Nintendo pulls Wii ads and rethinks marketing strategy

Due to the high demand of Nintendo’s Wii console, Nintendo will pull the holiday ads for Wii and replace them with ads for the Nintendo DS until New Years.

This switch is to help push the DS and give the company time to restock their Wii supplies as reports mount of expensive bundles, eBay price stalking and desperate customers trying to purchase a console in time for Christmas. In an interview with Marketing Weekly, Nintendo representatives said it would be irresponsible of them to continue the campaign and unfair to their customers.

“We have been running the campaign all year round, but we want to take a responsible stance this Christmas and not fuel demand,” said a Nintendo spokesman and added that although production has been stepped up to 1.8 million units a month they have not been able to keep up with the demands. “(we are) potentially looking at moving some advertising on some products into early 2008.”

Starting now, the campaign for the Wii system created by Karmarama will be replaced with ads for the Nintendo DS until enough consoles could be produced to meet the demands and resupply their stock.

The game company has also increased its forecast of the number of units it expects to sell in the year to March 2008 from 14 million to 17.5 million.

Read [MCV] Read [Marketing Weekly]