Wii wins Popular Science's "best of what's new"

What you need to realize 32_Footsteps is that Sony's advertising could prompt someone to wait for the shortages to be over instead of buying a competitor's console which may be available as an alternative. In this scenario the advertisement does not equal an immediate sale but it definitely helps the company by translating into a future sale that might have been lost.

"You can't prove that advertising with the purpose of promoting a brand works at all. You say it won't have any measurable effect on the company's sales."


Look around you; U2 branded iPods, stadiums and arenas named after companies that have no relation to sports, ads that show no product at all, movie tie ins at burger chains, etc. Brand-awareness advertising is everywhere.

As far as having limited product to sell (which may lead to some disgruntled individuals); its a valid concern, but, thats only ONE of MANY considerations and it is something that can be managed. IE... keeping your ads to high level concepts rather than direct sales ads.. exactly like what they've been doing.

As i previously, its short sighted and narrow minded to simply say that advertising is gonna hurt and should be curtailed.

"Look around you; U2 branded iPods, stadiums and arenas named after companies that have no relation to sports, ads that show no product at all, movie tie ins at burger chains, etc. Brand-awareness advertising is everywhere."

You've managed to successfully prove that everyone does it. I'm asking you to prove it works.

In fact, if you're citing stadium naming deals, you're actually proving my point. Marketing research has repeatedly proven that stadium naming rights do not improve profits in any way. In fact, such naming deals are often losers for the companies actually performing them, and about the most benefit they get out of said deals is choice seating for events at said stadia.

Pointing out that plenty of companies make such deals doesn't justify those deals. Figures that show companies benefit from them do.

Really, your argument for advertising for branding's sake amounts to "Everyone else is doing it; so should we." Last I checked, however, the argument for anything related to advertising begins and ends with "Does it help our profits?"

If your ad campaign isn't helping your profits, it's not helping your company.

Yeeeeeees, November 19th and I will have it! This has got to be the best fall/christmas season in the history of gaming....

I just stopped by EB and Call of Duty 3 is out, Gears of War is out, Elite Beat Agents, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, FF III is coming soon, FFV is coming soon, Zelda TP, Wii, PS3, FFXII, Jump Superstars 2 is the end of the month....wow....so many great games...so little time and so little money....

For all you really hyped up fanboys, remember, the psp had won this award as well...

"4. Too much hype for this console and poor managaement of consumer expectations. Basically, the exact opposite of the DS launch when it was written off intially but ended up succeeding."

In other words, because a bunch of negative word of mouth (DS) eventually results in high sales, a bunch of positive word of mouth (Wii) must eventually result in poor sales. Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense.

So all of

A good deal of the general acceptance of Wii comes from the fact that DS blazed the trail. The roads for motion control were paved by dual screens.

Success is measured by a few factors for a product, I mean looking at Ipod for a moment, it is by no means the most functional, and of the things it does, it's not even the best at doing it. Take that in with the fact it's also one of the more expensive models and you have to begin to wonder just how they do it!

Well, they do it by creating a MP3 player that you aren't afraid to carry around in public (Although, alot of people are afriad to carry it around these days..but thats more for robbery reasons than looking silly) and two made it easy to use.

Kind of makes me wonder how different Gamecubes sales might have been if they had spent as much thought on its marketable design as they did DS lite and Wii.

Moogle: "People complain ligitmately complain about kiddy games aren't talking about bright colors or cartoon characters"

No, I'm pretty sure they are complaining about bright colors and cartoon characters. Calling a game "kiddie" is most commonly used as an insult, interchangable with "gay". To the immature, realistic blood and violence is cool, and everything else is "kiddie" (even when it has a "T" for teen rating).

I think this will be a major problem for the Wii... Adolescents are obsessed with looking and acting mature. I see and hear them swearing (badly) and talking about movies and video games. Violence is cool. M-rated games are cool. To this age group, the Wii is "kiddie" and "gay". Ironically, I expect the "kiddie" Wii will find more adult fans than adolescent fans.

I don't really agree with most of what ">" says, i've always considered him as a flamer for the nintendo related comments, but i do belive his comments about marketing are right.

I could very well be wrong since the only knowlege about marketing i have are a couple of semesters back at the university, but to say that you do not need to advertize something if it is not gonna be available at large quantities is a little narrow minded.

32_Footsteps, i think you do sharp comments regulary, however i think you are a little off right now, wich doesn't seem to happen a lot. A marketing campaign is usually meant for a long term effect, even if the adds look shallow enough to be forgotten. I do belive that > is right that sony needs to advertize a lot even if they are not gonna meet demand because they have a very expensive product and they need to convince people that it is worth it.

They are also making people aware that they also have a product and Wii or 360 are not the only choices for next Gen. The campaign might also be ment to keep the PS brand on people's mind and it could be meant for a period of six months, a year or more taking into acount not only sales but the other points talked before.

A marketing campaign job may be simpified to SELL MORE, but it definitly just not that and not always that evident.

Putting aside my Intelligent wannabe comments i will now express my sadness that i'm not gonna get my Wii this year because of greedy retailers in mexico that are pricing it higher than the 360 and i refuse to pay a $110 dollar premium on it... I don't want a 360 yet, nor i will be getting a PS3 until is way cheap, but i really wanted a wii this fall. So next year it is... /whine off (for now)

The whole Wii aura is too iPodish for me....I'll be a rebel and get the PS3.