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Campaign of the year
WINNER
Nintendogs Launch Campaign
Nintendo UK
Cake Group
How do you get females interested in video games? Let them own and love a 'virtual pet' of course.
With more than 4.8 million dog-owning households in Britain, the UK's status as a pet-loving nation is well documented. The idea of targeting females for whom having a real dog is too much hassle came from Nintendo's retained agency Cake, which knew it would resonate with thousands of new consumers. It was the perfect way to explore Nintendo's desire to broaden its appeal and develop games that would fit in with its 'New Way to Play' mantra.
Promoting this was no easy task, but Cake wins Campaign of the Year for its well-planned, creative, multi-tiered campaign to attract female dog-lovers and children.
Phase one of the campaign kicked off in June 2005 when Cake set to work creating 'buzz' that a new computer craze was heading to the UK. Cake developed journalist ambassador relationships - those who championed the game from the start - and infiltrated message boards and blogs to establish networks of people talking about the new game. The result of this was double and full-page features that - for the first time since Pokémon in 2001 - put Nintendo in the culture and features sections of newspapers and magazines rather than the gaming pages.
But it was the extent to which the campaign was kept live that also makes it the winning campaign.
In the build-up to the game's October launch, Cake enlisted psychologist Susan Quilliam, who produced a ten-point report on the benefits of playing Nintendogs, saying it 'taught nurturing skills, responsibility, strategic thinking and self-esteem'. This formed the basis of a nationwide radio tour and was used in feature pitches. Additionally, Cake got the largest dog welfare charity, the Dogs Trust, to give Nintendogs its stamp of approval in August.
The three-month push was capped in October with a 'Puppy Party' to launch the game the day before it went on sale. Cake's event division, Cake Live, threw the party that was attended by Coronation Street's resident dog Schmeichel, Eastender Pauline Fowler's pooch Betty, and well-known animal lovers such as Bill Oddie, Jeremy Edwards and Myleene Klass. The 6am launch the following day at London's flagship HMV on Oxford Street was dedicated to profiling dog-owners - many of whom had queued from 4am to get their hands on the first copies of the game. Both The Guardian and Daily Mail photographed the queues.
According to Nintendo, the total coverage across print, broadcast and online media was worth more than £2.7m in terms of AVE, generating 241 million opportunities to see. To date, Nintendogs is the best-selling game on the Nintendo DS.
But the best result is this: 55 per cent of buyers were women, compared with the games industry average of 30 per cent.
In addition, 12 per cent of purchases were by those new to gaming, according to Cake.
Click here to see the interview with the winner
