As 2017 was coming to the end, Nintendo’s Russian division made the surprise decision to produce its own TV commercial for Super Mario Odyssey, a first for the company in that country. The ad, which we’ve covered alongside other tactics designed to win over hearts of many Russians, showed a Nintendo fan spending several decades playing Super Mario games through ever-changing landscapes and life activities.
The branch seems to be happy with the end result, as the latest press statement mentions it will continue producing local ads "when it will be relevant for Russian audiences." Yasha Haddaji, Nintendo RU’s CEO, expresses that the company is "very proud" about making its own promos and "considers it important to serve Russian customers with the visual content fitting their cultural and historical legacy."
The commercial was a debut not only for Nintendo RU, but for Russian production studio KOSMOSS. While one may wonder why the international company known for its strict brand control decided to establish a partnership with a company that has no background, it seems more of a case of helping with the creation of a studio for the specific task.
KOSMOSS co-founder, Valeriy Boluchevskiy, was a person behind the "Banana Switch" short movie which went viral last year. The "play anywhere" aspect of Nintendo Switch gets cranked up to eleven in that video, as it culminates in a guy skydiving with his console and playing Zelda on the fly. Many people across the world considered the video worthy of being an actual Switch advertisement, and Nintendo RU seem to have taken a note.
KOSMOSS has now published a making-of for the Super Mario Odyssey ad, which you can take a look at below. It provides quite a lot of insight on visualising and creating the first Russian Nintendo ad — and it’s fully subtitled to English.
Needless to say, as long as it leads to more great videos and more culture-aware promotion, we’ll be glad to see Russians putting their own spin on Nintendo marketing in the future.
Comments 20
Those are really good adverts. Ads in general on TV and radio are usually muck.
Sentimentality and nostalgia sells, the ad here is pretty effective, but this kind of "heartwarming" thing stepped over the line for me with the Sainsbury's Christmas ad from 2014.
there's something cheap, dishonest and slightly facetious about it that made my skin crawl.
It's a thin line I suppose.
I LOVE this ad! Made me smile
I will point out an error right at the start of the Banana Switch ad. They're both mashing away on the SNES controllers in DKC2. Wrong!
Wait !
Is there any moment from Mario Odyssey that i am being chased by a T-Rex in New Donk City ??
Is THAT how you hold an N64 controller? Nooo, boy I don't think so.
@Anti-Matter Yes, there is.
Why still no "suka blyad" here
Thumbs up from me. Nice work!
Great advert.
@Anti-Matter YEP! FIND IT. IT'S SO WORTH IT!!
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Why is playing DKC2 with SNES controllers....wrong?
@YummyHappyPills They were playing 2 player at the same time. But in the game you have to take turns as a team.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Oh no. False advertising. For a product from 20 years ago...that isn't even the thing they were advertising...in something that wasn't an actual ad.
Whatever will we do?
Though seriously you should watch daytime TV and have advertising standards on speed-dial. You could do a world of good with that eye.
@YummyHappyPills You seem to have missed the part where that comment was obviously a joke.
@c2017nlifemedia You seem to have missed the part of that comment that was blatantly sarcasm and then a legitimate suggestion for an observant viewer as false advertising is a serious problem.
That ad is 1000 X better than the North American one!
@YummyHappyPills Yes, the whole reason you wrote it in a snarky way is because you assumed he was being serious.
@Anti-Matter yep.
Lol, in Russia...sorry, I had to say it!
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