On the eve of the above picture being snapped showing off current shelf space for Nintendo games in a Tesco, it looks like Nintendo UK has acknowledged the problem and will now begin working with Tesco in a giant campaign to raise consumer awareness about the Wii U. Nintendo finally admitted to MCV that many people don’t know the Wii U is a new console, or that it is not a peripheral for the older Wii.
Nintendo UK has booked in-store space at Tesco in order to show off the merits of the Wii U, in addition to sending a five page leaflet to 300,000 people who bought a Wii at Tesco, but have not purchased any other console. Nintendo will also be giving vouchers that offer money off of game purchases. According to Nintendo, the marketing budget for both the Wii U and the 3DS is ‘significantly higher’ than last year.
“We haven’t had the sales we wanted on Wii U hardware. We haven’t had the software for most of this year. But we have some quite ambitious numbers, particularly with some of our biggest franchises coming. Our monthly tracking shows that Wii remains the No.1 console for brand awareness. This offers us a massive opportunity to convert Wii owners to Wii U. Interest is starting to grow but we know we have a lot of work to do.”
It’s nice to see Nintendo acknowledging that they have a lot of work ahead of them, specifically in getting people to realize that the Wii U is not a Wii accessory. The targeted advertising at Tesco is designed for kids and parents.