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Perrin (and Harrison) leaving NOA! Say It Ain't So!

Bring back Lincoln & Arakawa...that way when Sony tries to steal the Wiimote they can open 5 can's of lawyer womp-ass on 'em the likes of which have yet to be seen. Payback's a BITCH!

In all seriousness, I still think there's something up for moving PR/marketing to NY & SF outside of NOA. That means Nintendo is growing. Maybe the NY office brings them closer to the retailer pulse (near Nintendo World Store) and the SF office brings them closer to the publisher's pulse (alot of top 3RD parties (East & West) have American bases in CA)?
 
Nuclear Muffin said:
Bull****! There's no way that a whopping 90% of the staff would leave, no chance in hell!
Click to expand...

Dude, have you ever held a job and had a family?

MY COMPANY: Great news, everyone! We're moving from Tokyo to Osaka!
ME: Bye
 
Actually let's put Yamauchi in a few English courses and then bring him in as PR.

"So Hiroshi, what can you tell us about the new Zelda game?"
".....I'm sorry, but did you just call me Hiroshi?"
"O-oh my god I am so sorry--"
"What did you call me?! What did you say?! Did you call me Hiroshi?!?!"
"I-I-I-I--"
"IT IS YAMAUCHI-SAN MOTHER****ER. I SHOULD HAVE YOU KILLED. YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW PEOPLE?!"
"......."
"Zelda will be launching later this year. Unfortunately we haven't nailed down a specific release date yet, but stay tuned. Any other questions?"
 
This is big news. 90% of the company not moving? WOW Thats a huge number, its like starting over again.

I wish them all luck.
 
BrodiemanTTR said:
Actually let's put Yamauchi in a few English courses and then bring him in as PR.

"So Hiroshi, what can you tell us about the new Zelda game?"
".....I'm sorry, but did you just call me Hiroshi?"
"O-oh my god I am so sorry--"
"What did you call me?! What did you say?! Did you call me Hiroshi?!?!"
"I-I-I-I--"
"IT IS YAMAUCHI-SAN MOTHER****ER. I SHOULD HAVE YOU KILLED. YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW PEOPLE?!"
"......."
"Zelda will be launching later this year. Unfortunately we haven't nailed down a specific release date yet, but stay tuned. Any other questions?"
Click to expand...

:lol
 
noooooooo.jpg


Probably fired for being dumb in some interviews.
 
inthezone said:
This is big news. 90% of the company not moving? WOW Thats a huge number, its like starting over again.

I wish them all luck.
Click to expand...

you fool, it's 90% of the Marketing, not of NOA

plus, Reggie is still there, so no harm
 
GI:

"...Vice President, Marking and Corporate Affairs Perrin Kaplan; and Senior Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Communications George Harrison. "

IGN:

"...Vice President of Marking and Corporate Affairs Perrin Kaplan, and Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications George Harrison will all be leaving Nintendo of America in the near future."
Click to expand...

Copy/Paste Uh Oh...Did Game Informer just pull a Cheesemeister?
 
If this is true is possible that they have received a job offer from Microsoft recently.

Kaplan and the others know how Nintendo marketing is done and I am sure that Microsoft wants to hire them to adapt the marketing to scheme to something more similar to Wii and if you combine all this with Bill Gates words probably we could have a bomb for the E3.
 
JoshuaJSlone said:
Wikipedia says he joined in 1992, having previously worked at Quaker Oats and Pepsi.
Click to expand...

Although prior to that Harrison was Nintendo's lawyer back in 1989. He went to Moscow with Akorua to sign the rights of Tetris for the NES.
 
medrew said:
Although prior to that Harrison was Nintendo's lawyer back in 1989. He went to Moscow with Akorua to sign the rights of Tetris for the NES.
Click to expand...

Teehee, that was Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln. And Game Boy.
 
Nightbringer said:
If this is true is possible that they have received a job offer from Microsoft recently.

Kaplan and the others know how Nintendo marketing is done and I am sure that Microsoft wants to hire them to adapt the marketing to scheme to something more similar to Wii and if you combine all this with Bill Gates words probably we could have a bomb for the E3.
Click to expand...

This gen's Ken Lobb? (obviously not the same role, but still.)
 
Nightbringer said:
If this is true is possible that they have received a job offer from Microsoft recently.

Kaplan and the others know how Nintendo marketing is done and I am sure that Microsoft wants to hire them to adapt the marketing to scheme to something more similar to Wii and if you combine all this with Bill Gates words probably we could have a bomb for the E3.
Click to expand...

MS' new strategy: hire Perrin Kaplan to personally insult you for not showering over Live.
 
BrodiemanTTR said:
Actually let's put Yamauchi in a few English courses and then bring him in as PR.

"So Hiroshi, what can you tell us about the new Zelda game?"
".....I'm sorry, but did you just call me Hiroshi?"
"O-oh my god I am so sorry--"
"What did you call me?! What did you say?! Did you call me Hiroshi?!?!"
"I-I-I-I--"
"IT IS YAMAUCHI-SAN MOTHER****ER. I SHOULD HAVE YOU KILLED. YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW PEOPLE?!"
"......."
"Zelda will be launching later this year. Unfortunately we haven't nailed down a specific release date yet, but stay tuned. Any other questions?"
Click to expand...
This calls for:

pimpyamauchi.jpg
 
Wow, this is bad. There definitely will be a transition period for the new staff. I really doubt everyone will hit the ground running as far as the Wii strategy goes. Moving to NY was stupid indeed.
 
ironichaos said:
Teehee, that was Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln. And Game Boy.
Click to expand...


My bad on Lincoln. But it was for NES as that's when they screwed over Atari with the Tengen version. Hank Rogers got the Gameboy rights, then signed the rights for NES with Lincoln and Arakawa.

edit: damnit I'm bad with names
 
So with the combination of these 3 marketing managers leaving, 90% of the marketing staff due to relocation and the recently expired contract with their ad firm, what the hell is going on at Nintendo?

Is it that the amount of money spent in marketing to the casuals isn't matching up with their purchaser demographics? They're gonna have a hell of a time this Holiday season.

FYI: I'm not trolling, please read carefully. Of course, casuals are buying the Wii but what percentage of their ad dollars go to marketing to that group. It's probably greater than 75% due to all the TV time they've bought. I don't think that 75% of Wiis have been bought by casuals though.
 
I guess one question is if NOA will have even less autonomy after losing this seasoned hands that they have now. Iwata have certainly been a centralizer.
 
tanod said:
So with the combination of these 3 marketing managers leaving, 90% of the marketing staff due to relocation and the recently expired contract with their ad firm, what the hell is going on at Nintendo?

Is it that the amount of money spent in marketing to the casuals isn't matching up with their purchaser demographics? They're gonna have a hell of a time this Holiday season.

FYI: I'm not trolling, please read carefully. Of course, casuals are buying the Wii but what percentage of their ad dollars go to marketing to that group. It's probably greater than 75% due to all the TV time they've bought. I don't think that 75% of Wiis have been bought by casuals though.
Click to expand...
While you may not be a troll, you are being somewhat obtuse. If Nintendo has a problem with its marketing department it's not that there wasn't good return on investment.
 
BrodiemanTTR said:
Actually let's put Yamauchi in a few English courses and then bring him in as PR.

"So Hiroshi, what can you tell us about the new Zelda game?"
".....I'm sorry, but did you just call me Hiroshi?"
"O-oh my god I am so sorry--"
"What did you call me?! What did you say?! Did you call me Hiroshi?!?!"
"I-I-I-I--"
"IT IS YAMAUCHI-SAN MOTHER****ER. I SHOULD HAVE YOU KILLED. YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW PEOPLE?!"
"......."
"Zelda will be launching later this year. Unfortunately we haven't nailed down a specific release date yet, but stay tuned. Any other questions?"
Click to expand...
:lol
 
If it hasn't been noted already, it should be: the big three names on this list are all from the Communications team. The director of PR, the VP of Marketing and PR, and Senior VP of Marketing and Corporate Communications (that's PR).

While clearly there is some correlation with the move to SF and NY, this seems like a pretty deliberate move. Timing their release (dismissal/retirement/opt outs) with the move seems pretty generous, rather than letting them dangle out there like unwanted sidekicks and reminders of a entire lost generation.

But what comes after this? Assuming it's 'more' than the move, why all of them, why now, why all from the communications team? I have a couple ideas. First of all, the move to NY and SF are huge indicators. They are huge, HUGE, and I mean HUGE, homes of Advertising and PR firms. I'm going to guess that Nintendo will be outsourcing most of their Public Communications (PR--like press releases, announcements, etc; Advertising--like online, tv, theater, and print; and Marketing--both at the point of sale and broader schemes) to the same huge firms that handle Coca-Cola, the NFL, and American Eagle -- basically to firms that have their finger on the pulse of Americans and are a bit more in touch than Perrin and her two infamous gaffes.

Axing the whole Comm. team at the beginning of what appears to be the first complete domination Nintendo has had since (forever?) certainly should be more revealing than at first it appears. To me, it has all the hints and flavors of a major company seeing major success--and they're going big time with it. Don't be surprised to hear announcements of Nintendo partnering with different firms to handle their communications here in NA.

Oh yeah.
You guys know what department Reggie came from, right? The same team.
 
PantherLotus said:
Axing the whole Comm. team at the beginning of what appears to be the first complete domination Nintendo has had since (forever?) certainly should be more revealing than at first it appears. To me, it has all the hints and flavors of a major company seeing major success--and they're going big time with it. Don't be surprised to hear announcements of Nintendo partnering with different firms to handle their communications here in NA.
Click to expand...

QFT I'm in agreement with this. The move to NYC and San Fransisco is needed to match up with the big global brands. Kaplan I think even mentioned the future of the internet/online stuff is in Silicon Valley and the capital of marketing is Madison Avenue for sure.
 
PantherLotus said:
If it hasn't been noted already, it should be: the big three names on this list are all from the Communications team. The director of PR, the VP of Marketing and PR, and Senior VP of Marketing and Corporate Communications (that's PR).

While clearly there is some correlation with the move to SF and NY, this seems like a pretty deliberate move. Timing their release (dismissal/retirement/opt outs) with the move seems pretty generous, rather than letting them dangle out there like unwanted sidekicks and reminders of a entire lost generation.

But what comes after this? Assuming it's 'more' than the move, why all of them, why now, why all from the communications team? I have a couple ideas. First of all, the move to NY and SF are huge indicators. They are huge, HUGE, and I mean HUGE, homes of Advertising and PR firms. I'm going to guess that Nintendo will be outsourcing most of their Public Communications (PR--like press releases, announcements, etc; Advertising--like online, tv, theater, and print; and Marketing--both at the point of sale and broader schemes) to the same huge firms that handle Coca-Cola, the NFL, and American Eagle -- basically to firms that have their finger on the pulse of Americans and are a bit more in touch than Perrin and her two infamous gaffes.

Axing the whole Comm. team at the beginning of what appears to be the first complete domination Nintendo has had since (forever?) certainly should be more revealing than at first it appears. To me, it has all the hints and flavors of a major company seeing major success--and they're going big time with it. Don't be surprised to hear announcements of Nintendo partnering with different firms to handle their communications here in NA.

Oh yeah.
You guys know what department Reggie came from, right? The same team.
Click to expand...

That is an interesting point. But it just does not seem very good idea to outsourse PR in an industry like video games unlike, say, soft drinks.

The biggest advantage of outsoursed PR is that you have a ready scapegoat in case of a gaffe. But at the same time, who the hell clings to every word of Coca-Cola PR? Who the hell cares how informed is Coca-Cola about the R&D? It's not that Coke PR does not have a job to do: Coke launches the vitaminated version, they go out to explain it to on talk shows and let the general public know. For this, the PR does not really need to be intimate with R&D and so on.

Now, Nintendo definitely need some PR explaining Wii. I'd say the whole letting the general population play the Wii initiative have been totally underwhelming. Maybe they are holding off till the consoles are actually in stock, but still they felt far short of what they promissed.

At the same time, there is the other function of PR: dealing with very forward looking gamers and managing their expectations. I cannot possibly imagine how outsourcing that would not lead to a total disaster. Have other companies in simarly forward looking businesses done it? Apple, for example?
 
Wiitard said:
I cannot possibly imagine how outsourcing that would not lead to a total disaster. Have other companies in simarly forward looking businesses done it? Apple, for example?
Click to expand...
Well... Pretty much every publisher outsources PR to some degree these days, so that shouldn't really be a big deal. Sad to see both leave though but as long as Reggie stays I don't think it's such a huge shake-up.
 
Wiitard said:
That is an interesting point. But it just does not seem very good idea to outsourse PR in an industry like video games unlike, say, soft drinks.

The biggest advantage of outsoursed PR is that you have a ready scapegoat in case of a gaffe. But at the same time, who the hell clings to every word of Coca-Cola PR? Who the hell cares how informed is Coca-Cola about the R&D? It's not that Coke PR does not have a job to do: Coke launches the vitaminated version, they go out to explain it to on talk shows and let the general public know. For this, the PR does not really need to be intimate with R&D and so on.

Now, Nintendo definitely need some PR explaining Wii. I'd say the whole letting the general population play the Wii initiative have been totally underwhelming. Maybe they are holding off till the consoles are actually in stock, but still they felt far short of what they promissed.

At the same time, there is the other function of PR: dealing with very forward looking gamers and managing their expectations. I cannot possibly imagine how outsourcing that would not lead to a total disaster. Have other companies in simarly forward looking businesses done it? Apple, for example?
Click to expand...

You raise an interesting but seemingly uninformed opinion of how PR works, I think. Most large companies (fortune 500) have their own executives for certain Comm. functions but definitely will bring in outside help for almost every major event.

The other thing to note is that PR and Advertising and Marketing are really separate functions any more. Like you point out---one hand has to know what the other is doing. The industry jargon calls it Integrated Marketing, and all that basically means is that there is one consistent message, in the Advertising (the public), with the Media (public relations), and internally as well. The point is that most firms offer an integrated package that can handle the whole thing (like the launch of a new shoe, hamburger, or game console). Thinking that something that plays games isn't something that should be marketed like Coke is the problem that MS and Sony are facing right now--limited audiences.

On the same note--and to address one of your points, it most clearly is not a PR function to "manage gamer's expectations." Public Relations is honesty with a positive outlook "This is what we're going to do and this is why we're going to do it." Spin is something politicans do. Public Relations is the way that the company sells the story to the media. And don't confuse Crisis management, either. It all sounds similar and it can get confusing but the thing to remember is that is almost certain that Nintendo didn't move to New York and San Fran so they could move away from something--but rather that they are most definitely moving TOWARDS something more important.

I would also note that I am most certainly not suggesting that this is the only reason Nintendo is moving, but the timing of these departures, the breadth of losses from one specific team, the locations of the new offices...and the current head of the American division of Nintendo all point to one thing:

A renewed and revisioned focus on communication with/for/within Nintendo of America and its different publics.
 
This makes a bit of sense. Perrin, Beth, and George were all about being the "old guard" at Nintendo. None of them were particularly firey speakers, good with the media, or explosive with the BOMBZALDROPPENSPAUNGS. And here comes Reggie, who in the better part of 4 years has turned Nintendo from the joke of the industry into once again a major player, practically all by his lonesome.
 
PantherLotus said:
You raise an interesting but seemingly uninformed opinion of how PR works, I think. Most large companies (fortune 500) have their own executives for certain Comm. functions but definitely will bring in outside help for almost every major event.

The other thing to note is that PR and Advertising and Marketing are really separate functions any more. Like you point out---one hand has to know what the other is doing. The industry jargon calls it Integrated Marketing, and all that basically means is that there is one consistent message, in the Advertising (the public), with the Media (public relations), and internally as well. The point is that most firms offer an integrated package that can handle the whole thing (like the launch of a new shoe, hamburger, or game console). Thinking that something that plays games isn't something that should be marketed like Coke is the problem that MS and Sony are facing right now--limited audiences.

On the same note--and to address one of your points, it most clearly is not a PR function to "manage gamer's expectations." Public Relations is honesty with a positive outlook "This is what we're going to do and this is why we're going to do it." Spin is something politicans do. Public Relations is the way that the company sells the story to the media. And don't confuse Crisis management, either. It all sounds similar and it can get confusing but the thing to remember is that is almost certain that Nintendo didn't move to New York and San Fran so they could move away from something--but rather that they are most definitely moving TOWARDS something more important.

I would also note that I am most certainly not suggesting that this is the only reason Nintendo is moving, but the timing of these departures, the breadth of losses from one specific team, the locations of the new offices...and the current head of the American division of Nintendo all point to one thing:

A renewed and revisioned focus on communication with/for/within Nintendo of America and its different publics.
Click to expand...

Actually, I did not mean managing expectation in a negative context at all. For example saying that Wii is going to have online but it is not gonna be the focus is a nice way of managing expectation and avoiding people down the line feeling that they had been lied to. In this sense, I do want my expectations managed.

My point is: I really see the usefullness of outsoursing prozelitizing for released products or products which are about to be released but are essentially finished.

Now if you are outsoursing things like talking with enthusiast press about your lineup in a year, it does not seem such a good idea. You want somebody with high level access doing this. It is kind of similar to the job of White House press secretary - he/she has direct access to the president and it does make sense.

Sloane said:
Well... Pretty much every publisher outsources PR to some degree these days, so that shouldn't really be a big deal. Sad to see both leave though but as long as Reggie stays I don't think it's such a huge shake-up.
Click to expand...

Outsoursing some PR makes sense. Outsoursing all PR, not so much.
 
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