promotionalconsideration
Latest
Promotional Consideration: Wagon Wheels' March
It seems as if it wasn't that long ago when rumors of Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen coming stateside first appeared, querying our next command. But here we are, less than two months away from the 3D remake's September 16 release, and Square Enix already has its marketing engine for the game running. The publisher has certainly done its part to push summer along by keeping the past couple of months busy with quality releases.This week's edition of Promotional Consideration pulls out a page from the latest issue of Nintendo Power to bring you Square Enix's new DQIV ad. Join us past the post break!See also: A Dragon Quest IV comic strip draws near! Command?%Gallery-23400%
Promotional Consideration: Circuit City savings with Cecil
This week's installment of Promotional Consideration comes with an excellent bonus -- a Circuit City deal for the Final Fantasy IV remake, which ships to stores next week. The electronics retailer is offering a $10 gift card with any purchase of the 3D RPG, on- and offline. Factor in free-shipping for orders totaling over $24, and this makes up for "the Square Enix tax," that extra $10 the publisher often adds to its DS games.Now that we've done our part to sell the game to you, let's look at how Square Enix has been pushing Final Fantasy IV. %Gallery-3278%
Promotional Consideration: Play to lose
As it did with My Word Coach, Ubisoft sees a lot of potential in My Weight Loss Coach (My Health Coach in Europe), putting enough money behind the nutrition and fitness trainer's marketing budget to support several print and television advertising campaigns worldwide. The publisher has timed the title's release and its promotional push perfectly, too, riding the exercise-game wave set in motion by Wii Fit.In this edition of Promotional Consideration, we look at several of those My Weight Loss Coach advertisements to pick out the goofy details and voice our trivial complaints. Eat a light lunch, run up a flight of steps, and meet us after the break for the ads!%Gallery-15787%
Promotional Consideration: Dragon Quest IV commercials were weird
With the Dragon Quest IV DS remake announced for the US and Europe this week, we thought it'd be good a time to dig up Enix's commercials for the original Famicom game's release in Japan. They're completely different from the retro ads used last November when the DS remake shipped.As with Squaresoft's chocobo commercials for Final Fantasy IV on the Super Famicom (launching a little over a year after Dragon Quest IV), these ads were just plain odd! They show hardly any in-game video, relying on logos and recognizable theme music instead. Gather your party and meet us in the fifth chapter, past the post break, for the commercials.
Promotional Consideration: King of the Monster Ads
Rawr!Of the three Godzilla: Unleashed games released (Wii, PS2, and DS), the DS version is, without a doubt, the worst of the bunch. That's saying a lot considering that GameSpot described the Wii version as "the worst thing to happen to Godzilla since getting killed by Mothra's babies." In its review of the DS game, Godzilla: Unleashed Double Smash, Nintendo Power opined, "The slow descent in Godzilla games has finally hit rock bottom."Nevertheless, publisher Atari had a job to do -- sell copies of the game -- and it did its best to win over fans with monster-sized ads befitting of the radioactive monster. Lurch past the post break to see what we mean!
Promotional Consideration: Advertising with Power, revisited
If you recall, back in November, we put up a short piece on the increasing number of ads in Nintendo Power after the magazine was handed over to Future US, the same publisher behind the official Xbox and PlayStation magazines. Chris Slate, Nintendo Power's new editor in chief, explained the ad-bloated issues: "Love or hate the ads, their number should go down significantly over the next couple of issues as we move away from the busy holiday selling season. We saw a huge upswing in ad pages last month because more games than ever are being released right now for the red-hot Wii and DS. However, new titles will slow down midway through December, and the ads will follow suit."So, now that we've put a few months in between us and December, has the magazine kept its promise, scaling back the number of ads in favor of delivering more news, reviews, and previews? Jump past the post break for the breakdown.
Promotional Consideration: Fushigi no Commercials
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out. In advance of this coming week's Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2 releases, Nintendo has commissioned two commercials to herald the dungeon crawlers, one for each edition, Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness. Once again, this sequel adopts Chunsoft's Fushigi no Dungeon (Mystery Dungeon) design to allow gamers to play as a Pokemon. It's a solid set of titles, by most reports, but many genre veterans consider them inferior to games like The Nightmare of Druaga and Shiren the Wanderer. Nevertheless, kids are crazy for the Pokemon branding, and the original GBA/DS Pokemon Mystery Dungeon releases went on to sell over 5.5 million copies worldwide. And that's why we now have a major publisher supporting an extremely niche genre with two separate commercials.
Promotional Consideration: Humanitarian aid crosses with the DS
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.As we've discussed before, a company's logo or branding can be just as important as the commercials and ads used to promote a product. This week, we'll take a look at a print piece that combines our favorite handheld with one of the most recognizable emblems in the world. Join us past the post break!
Promotional Consideration: Commercial of Duty
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.Though Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has sold exceptionally well in North America, topping the software charts for its PC and console releases, Activision is smart enough to know that marketing the title in Japan, where the DS is king and first-person shooter sales is an oxymoron, requires a different strategy. The result? Activision actually produced a 30-second spot specifically for the DS version of the multiplatform game ...
Promotional Consideration: 'You know, for adults!'
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.Long before Nintendo began its international Touch! Generations campaign to beckon casual gamers with promises of trained brains and improved vision, the company was putting its marketing money behind the original Game Boy to expand its audience to adults.The resulting commercials were cringe-inducing productions, so much so, it's hard to believe they captured anyone's interest at all. Of course, with Tetris leading the push, the handheld sold like hot cakes anyway, nullifying the ineffectiveness of the ads. But that doesn't mean we still can't dig them up and have a laugh at their expense!
Promotional Consideration: Real-life ninjas flippin' out
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out. Our featured item for this Easter Sunday, the North American commercial for Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, already made the rounds earlier this week, but if, like us, you're a fan of stealth assassins, that's probably of little concern to you. Put on your cleanest black jumpsuit -- make sure to run a lint-roller on it first to pull off all that cat hair -- and sneak past the post break for the video. %Gallery-4937%
Promotional Consideration: City planning
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.We applaud any video game ad that eschews the common official-art-and-screenshots approach, a template that's been in place for as long as we can remember. This week's piece abandons those conventions, marketing EA's SimCity DS port and its city-management features in a much more creative fashion. Expand you commercial zoning, lower industrial taxes, and join us past the break!
Promotional Consideration: Toy soldiers
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.We had so much fun presenting fan-made commercials these past two weeks, we decided to create our own ad, repurposing an old page ripped from a 1970s comic book, its pages yellowed with age. Strap up your boots, grab your rifle, and report past the post break for this week's edition of Promotional Consideration!
Promotional Consideration: Resident Evil Crossing ... 4!
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.Many of the commercials for Nintendo-published DS titles in Japan or Korea follow the same formula -- alternating shots between in-game clips and reactions from the player, typically a celebrity. It's an effective approach, as game and system sales can attest, but what happens when a bored video editor decides to mess with the recipe, replacing the cheerful game scenes from a Korean Animal Crossing ad with much more violent footage? Follow us past the post break to find out!
Promotional Consideration: Nintendo DS Air
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Nintendo_DS_Air'; Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.You don't have to try too hard to find similarities between the Nintendo DS Lite and Apple's Macbook Air -- they're both sleek, attractive devices, curves at every corner. Also, both of their designs place a heavy emphasis on their portability. And, most importantly, they both fit in an envelope!
Promotional Consideration: Return of the reused assets
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.Revisiting last week's theme of recycled assets, we're taking a look at the familiar artwork seen in a recent print ad for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Unlike the Flower, Sun, and Rain commercial which repurposed an old promotional music video to great effect, this one's a forgetful piece, the video game equivalent of a comic book cover with a generic superhero-team action shot.%Gallery-4700%
Promotional Consideration: Flower, Sun, and Reused Video
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.As the official hub for the Flower, Sun, and Rain DS remake, the game's Japanese site embraces Goichi Suda's (and Grasshopper Manufacture's) hip presentation, its background shifting through a collection of blown-up and blurred screenshots. Even if you don't understand the Japanese characters strewn around its pages, it's evident that something very cool is taking place. The site added a television commercial to its list of updates late last week -- jump past the post break for the video and more.%Gallery-12911%
Promotional Consideration: Sewer snacks
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters for the Genesis was not a game I actually purchased, as our family was one of little means, and I knew better than to let money go to waste. It was loaned to me by a "friend" in exchange for The Ren & Stimpy Show: Stimpy's Invention, a deal which my pal falsely assured me I was getting the better end of.The trade wasn't meant to be permanent -- that was explicitly stated in the contract -- but my business associate suddenly moved away, Spanish For Everyone-style. Except in my case, I didn't have a sultry Spanish aunt offering to teach me "many things." Also, I learned nothing from the experience.But before we reminisce about terrible games and the bad decisions I've made in my life, let's discuss this week's Promotional Consideration topic: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fruit Snacks.
Promotional Consideration: Quote-based strategy II
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.Since we bemoaned Advance Wars: Days of Ruin's lacking marketing push last week, Nintendo has kept us holed up in our bomb shelter, walls trembling and lights flickering as wave after wave of advertisements, massive shells blasted from Leo Burnett's distant dreadnoughts, pound the smoking city above.Here's every salvo we've been hit with in just the past week: an official web site launch (with new media) media-heavy previews and several interviews with Nintendo's localization team two promotional emails sent out to Nintendo's online newsletter subscribers a launch event held earlier today at the Nintendo World Store (New York City) television commercials on both network and cable channels a two-page ad running in at least three video game magazines -- GamePro, Game Informer, and Electronic Gaming Monthly We stand, crumbs of concrete falling from our hair, corrected. As we promised in our last installment, we're taking a look at that two-page magazine ad for Days of Ruin, a print piece which features flattering quotes from three online video game sites.
Promotional Consideration: Quote-based strategy
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.Given the anticipation for Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, at least among hardcore gamers, it's surprising that Nintendo hasn't launched an advertising offensive by now -- bombing strongholds with print ads, ambushing our television sets with commercials, and running its usual propaganda campaign.But with less than two weeks away from Days of Ruin's release, we've yet to find the game advertised in any of the magazines we've cracked open, and the only commercial we've seen so far is the poorly thought-out one embedded past the post break.%Gallery-8563%
