Wii Fit is huge in Japan, and Nintendo of America wants it to be equally huge on this side of the Pacific.
Posted by James Brightman on Thursday, March 20, 2008
In the same note to investors that details his skepticism over retailer GameStop's revenue growth, analyst Michael Pachter also reveals that he's "learned that Nintendo of America intends to support the Wii Fit launch with the biggest marketing campaign in its history."
Further details on this campaign are currently not available but we've contacted both Nintendo and Pachter to see what information they can provide.
[Update: Pachter has now informed us that Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime himself told him that. Pachter added, "It suggests to me that the marketing will be broad-based and mainstream, meaning beyond the normal online and game magazine ads. My guess is we will see advertising on TV during American Idol, Oprah, etc. as opposed to ads on MTV during Punk'd."
We also asked Pachter if he knew what kind of marketing spend Nintendo had planned. He answered, "I really don't know what the spend will be, but it could be 10 - 12% of projected sales. If we assume a retail price of $100, that's $10 million in marketing for each 1 million units sold. If they go mainstream (have Oprah demo the device), I could see them selling 3 - 4 million, maybe more. That suggests the potential for $30 - 40 million in marketing.]
Pachter notes that Nintendo's marketing approach reinforces his theory that hardware sales will shift away from specialty stores like GameStop and towards mass market chains like Best Buy. "...it is unlikely that such a large marketing campaign is intended to disproportionately benefit GameStop," he said. "Rather, we think that the Nintendo campaign is likely to feature key retail partners such as Target and Best Buy, notorious for attracting so-called 'couch potatoes.'"
Wii Fit is already a huge success in Japan, having sold over 1.5 million units through February since launching last December. The game is scheduled to hit North America on May 19 and Nintendo certainly hopes the game will help them carry momentum gained from Super Smash Bros. Brawl and the soon-to-be-released Mario Kart Wii.
