Client: Nintendo of America (Seattle, WA)
PR Team: Golin/Harris (Seattle/Los Angeles)
Campaign: Nintendo Cube Clubs
Time Frame: August - November 2001
Budget: Part of ongoing service
The good news for Nintendo heading into the November launch of its new
GameCube system was that over the past 16 years, the company had built a
brand synonymous with family-friendly entertainment. But that identity
can be a double-edged sword when you try expanding your appeal beyond
younger children. Nintendo's task was made more difficult by the fact
that Microsoft was simultaneously launching its own game system, the
Xbox, and targeting many of the same consumers. So Nintendo turned to
Golin/Harris, its long-standing PR agency, to give the GameCube a cool,
trendy feel among older teens and 20-somethings.
Strategy
Golin/Harris senior VP Tina Vennegaard says that to reach a teen and
young adult audience, the agency had to broaden its media outreach to
include entertainment and other lifestyle magazines. "We always target
Gen X, but we made an increased effort to target Gen Y and the younger
teen, and the 'tween' demographic," she explains. "We realized that most
kids in that demographic don't read the outlets that most of us grew up
reading."
But the other key to achieving this new cachet was to link Nintendo and
GameCube to the young celebrities most revered by their target
audience.
That entailed courting and winning over the entertainment media. "Those
outlets only started paying attention to video games as a form of
entertainment a few years ago," says Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo's VP of
corporate affairs.
"Now they get it. We rival the movie industry."
Tactics
For the kickoff Los Angeles party on October 3, Golin/ Harris reached
out to the entertainment and celebrity press several weeks in advance
with phone calls, media kits, and, of course, the promise of stars. At
the same time, the agency courted the traditional gaming and business
press with media kits and demonstration days to give them a hands-on
taste of the new system.
The LA party was a success even by Hollywood's high standards. The
timing, three weeks after the September 11 attacks, yet before the
actual bombing of Afghanistan, proved fortuitous in attracting both the
press and the stars. The Cube Club premiere attracted some of the
leading young lights in Hollywood, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey
Maguire, Vin Deisel, *N Sync's Joey Fatone, Kirsten Dunst, Shannon
Elizabeth, Wayne Brady, Marlon and Shawn Wayans, and Mandy Moore.
Results
The Cube Club premiere generated coverage in US magazine, People, The
Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Tonight, CNN, E! News Daily, Women's
Wear Daily, CNBC Market Watch, E! Online, and even the dating game show
Blind Date. In addition, Access Hollywood, Movieline, Premiere, Teen,
Entertainment Tonight, Flaunt, Angeleno, MTV, BrandWeek, and Detour all
had photographers lining the red carpet into the club.
Nintendo and Golin/Harris continued the Cube Club tour in cities across
the US, generating huge lines of teenagers and coverage in urban papers
such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The tour culminated November
17-18 in New York with an event co-hosted by MTV that featured a Cube
descending into Times Square to herald the formal launch of the
system.
Future
Vennegaard says that Golin/ Harris, which will celebrate its 10th year
with Nintendo of America in 2002, is "moving away from working with
Nintendo just to generate news about its products, and focus more on
what sets Nintendo apart as a company, and what the brand means."
