Brand Autopsy

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an interview with Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo EVP of Sales & Marketing. The interview focused on the marketing strategies behind the U.S. introduction of Wii Fit, a gaming system designed to get people in game shape.

Cammie Dunaway explains there will be TV, Radio, and OOH advertising to support the launch but ... Nintendo is focusing much of its marketing attention on “public relations” efforts to get regular people to do the marketing for Wii Fit.

Cammie is a firm believer in the power of Word-of-Mouth (WOM) as a credible and effective marketing strategy. In the interview she doesn’t say anything earth-shattering new about WOM. Nevertheless, her sound-bites might give you some ammo in championing (or defending) Word-of-Mouth within your company.

WSJ: Videogame advertising has long been dominated by glitzy TV ads, yet the largest part of this advertising and marketing campaign will be the public-relations effort. Why?

Ms. Dunaway: "What we see is consumers are increasingly turning to friends, family and news articles as credible sources of information about products, more so than in the past."

WSJ: Why?

Ms. Dunaway: "It is because consumers are getting much smarter, because they have better access to information and they are able to share information online. They are bombarded with advertising messages -- so they have more tools to avoid that advertising today."