Wii Would Like to Play

Transcription

1 2008 Gold Effie Winner Wii Would Like to Play Category: New Product Client: Nintendo of America Primary Agencies: Leo Burnett USA, Golin Harris Media Agency: Starcom Worldwide Strategic Challenge Background: Game over for Nintendo? Last year marked the beginning of another video game war. Microsoft s Xbox 360 had been in market since November 2005 and Sony s next generation system, PlayStation 3, would to launch November 17, With a combined 93% existing market share, these industry behemoths shared a winning strategy: obsessing over the hardcore male gamer who invested tons of money and time into video gaming. (Source: NPD, Sept. 2006) To uphold category control, they were betting on greater system power, more realistic graphics and more complicated game play. With a new system in the works, Nintendo would enter the console war just two days after PlayStation 3 but was hardly considered a threat. Coming off of a dismal five years of GameCube performance, Nintendo had just experienced its U.S. hardware sales tumble to nearly half of what they had been almost 20 years earlier. This ironically happened when the video game category had grown to a $30 billion global industry. (Source: CnnMoney.com, Apr. 25, 2007) At one point during Nintendo s business slump, a Strategy Analytics consultant advised the once category leader to follow Sega and Atari s example and exit the hardware battle altogether. (Source: gameboy.gamezone.com, 2003)

2 Wii had to make a change Nintendo refused to surrender but needed to drastically chart a different course to win. The obvious answer was going after the core male gamer, but Nintendo s research uncovered a warning sign: this demographic was getting smaller and decreasing his spending patterns. (Source: Nintendo Global User Index, May 2005) So while Sony s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft s Xbox 360 would cater to the red ocean of hardcore gamers, Nintendo saw an opportunity to bring gaming to the masses, the audience who had become alienated by difficult play, rising price points and violent games. Enter Wii, Nintendo s new system designed with an expanded audience in mind. Instead of boasting processing power or pixel count, Wii s arsenal was totally different: motion-sensitive controllers that made gaming, priced intentionally lower than the competition Still everyone, like the of Epic Games Vice President, predicted another Nintendo failure, Don t kid yourself you re going to see more gimmicky, crappy, cheap, I-wish-I-hadn t-bought-it gimmick games based around this controller than you can possibly imagine. (Source: gamesindustry.biz, Oct. 27, 2005) Not only did the industry perceive Wii as a gimmick, they thought Nintendo s hopes of getting moms, families and non-gamers to play seemed ridiculous. We faced the daunting task of rising above these naysayers to convince an expanded audience that gaming was fun again. A formidable wall had been built between the industry and the masses they simply weren t playing or buying video games. We had to break that enormous wall down. Objectives Objective #1: Short-term: Achieve 600,000 Wii unit sales from its November 19, 2006 launch through the end of Objective #2: Mid-term: Become a viable option in the video game business alongside Sony and Microsoft by aiming for at least 1/3 of market share by the end of Objective #3: Long-term: Use Wii to fundamentally change how the people experience video games. The Big Idea How can a last place brand sell millions of Wiis to an audience who is not playing video games? Discovering the dormant playing gene To uncover how to make Wii appeal to an expanded audience, we talked to consumers who weren t playing video games. From thirty-somethings who hadn t played in more than a decade to parents who lost their kids to PlayStation, their barriers to gaming were the same: games were too hard, the learning curve was too steep and the buttons to press were way too many. Long gone were the days

3 when Pac-man welcomed them with the blissful ease of a single joystick at their local arcade. As gaming exited the public arena and entered the American household, it gradually lost public appeal. Its jarring complexities alienated all but the sweaty teenage boy playing for hours in his basement lair. While these self described non-gamers may have been off-put by video games, we discovered they had a playing gene. They admitted enjoying fun challenges, like crossword puzzles and Sudoku, plus participating in social activities like weekend sports leagues. Also, they confessed these social activities provided fun and meaningful ways to connect with family and friends, something of which they sought more in today s complicated society. Our opportunity became clear. Wii had the potential to feel like the games these people knew and loved. Better yet, it could destroy their negative assumptions and perceptions of video gaming. In a society where couch potatoism was running rampant, Wii offered an alternative. In a world that championed individual entertainment options, Wii could bring people physically together. Wii could invigorate the dormant playing gene of an audience the video game industry long assumed shouldn t be targeted. (Source: Agency Qualitative Research, Aug. 2006) Bringing the Idea to Life By invitation By choosing to target people who didn t play video games, this couldn t be your typical video game launch. So we created an identity that set a tone for our communications. Wii will break down that wall the separates video game players from everybody else. Wii is inclusive and accepting of anyone who is interested in playing. Wii is approachable. Wii isn t intimidating. Wii reaches out to people. Wii is about playing, and playing with each other. We started by extending a mass invitation across the U.S. for all to play, turning an exclusive category into an inclusive social entertainment revolution. We identified two Japanese ambassadors to lead our invitation to play for whom to better start a movement in video gaming than the people who invented it. They would knock on the doors of the gaming disenfranchised, from suburban dads in Atlanta to farmers in Kansas to Hispanic moms living out west, with the words Wii would like to play. Our next step was uprooting the barriers that pushed people out of gaming. In turn, we made deliberate choices in our creative to disavow all that was sedentary, isolationist, violent and complicated and position Wii as just the opposite. So we captured people getting off the couch and moving around to establish that Wii was active, showed families and friends playing Wii together to prove it was social and cast a range of people you normally wouldn t see, from grade school kids to grandparents, to demonstrate Wii was innocent, fun and refreshingly simple. By association To give the masses permission to play, we elected to be in mass places. What s more launch date, we dominated YouTube s homepage, premiering our TV creative: an invitation received one million click-throughs in three days, 670,000 of which were on the first traditional programming on shows

4 the whole family watched together, such as American Goldstar Showcase, a documentary style feature that captured adults from our TV ads relied on pop culture to trigger our invitation, targeting niche placements to spark Wii Report, Late Night with Conan O Brien, Two and a Half Men, plus many more. By education The real key to getting Wii into the American home rested in mom s hands, the purchase gatekeeper who needed proof this was a good product for her and her family. So we made a conscious decision to school her on Wii and win her endorsement in the process. This effort began before launch with Wii parties for alpha moms of socially connected households in several major markets. A huge success, not only did these women work up a sweat playing Wii, they bought at least one or two by the end of the night and blogged about it the next day. (Source: L.A. Times, Dec. 25, 2006) Another vital effort that taught moms about Wii was print advertorials, illustrating how playing Wii could improve her family time. We also developed custom content to entice purchase around the holidays. Wii was seamlessly integrated into HGTV s broadband Gift Guide as the perfect holiday gift for her family. By participation To convert our invitation into participation, we went where mass audiences hung out and gave them a chance to experience Wii first-hand: malls. During the Wii Mall Experience, more than 90MM consumers of all ages passed through 25 malls in 15 major markets where we had sampling stations. We also encouraged participation by bringing Wii to vacation-goers on Norwegian Cruise Lines, to concert-goers during the Nintendo Fusion Tour and to senior citizens in retirement communities. Communications Touch Points TV Spots Branded Content Sponsorship Product placement Radio Spots Merchandising Program/content Print Trade/Professional Newspaper Consumer Magazine Print partnership Direct Mail PR Events Packaging Product Design Cinema Interactive Online Ads Web site Viral video Video skins/bugs Social Networking sites Podcasts Gaming Mobile Phone Other OOH Airport Transit Billboard Place Based Other Trade Shows Sponsorship Retail Experience POP Video In-Store Merchandizing Sales Promotion Retailtainment Guerrilla Street Teams Tagging Wraps Buzz Marketing Ambient Media Sampling/Trial Consumer Involvement WOM Consumer Generated Viral Other Tivo Goldstar Showcase

5 Reach: National Total Media Expenditures: $40 Million and over Results OBJECTIVE #1 Short-term - Achieve 600,000 Wii unit sales from its Nov. 19, 2006 launch through the end of RESULTS - During a heavily contested holiday market, we nearly doubled our goals, ringing up more than 1.1MM sales, while simultaneously outselling Sony s recently launched PlayStation 3 console by more than 50%. (Source: NPD, Dec. 2006) OBJECTIVE #2 Mid-term - Become a viable option in the video game business alongside Sony and Microsoft by aiming for at least 1/3 of market share by the end of RESULTS - Nintendo far surpassed its year-end goal in less than six months, growing from 7% share with GameCube to 58% share Wii. (NPD, Sept. May 2006) During this short time period, Wii proved to be the fastest-selling console in more than a decade! (Source: videogames.yahoo.com, Apr. 19, 2007) Wii continued to lead the pack through the summer, with July 2007 sales beating the combined sales totals of rivals Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3. (Source: NPD, Jul. 2007)

6 OBJECTIVE #3 Long-term - Use Wii to fundamentally change how the people experience video games. RESULT - Ignited a cultural phenomenon in how people approach and play video games. Wii Parties: Reinvigorating Saturday night Evite staffers began to notice Wii popping up in search queries, idea forums and party themes. In fact, they were seeing more than 100 Wii parties a month. So in March, the online-party-invite specialist launched dedicated Wii party-planning pages [and later added] invitations including actual Wii avatars, games and themes. (Source: AdAge ) New Participants: Redefining who is a gamer Flora Dierbach, 72, chairs the [retirement community entertainment committee] and helped arrange a Wii bowling tournament the latest Wii craze. It's a very social thing and it's good exercise... and you don't have to throw a 16-pound bowling ball to get results, said Dierbach, who added the competition had people who hardly knew each other cheering and hugging in the span of a few hours. We just had a ball with it. You think it's your grandkids' game and it's not. (Source: USAToday.com, Mar. 30, 2007) Group entertainment: Unexpected family interaction I have already seen the Wii appeal to people who would never pick up an Xbox or PlayStation controller. At Thanksgiving there was my 59-year-old stepfather, who hadn t touched a video game since Pong, locked in a tight golf match with my 21-year-old cousin. There was my aunt clamoring for her turn. And most shocking, there was my mother, 61, whom I had been trying to get into video games for two decades, playing tennis so vigorously she bruised her finger. (Source: New York Times )

7 Look at Mii! Avatar popularity runs wild The Mii* has spawned a fast-growing secondary market, with more than a dozen Web sites selling T-shirts, beer mugs and statuettes with Miis on them, or simply sharing Mii creations of celebrities, politicians and fictional figures [A] Wii tennis fan, is taking her Mii mania one step further. She recently contacted an artist who advertised Mii sculptures on ebay and asked him to make cake toppers of her and her fiancé s Miis to put on top of their wedding cake. (Source: Wall Street Journal ) *user-created avatars on Wii Wii-hab: The new physical therapy The Wii [is] therapy's current techno darling. So far WakeMed [Recreational Therapy] has used Wii for patients ages 7 to 75, with issues ranging from knee replacements and spinal cord and brain injuries, to stroke, cerebral palsy and Alzheimer's. Where the Wii may prove most effective is when a patient is discharged and must continue rehab on his own. It is something they can use at home, says Elizabeth Penny [Wakemed physical therapist]. Patients can play with their families, even their grandkids. (Source: USAToday.com, Jul. 24, 2007) SUMMARY In the face of negative pre-launch press, Wii has been a radiating success with mom, dad and grandma loving it as much as their kids do. Our invitation to play ignited video gaming genes across America, turning an insular category into an industry of players of all ages. Now a videogame console is no longer banished to the basement but instead is a centerpiece of social entertainment for families and friends alike. Hailed by Wall Street and the media, our real success is the fact that Wiis have been welcomed into more than four million households, rehabilitation centers and nursing homes to name a few and have been sold out across the country since launch, regularly surpassing PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sales combined. (Source: NPD, Dec Aug. 2007) Anything else going on that might have helped drive results? - While PlayStation 3 debuted at $599 and Xbox 360 cost up to $399, Wii was priced at $249, making it the most attractive console to value conscious moms. - Nintendo gave away a free game with all Wii unit purchases, Wii Sports.