGS EVEN MORE CONFUSING (source: Jimmy Fallon in 2011 right after they announced it and Jimmy in 2012 a year after announcement confused if it was a peripheral).
However a year ago, something changed. It was subtle, but significant.
In September 2015, Nintendo began ordering retail stores to change their Wii U and 3DS sections to just “Nintendo” and the best part: the return of red!
I believe this was the first step in getting back on track in terms of marketing for Nintendo. Throughout the rest of that year nothing too big popped up aside from a constant flow of Nintendo Directs and also introduced their new slogan “There’s No Play Like It” again emphasizing the red and fun.
Hell, even when people thought they were crazy for planning to hold an entire E3 with just one single game, Nintendo proved the naysayers wrong by having a critically acclaimed showing for Breath of the Wild. Not to mention their work with the incredible promotion and marketing that came with Pokemon Go and Pokemon’s 20th Anniversary in general.
The announcement and marketing of the Nintendo Switch pretty much solidified the distinct change from the old Nintendo. They fucking just dropped a 3 minute video with only one day's notice...and it WORKED. The thing about Switch’s marketing is that you can draw very direct comparisons between it and the Wii U’s. Even though they did similar things (Announcement trailers, dev buzz, Jimmy Fallon), Nintendo so far has handled these things far better than they did with Wii U.
The Switch’s commercial was clear, concise, and most importantly FUN. It opens up speaking to the core gamer who sits in the dark playing games. That’s me. Whereas there was only confusion for the Wii U, with Switch it’s clear from both the name and the video what it was all about. This obviously resonated with people as it became trending worldwide and on the official Nintendo channel has hit over 21 million views in little over a month while the first hit for the Wii U trailer hosted by IGN only has 11 million views (couldn’t find the actual announcement trailer on Nintendo’s Youtube channel). You can see how much excitement and chatter there is about the Switch from both fans and developers alike whereas there were far more reservations about the Wii U at this same time before it’s launch.
You can even see the difference by just watching Jimmy Fallon. Compare the video earlier where he confused whether or not the Wii U was a peripheral to the new video that came out tonight where he knew absolutely everything about the Nintendo Switch and was SHAKING in excitement. We also are seeing this bleed into this style of advertisment for their games like Super Mario Run.
Nintendo’s finally communicating right in my opinion.
Back in 2006, the Wii launched to massive success. Along the way they had the iconic “Wii would like to play” commercial series. With this series, they were able to succinctly and expertly explain what made the Wii unique. Now, many people I have noticed on GAF and elsewhere aren’t the biggest fans of these commercials, but I believe they played a big role in sparking and sustaining the Wii’s presence in the cultural consciousness.
However, in 2008 they started making some questionable changes. The first of which that made everyone scratch their heads was the official change from classic Nintendo red to plain old grey for their logo. In an effort to perhaps get away from their kiddy nature and be more open to more demographics, they followed Apple’s cue and saturated the color right out. It’s sterile.
I believe this signified the beginning of the end for Nintendo’s competency when it came to marketing. Whether it was increasingly bad E3 conferences or cutting off the goodwill of their most dedicated fans when it closed down the NSider Forums, their effort to explore more of this blue ocean left them drowning.
Then came the Wii U, and boy was it abysmal. At E3 2011 this is what they showed off, and it left people utterly confused. We see a tablet kinda like the UPlay Tablet, Wii games being played, some Wii controllers, OOH a new Zelda? Wait, it’s called Wii....U? So is it an extension of the new Wii that somehow adds processing power? What?
Journalists and gamers alike were confused after that press conference, and it was only downhill from there. The following E3 conference was disappointing (cue: Nintendoland fireworks), their initial batch of Wii U trailers didn’t come close to truly establishing that the console was separate despite the commercials emphasizing “new”, and even their showings on late night shows MADE THINGS EVEN MORE CONFUSING (source: Jimmy Fallon in 2011 right after they announced it and Jimmy in 2012 a year after announcement confused if it was a peripheral).
However a year ago, something changed. It was subtle, but significant.
In September 2015, Nintendo began ordering retail stores to change their Wii U and 3DS sections to just “Nintendo” and the best part: the return of red!
I believe this was the first step in getting back on track in terms of marketing for Nintendo. Throughout the rest of that year nothing too big popped up aside from a constant flow of Nintendo Directs and also introduced their new slogan “There’s No Play Like It” again emphasizing the red and fun.
Hell, even when people thought they were crazy for planning to hold an entire E3 with just one single game, Nintendo proved the naysayers wrong by having a critically acclaimed showing for Breath of the Wild. Not to mention their work with the incredible promotion and marketing that came with Pokemon Go and Pokemon’s 20th Anniversary in general.
The announcement and marketing of the Nintendo Switch pretty much solidified the distinct change from the old Nintendo. They fucking just dropped a 3 minute video with only one day's notice...and it WORKED. The thing about Switch’s marketing is that you can draw very direct comparisons between it and the Wii U’s. Even though they did similar things (Announcement trailers, dev buzz, Jimmy Fallon), Nintendo so far has handled these things far better than they did with Wii U.
The Switch’s commercial was clear, concise, and most importantly FUN. It opens up speaking to the core gamer who sits in the dark playing games. That’s me. Whereas there was only confusion for the Wii U, with Switch it’s clear from both the name and the video what it was all about. This obviously resonated with people as it became trending worldwide and on the official Nintendo channel has hit over 21 million views in little over a month while the first hit for the Wii U trailer hosted by IGN only has 11 million views (couldn’t find the actual announcement trailer on Nintendo’s Youtube channel). You can see how much excitement and chatter there is about the Switch from both fans and developers alike whereas there were far more reservations about the Wii U at this same time before it’s launch.
You can even see the difference by just watching Jimmy Fallon. Compare the video earlier where he confused whether or not the Wii U was a peripheral to the new video that came out tonight where he knew absolutely everything about the Nintendo Switch and was SHAKING in excitement. We also are seeing this bleed into this style of advertisment for their games like Super Mario Run.
Nintendo’s finally communicating right in my opinion.
.
