Wii – UK Roll Out Plans Detailed
£18 million pre-Xmas marketing blitz for Wii and DS
Nintendo has announced to the great and the good in the UK’s videogames retail industry that it is planning an £18 million marketing blitz for the Wii and the DS. This will – it’s hoped – enable it to target the widest range of British consumers: young and old, male and female, gamer and non-gamer.
The lion’s share of the budget has been allocated to the Wii launch in December, with an £11 million spend planned for TV, cinema, PR and sampling; £6.5m up until the end of December and the remaining £4.5m being utilised in the pre-Easter period, from the post-Xmas lull through to the next sales peak around late March/early April.
SPOnG just came off the blower with Wii product manager, Rob Lowe, who backed up the claims he made at last week’s retail presentation that over 80 per cent of people in the UK will see the Wii TV advertising a minimum of three times.
Lowe told us, “The average mainstream TV campaign from someone such as, for example, Walkers Crisps, aims to reach 60% of UK viewers, who will see the ad a minimum of two times. This helps to understand the size and impact of the Wii campaign, which will reach 80% of UK viewers who will see the ad a minimum of three times.”
He added, “I can’t comment on the creative at present… but in terms of where the ads are going to be placed, you will see them on Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky One and all the other main digital channels. Plus, we’ll be placing special 60-second executions into all the major Xmas family films and TV events – such as the X-factor final and Coronation Street special – in the coming months.”
The campaign will mainly feature a 30 second execution of the ad, plus Lowe informed us, “There will also be a three-minute one accessible through interactive and online.”
Get ready for the Wii onslaught in November and prepare to explain Wii to your mildly confused grandparents this coming Christmas. SPOnG advises you to take 'the olds' for a quick eighteen holes on Wii Sports Golf (pictured here) on Christmas Day, which should clear up any confusion, whilst at the same time potentially getting them hooked on those 'evil videogames' that they've been reading so much about in our wonderful tabloid press over the last few years!
Nintendo has in no way forgotten its handheld star, with over £6m being spent on intensive DS marketing between now and Christmas. The firm plans to shift an extra 1m DS’s over the Christmas period – taking the UK’s installed base up to an impressive 2.7m units.
SPOnG’s placed a call with Nintendo’s UK sales team this morning and we’ll bring you more details on their plans to keep the DS-juggernaut chugging along, enticing both the hardcore as well as casual gamer (‘the lapsed, the ladies and the elderly’).
The lion’s share of the budget has been allocated to the Wii launch in December, with an £11 million spend planned for TV, cinema, PR and sampling; £6.5m up until the end of December and the remaining £4.5m being utilised in the pre-Easter period, from the post-Xmas lull through to the next sales peak around late March/early April.
SPOnG just came off the blower with Wii product manager, Rob Lowe, who backed up the claims he made at last week’s retail presentation that over 80 per cent of people in the UK will see the Wii TV advertising a minimum of three times.
Lowe told us, “The average mainstream TV campaign from someone such as, for example, Walkers Crisps, aims to reach 60% of UK viewers, who will see the ad a minimum of two times. This helps to understand the size and impact of the Wii campaign, which will reach 80% of UK viewers who will see the ad a minimum of three times.”
He added, “I can’t comment on the creative at present… but in terms of where the ads are going to be placed, you will see them on Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky One and all the other main digital channels. Plus, we’ll be placing special 60-second executions into all the major Xmas family films and TV events – such as the X-factor final and Coronation Street special – in the coming months.”
The campaign will mainly feature a 30 second execution of the ad, plus Lowe informed us, “There will also be a three-minute one accessible through interactive and online.”
Get ready for the Wii onslaught in November and prepare to explain Wii to your mildly confused grandparents this coming Christmas. SPOnG advises you to take 'the olds' for a quick eighteen holes on Wii Sports Golf (pictured here) on Christmas Day, which should clear up any confusion, whilst at the same time potentially getting them hooked on those 'evil videogames' that they've been reading so much about in our wonderful tabloid press over the last few years!
Nintendo has in no way forgotten its handheld star, with over £6m being spent on intensive DS marketing between now and Christmas. The firm plans to shift an extra 1m DS’s over the Christmas period – taking the UK’s installed base up to an impressive 2.7m units.
SPOnG’s placed a call with Nintendo’s UK sales team this morning and we’ll bring you more details on their plans to keep the DS-juggernaut chugging along, enticing both the hardcore as well as casual gamer (‘the lapsed, the ladies and the elderly’).
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Comments
Joji 23 Oct 2006 13:17
1/2
Seems reasoanble enough, hope those ads have the same effect as the DS ads. The DS ads that appear on Channel 4 are still the best ones but they only seem to be on at prime time weekends. If they do the same thing with Wii all should be good.
Rustman 24 Oct 2006 14:27
2/2
Hopefully we will finally get ads for a Nintendo console (as opposed to a handheld) which communicates it's strengths whilst maintaining a certain amount of style. Something no Nintendo ad for their SNES or N64 or Gamecube (can anybody even remember what those Cube ads were about? It wasn't gameplay that's for sure).
If you can sell a million Wii's in a country that will think it's a made-up name or prank then nothing can stop them.
If you can sell a million Wii's in a country that will think it's a made-up name or prank then nothing can stop them.