The Holiday season means big bucks in major gaming territories as parents, children and older gamers all look to spend plenty of money on the systems and games that tickle their fancy. This year promises to be one of the most crowded and competitive seasons in recent memory, with new consoles arriving alongside a glut of high-profile, big-budget games.
Naturally the Wii U will be an important battle-ground for Nintendo, but it shouldn't be forgotten that the company will be striving to drive home its advantage with the 3DS family of systems to round off what's been a particularly strong year for the system in various territories. Nintendo UK marketing director Shelly Pearce, who has been able to enjoy the relatively rare position of the 3DS being the biggest selling console in the country in recent months, has confirmed to MCV that the company be pushing a sustained TV and advertising campaign around both Pokémon X & Y and the 2DS, which both arrive on 12th October.
We saw an opportunity for an entry level gaming device. 2DS will have its own TV campaign and it will feature in our Pokémon advertising.
The Pokémon X and Y campaign is on the same level as our Animal Crossing campaign. It’s going to be huge, and starts on TV later this month.
We have more Animal Crossing activity, too. There will be a lot of handheld noise this peak season.
We suspect there'll be a lot of Wii U noise, too, but it's clear that parents and families will be a major potential market for the 2DS, which is less expensive than the 3DS models and avoids troublesome warning notices about 3D visuals. The system and X & Y are perfect fits heading into the busiest shopping season of the year.
It's also interesting to note that Generation Media has reported that Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Leaf TV campaign featured more ads in the UK than any other video game so far this year. With a similar push, the big releases on 12th October could generate some impressive sales in the UK and, of course, PAL regions, Japan and North America.
[source mcvuk.com]
Comments 23
Maybe Nintendo will finally learn how to advertise the Wii U properly this holiday season.
Iwata: The Wii U is in trouble, advertise the 3DS more!
Looks like things are flying for the 3DS, I have every faith it will be the same in terms of the Wii U in no time at all...
I don't see the point in advertise AC so much, instead of the Wii U and its games.
Nintendo acts like monkeys when it cames to marketing.
Pokemon and AC will be targeting a younger demographic so makes perfect sense to put loads of money into TV ads. I'm not sure the Wii U audience really watch that much TV anymore. I mean, the casuals do, but I'm pretty certain they won't care about Wii U yet, it's still far more expensive than the Wii they bought, and they're busy with other things now. The people that will turn around the Wii U are gamers, ones that have been buying Nintendo games way before 2006. Most of the people I know in that bracket use DVRs so they can skip ads, or watch Netflix and Love Film. Get your Wii U ads in those, Nintendo.
Like Emblem said, there is nothing to advertise the Wii U with, whereas the 3DS has plenty of 1st-class software to be advertised with ..fittingly enough, Pokemon X & Y with the new 2DS iteration.
Sooo.. just be patient, Wii U will get the killer games soon to be advertised with. There is not much point in just showing the Wii U on TV anymore, or showing it with any of the decent games that are available at the moment. We need to see some stellar gameplay and awesome new content.
What about the Wii U, the main reson the sales suck is due to millions not even knowing it's existence, the 3DS (not even 2DS) doen't need more ads, the X and Y will cover that, i want 3D world ads, i want MOAR Wii U ads! MMMOOOOAAARRR!! and A comment to the guy above, well what about 3D world or Sonic lost world and etc? They are just ''decent''? No! they SHOULD be ads for those ganes too!
@Peach64 - Its a rare occassion where I disagree w/ you so I'm replying. The casuals is all Nintendo has left with PS4 and X1 coming out so it needs to advertise Wii U Fit U, Wii U Party, Just Dance, SM3DW and Mario and Sonic Winter Olympics 2014 during prime time when families are watching tv together. And at $299 its omly $50 more than Wii but HD and a 6" tablet. People are ready to upgrade, but they need the games and they need the advertising to be told they need to upgrade now.
As much as Ild like to ridicule Nintendo for spending money promoting X + Y, truth is that 2Dees is 1 ugly confusing system and its going to need all the advertising it can get.
Nintendo of UK is awesome, meanwhile in Australia -_-
I should really stop complaining about Nintendo of Australia, at least they provided X&Y 3ds consoles I guess :/
Have to agree, Ni tendo Need to ramp up WiiU advertising more. I suppose it depends on which channels you watch as I've personaly seen more WiiU and WiiU game adverts since Pikmin3 released, but thays the problem Ninttendo need to be advertising on Every Mainstream channel.
How about an advertising campaign for games that actually need it? Say, like the Wonderful 101?!
The fact that Mario Kart and Smash don't come out for another 6 months or so worries me that Nintendo's 'big Wii U marketing push' will only happen holiday 2014.
@rjejr
What Nintendo needs to do is to discontinue the DS, now that there is a cheap system to replace it. And then there will be no confusion at all. Both 3DS and 2DS will be able to play any game with a DS or 3DS logo on it.
And it makes sense to keep advertising AC, as many people will get that one with their new, cheap 2DS, specially kids.
Surely it's the Wii U that needs the big advertising push?
It makes sense, the handheld are the hot cakes right now along with the tasty whip cream aka AC and Pokemon X&Y. But what doesn't make sense: where is the advertisement for the Wii U (the million dollar question). Surely Nintendo (in all regions I would presume) know that this system is not selling well. Yes software is needed but what about software without advertisement? You might as well make a movie and put it in the theaters without advertisement.
Can anyone tell me what colours 2DS will be available in? My 5yr old daughter loves my 3DS & I'm hoping 2get away with getting her the cheaper 2DS but if it's not available in pink... Anyone? Thank you
@Nintenjoe64 Seems like the kind of decision he would make.
Also "3DS isn't selling because there are no games for it. Let's divert a huge chunk of our development resources to that console even though it will leave our next console in the same position."
@MJKOP Only Blue/Black and Red/White in Europe, and Blue/Black and Red/Black in the US.
This is nonsensical - Advertising push on an in-between handheld (The 3DS plays in 2D so why bother), and a lack of advertising for the Wii U just pushes the Wii U deeper into the whole in the ground!
@C-Olimar Cheers thanks for that
People in the UK "What is the Wii U ?"
Nintendo is just asking for the Wii U to be ignored now. Anyway, advertise those games and make your kiddy image even more blatant.
How about they put the same amount of creativity and effort in Wii U advertisement?
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