Wii ads mimic CTV prime-time hit shows

Launching this week, Wii product demos in a series of customized promo spots emulate the look and feel of the net's prime-time programs.

By Staff 
October 1, 2009

Nintendo of Canada’s media agency Starcom has hooked up with CTV to lure potatoes off their couches with the ‘Wii Get Up and Play Challenge.’ The  user-generated contest portal, announced earlier this week as part of CTV.ca’s relaunch, is now being promoted through a new nine-week campaign that includes a series of customized 30-second contest promo spots airing across all CTV channels.

Developed by CTV Brand Partnerships, the spots are designed as extended customized billboards of scenes from CTV shows, with Wii product demos emulating the tone and manner of respective programs. Each spot highlights a different game title, and lets viewers know they’re watching CTV sponsored by Wii, while they’re learning new games.

Additionally, a series of 10-second spots, also developed by CTV Brand Partnerships, will air in targeted programming on A.

Canada AM and eTalk are also integrating Wii into their programming through on-air celebrity ‘Wii skills’ challenges in addition to weekly mentions driving viewers to the contest microsite.

Online, campaign support will appear on CTV.ca/entertainment, TSN.ca, Spacecast.com, DiscoveryChannel.ca and CP24.com.

‘This was a media-led initiative,’ Alex Panousis, SVP Starcom Media, tells MiC. ‘We did not have a creative concept to amplify or an idea to build off. We were starting with a blank sheet, but our objective was very clear – engage the consumer and develop an idea that had stopping power.’

‘The timing on this was perfect: during the fall launch of Canada’s most watched programs on CTV, we were able to integrate elements from those shows into content oriented promotional spots. That leveraged the iconography and powerful musical themes from these shows and linked them with the Nintendo Wii in multiple platforms,’ adds Panousis.

Panousis tells MiC the agency briefed over 20 Canadian media outlets for the role. ‘We didn’t just mine them for ideas,’ she says. ‘Our ambition was to align our brands, and CTV was great to work with. From the onset they were ready to take on the challenge and come up with a new way to attack our objectives.’

‘Linking a Canadian brand with top US properties can be very difficult – and expensive,’ Leanne Burnett, investment lead at Starcom Media tells MiC. ‘The concept we landed on proves [that] through creative thinking, you can discover unique solutions to Canadian media challenges.’