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Faelco on 14 May 2018
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GoOnKid said:
Faelco said:

Nintendo put a massive marketing for Labo. And even weeks after release, they keep doing it. It's obvious that for them Labo isn't a niche product that doesn't need to sell well because the investment was low, like some people here like to believe. Otherwise they wouldn't, you know, spend so much money trying to sell the thing.

 

Nintendo invested quite a lot in that, they want and need it to succeed. It didn't succeed so far, even with the big marketing, so they're trying other big ways of market it to try to push some sales. Marketing push is usually done for launch and holidays, because that's when you have tons of games to sell. Not a month after launch...

 

Seriously, weeks after launch they pay Ariana Grande to help sell the product, and you think that it means the product was a huge success so far?

Well, if you really wanted to, you could look at it that way. But on the other hand, you could also say that Nintendo wants it to have more exposure because they want more people to talk about it since Labo is fresh and different and shows what a Switch can do. It's a product that serves multiple purposes at the same time. I believe there are more reasons for this marketing push than yours. Another purpose might be to show that the ToyCons that come right out the gate are not where Labo stops but that you can build nearly anything out of it if you want to, like more musical instruments for example like Ariana is showing.

Also, any game/product can be advertised heavily, no matter how good or bad it sells. That's why Nintendo aired many TV ads for Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U even many years after launch. That's why Apple advertises all their latest phones even when they already sell millions.

Your reason may not be necessarily wrong, but it doesn't explain the situation good enough.

Yes, I completely understand your opinion and it's maybe right too!

 

The difference I see compared to usual long term marketing like MK or Apple (so what led me to have this opinion) is the scale and investment in the marketing. If it was just an usual TV ad, I would agree completely. But to get Ariana Grande in the Tonight Show is a lot more than an usual TV spot. It's usually the kind of things we see for the launch of new products, not one month later. That's why it seems like there is something else than usual marketing behind it.

 

And since we already know that Labo didn't set the charts on fire and that the initial shipment isn't gone yet, it doesn't seem crazy to think that Nintendo isn't entirely satisfied with the launch and wants a bump in sales. It doesn't mean that the product failed or that Nintendo is panicking about it.