Nintendo of Canada expects its newest interactive gizmo to be a big hit with its primary target – fitness-seeking mothers – so it’s making sure as many of them as possible hear about its arrival here this week.
Wii Fit aims to redefine not only what a video game is, but who plays one. The balance-board-like console enables users to get real workouts by choosing from more than 40 activities ranging from yoga and step aerobics to skiing. Wii’s balance board even measures a user’s weight and centre of gravity to calculate Body Mass Index.
All of which is why Nintendo is taking Wii Fit to malls in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal until June 15 for sampling sessions. Meanwhile, ads are appearing in Canadian Living, Chatelaine and Best Health, plus on websites including YummyMummy, Kaboose and iVillage. Innovative mini-ads were also embedded in various columns yesterday in Metro‘s Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax editions. TV spots are running during Oprah, Grey’s Anatomy and The Mom Show.
‘All of the above properties are new territory, and a new direction, for Nintendo,’ Vancouver-based company spokesman Matt Ryan tells MiC.
The mall tours are being executed by Toronto- and Vancouver-based Inventa. All creative was done by Nintendo’s NYC-based North American AOR, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, and Toronto-based Starcom MediaVest is handling Canadian media buys. Buzz below the border is that Nintendo’s assigning its highest-ever marketing budget for a single title to Wii Fit.
