Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Nicole Kidman – an interesting and expensive choice by Nintendo



About 4 years ago I was a speaker at one of the UK's 50-plus conferences and surprised to meet a marketing guy from Nintendo.

Things have moved on since then and the company appears to be doing very well in creating a new market for its products amongst an older audience.

With the black cloud of dementia lurking over the horizon, a generation of people who spent time and money attempting to keep their bodies in shape are now doing the same with their brains.

Nintendo has chosen Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman as the face of its latest advertising campaign. The press release explains all.

The TV ad doesn’t knock me of my feet. It is not one of her best acting performances. But, the message conveyed by Nintendo’s choice of Ms Kidman is that the company is adopting age neutral advertising. She is 40 years old but has an appeal that is 25 years older and younger.

It is interesting to see that the ad was put on YouTube on the 25th June and has already generated nearly half a million views.

The other marketing message that comes from Nintendo’s choice of such an attractive and high profile personality is that the free viral marketing can be significant.

Thanks to Arjan in't Veld for telling me about the ad and well done Nintendo. Dick Stroud

1 comment:

Chuck Nyren said...

Your age-neutral comments aside - this is a pretty lame commercial. I'll take a wild guess that Ms. Kidman is probably not an idiot (although I could be wrong) - but I half-expected her to turn to the camera and say,"I'm not a dunderhead, but I play one on TV."

Perhaps this is the first in a series - and she gets smarter in subsequent spots.