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Forums - Nintendo - Nintendo releases a youtubers staring New 3DS commercial showing Monster Hunter 4 U and Zelda: MM. Premiere during walking dead.

Samus Aran on 08 February 2015
the_dengle said:
Soundwave said:

To be honest though the 3DS doesn't have impressive looking graphics by modern standards, I don't think you want to "show the games" too much as the gameplay is what sets those games apart. The infomercial style of the commercial is a bit cheesy though I agree. As for 3D ... they're kinda married to it with the 3DS, they don't have much of a choice but to push that angle as its what makes the system unique. 

Of course they have a choice. They can choose to have a bunch of people talking about the 3D for 30 seconds while barely mentioning the game itself. They can choose to not mention the 3D at all. They can choose to mention it once, briefly.

This isn't rocket science. Compare that commercial for Majora's Mask 3D to this one for Ocarina of Time 3D. That's from 4 years ago! They weren't afraid to show the game. They weren't overloading the viewer with information from 6 different sources. Nobody says "3D" even once, but they're smart enough to realize that "3D" is a part of the names of both the system and the game they're advertising, and is therefore already plastered all over the advertisement.

Here's another commercial for Ocarina 3D. This time they used CGI to make the game look much prettier than it is. They're clearly aiming for the nostalgia bone here, as they show a few of the most instantly recognizable moments from Ocarina of Time. Focusing more strongly on the game itself than in the Williams commercial even though they're not even showing the real game. At the end of the commercial they give a quick, "Now in 3D, no glasses required," and that's it.

They could have easily done something very similar to these commercials for Majora's Mask and Monster Hunter, and I think it would have been much more effective than what they did instead.

Now look what you've done, you made me bring up Robin Williams and make everyone sad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps5hX4JYSnM

Why complain about everything? They're finally putting some effort in and people still complain.



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the_dengle on 08 February 2015
Samus Aran said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps5hX4JYSnM

Why complain about everything? They're finally putting some effort in and people still complain.

Well there you go, that one's better.

Hey I gave them props for running ads during these shows. I'm just saying the commercials they made for that audience are pretty weak compared to the ones they made four years ago, or indeed compared to the one you just linked.

There's no consolation prize for trying in marketing.



Soundwave on 08 February 2015

Nah I think Nintendo needs to use real people (adults, not freaking kids though) in their commercials moreso.

The "just run a gameplay trailer for 30 seconds" doesn't sell games anymore unless you have a game with unbelievable graphics. It's not the 90s anymore, that type of advertising only appeals to niche gamers.

The N3DS spot while still being a generally awkward/mediocre commercial is at least a step in the right direction. It shows "normal, semi-attractive adults" using Nintendo products and portrays that the product isn't some kids toy. It's also on during TV shows that the mass market actually watches (Better Call Saul/Walking Dead), the best commercial in the world doesn't mean much if you air it only on shows no one watches.

That was part of what made the "Wii Would Like To Play" commercials work ... they showed normal people using the product ... adults too, not pandering to kids like the Wii U commercials did. Nintendo needs to market that way because they have a stigma against them that their products are toys, so the proper way to market themselves is to counteract that. 

I'd say it is a step in the right direction after about 4 years of terrible marketing.



the_dengle on 08 February 2015
RolStoppable said:

You don't remember the first batch of 3DS commercials, do you? They didn't show any games, just people looking at a device and saying "wow".
the_dengle said:

Remember back in 2011 when Iwata said it was difficult to convey the 3D effect through commercials? They still haven't learned from that! They still have these guys standing here telling you, wow the 3D is like so cool.


the_dengle on 08 February 2015
RolStoppable said:

The difference is that this time around it should be clear that the device is playing video games.

Hahaha.

Well the launch commercials were terrible. But the thing is since then they have had actually good commercials, but now they seem to have gone back to square one, thinking for some reason that talking about the 3D is a good idea.



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Soundwave on 08 February 2015

The commercials should be funnier, there needs to be an edge to them. Some kind of attitude ... what attitude does your brand represent? Nintendo never really conveys that. Marketing is about image. I would also probably have cut out most of the people in the commercial. Just focused on iJustine and maybe one other guy. Sorry to the neckbeard guy but you probably want to keep the camera on the attractive girl. 

But it's better than what I would called the "kids breakfast cereal" commercial style that Nintendo's been using the last few years. Nintendo was marketing their games like they were selling breakfast cereal to kids, and that had to stop. 



Soundwave on 08 February 2015
RolStoppable said:
the_dengle said:

Hahaha.

Well the launch commercials were terrible. But the thing is since then they have had actually good commercials, but now they seem to have gone back to square one, thinking for some reason that talking about the 3D is a good idea.

Their strategy has been to double down on mostly existing fans of their products; which makes sense, given that neither the 3DS or Wii U were really designed to appeal to a broader market, so reaching out would most likely fail and additionally piss off their existing base.

What goes hand in hand with this is a final push for 3D. The face-tracking is a feature that Nintendo has invested in, so it's worth it for them to advertise it. If this improved technology doesn't convince the 3D skeptics, then at least Nintendo will know (or rather, I hope they will realize) that this direction is a dead end. It doesn't hurt to have certainty because doubt may lead to a return of 3D. To expand on that, the Virtual Boy would be such a product that left doubt; you couldn't say with absolute certainty that 3D isn't what people want because the technology was so limited back then.


I'd say their strategy has been to double down on the family/kids market. That's been virtually every commercial that they've made. Their marketing in the 90s was for their fanbase and that style of marketing is fairly different to what they've used in the last 4-5 years. 

I think they got scared and confused when kids especially starting playing iOS games and figured the best thing to do was to market to kids/family crowd almost exclusively, this is why almost all their commercials were on like the Cartoon Network, but now I think they're realizing that wasn't working. 



the_dengle on 08 February 2015
RolStoppable said:

Their strategy has been to double down on mostly existing fans of their products; which makes sense, given that neither the 3DS or Wii U were really designed to appeal to a broader market, so reaching out would most likely fail and additionally piss off their existing base.

What goes hand in hand with this is a final push for 3D. The face-tracking is a feature that Nintendo has invested in, so it's worth it for them to advertise it. If this improved technology doesn't convince the 3D skeptics, then at least Nintendo will know (or rather, I hope they will realize) that this direction is a dead end. It doesn't hurt to have certainty because doubt may lead to a return of 3D. To expand on that, the Virtual Boy would be such a product that left doubt; you couldn't say with absolute certainty that 3D isn't what people want because the technology was so limited back then.

How could this convince the 3D skeptics when you said yourself they are targeting existing fans?



Soundwave on 08 February 2015

They kinda have to play up the 3D face tracking thing because a device called "New 3DS" begs the question "well what's 'new' about this?" and you can't exactly make a commercial about an analog nub. "Face tracking 3D" sounds interesting at least from a marketing POV. 



Soundwave on 08 February 2015
shikamaru317 said:
vivster said:
Jesse is a fucking sellout^^

It's true, he knows no shame. Literally, one of his mottos is "Advertise like shameless whores" xD


Haha, that hillarious. The funny thing is Nintendo probably didn't even have to pay him much to get him to break, lol.