"June 5, 2008 - Leo Burnett's "Wii Would Like to Play" for Nintendo's Wii won the Grand Effie at the 40th Annual Effie Awards last night at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York. Since 1968, winning an Effie award has become a global symbol of achievement, as the Effies honor marketing communications ideas that work.
Advertising holding company WPP won the most Effie awards, with 26 agency wins, while Omnicom agencies had 21 agency wins. Publicis agencies were awarded 15 Effies, IPG agencies landed 11 Effie wins and Havas agencies won six Effie awards. San Francisco-based Goodby Silverstein won the most Gold Effies of any agency in the competition, taking home three Gold trophies for their campaigns for Adobe, Doritos and HP.
The "Wii Would Like to Play" campaign chose not to embrace an obvious strategy, namely fawning over the prized teenage male gamer. Instead, Wii targeted his mom, dad and grandmother. While the competition catered to a narrow audience, Wii invited everyone to play. As a result, the Wii has been sold out nationwide since the launch and ignited a cultural phenomenon in how people experience video games."
