One of the biggest reasons for the Wii U’s failure was its marketing. Put simply, the marketing sucked. Most people were simply not aware that the Wii U was a thing, and those that were thought that it was a tablet accessory for the original Wii, that’s how poor the marketing was.
Although Nintendo has made a fair few mistakes with the upcoming Nintendo Switch, the one thing the company has gotten completely right has been the marketing. The original reveal for the Switch was entirely on point, and the company has even splurged for a slick, great looking Super Bowl ad, to expose the new system to the largest possible audience.
According to Nick Chavez, who is Nintendo’s head of marketing, this is just going to be the beginning, too. “There’s no bigger stage in the U.S. on which to showcase the platform. I think it speaks to our confidence in the system,” Chavez told TIME, discussing the Super Bowl ad spot, which is estimated to have cost the company over $5 million years. “Think about your 40- to 45-year-old parent who has really fond memories of playing Zelda growing up, sitting there watching Super Bowl with their 10- or 12-year-old child who maybe hasn’t experienced Zelda yet,” says Chavez.
The marketing effort for the Switch is not going to end just here, either- “This isn’t just a six to eight week launch campaign,” says Chavez, referring to the Switch’s hands-on reveal in early January through to its launch on March 3. “This is really a 15 month campaign for us, to say nothing of our plans for 2018. You’re going to see a number of other touch points, including additional 30 or 60 second executions in the coming weeks that emphasize the full proposition, meaning those multiple demographics, including kids, teenagers, young adults, parents, active gamers, casual gamers and so forth.”
With this kind of marketing, Nintendo could actually do very well with the Switch. It has a fundamentally appealing product on hand here, and by positioning it well, that product is slated to do well. Now let’s just hope Nintendo doesn’t mess up elsewhere along the way. The Nintendo Switch is slated to launch worldwide on March 3 this year.