i live in australia and i had yet to see any real decent effort of advertising done by nintendo out here, now all of a sudden BOOM im seeing tons of ds ads on tv (brain training, animal crossing and just the actual ds) the Wii is even sponsoring all of sunday nights on channel 7 not to mention bus stops etc. I cant ever recall nintendo doing so much advertising out here before... anyone else getting that feeling?

Yeah, I have suddenly started seeing a bunch of Nintendo ads as well - during the AFL, and at other times. Maybe they got their marketing budget approved ;), and can actually start doing something for the new FY. Or maybe units have stopped selling out, which is the best time to actually market a product!

i kind of wonder how nintendo would market the wii if it's not selling as well as it is currently?  australia might just be a market to find out!  we'll see if sales pick up down under with the release of either one of Wii music or Wii Health, coz lest we forget that's still their strategy to inject non-gamer's interest.

speaking of which, are those games at least rumored to be released by year's end? 

There has been loads of marketing in the UK. I swear there was like 50 different advertisements showing on TV every day in the run up to the Wiis launch. Theyve slowed down, but the advertisements are still going

Actually, ads are important too when your wares are hot. It not only remind those that hadn't got one but want one to go and get one. Meanwhile, those that aren't aware would be made aware. Most importantly, it keeps the wares hot for longer with more exposure. And with the money printing machines, they sure can drop a few buckets of cash into marketing.

also, the people that get voted off of big brother (aus) get 2 grand 'Wii' money not sure what it means lol... only saw it briefly, had an envelope with the wii symbol, pretty cool. i remember a couple of series ago they gave away ps2's lol

Indeed, Nintendo has been marketing Wii since March in Finland. I heard that they were planning ads starting from week six, but since they were out of supply, they didn't start it until march. The situation is pretty strange, since Nintendos marketing beats Sonys marketing at the moment. Ads have slowed down also here, but so have Sonys ads also. In radio you hear world poler tour ads, and Wii is announced as sponsor. But pretty odd, usually you hear more from Nintendos lawers than Nintendos marketing people.

Yeah, I’ve also noticed the increased Nintendo adds in Aus.  And to be honest – it’s about time – I can’t remember seeing anything Nintendo related for many years here.

My circle of friends includes people from the 25-35 age group.  While most have heard of the Wii, very few know about the DS.  Even the ones who know about the Wii aren’t all that familiar with it, other than “it’s interactive”.  Hopefully these adds increase awareness and encourage people to look further into them.

On a related note.  I remember Sony marketing heavily just prior to launch here, with segments on Today Tonight and a lot of radio time.  But I felt that’s recently slowed down, and now I hear more about the Wii on radio.  Although, I recently noticed that the PS3 is one of the nightly prizes on Temptation – how long has that been going for? I haven’t seen that show in ages.

Are you guys kidding I have not seen a single tv ad but then again I hardly see any wiis so but there you have seen tv ads are there any wiis in stores?

Wolfenstein: There were a lot of ads at the time of PS3 release, and obviously Nintendo shipped bigger stock than before at that time. You could even find one at the time. But now, when stocks have ran out again, ads have slowed down.