JULY 22, 2009

Brand About Town and Nintendo Finds A Way To Connect With Consumers

Last year I saw a cool story on how Nintendo was using a unique approach in marketing their gaming consoles to women. They held “Nintendo parties” where groups of women got to play games, drink some wine, and munch on some hors d’oeuvres. I thought it was a cool idea, targeting groups of women in a low key social setting has been done to sell everything from tupperware, to make-up, to even sex toys.

Recently my friend LiLu over at Live It, Love It got to throw such a party. She got an e-mail from Brand About Town and next thing you know she and 25 of her friends were off to a “Girlfriend’s Guide to Gaming” bash. They got to try out the new Nintendo DSi and ended up receiving one to take home and enjoy.

What makes this such a great move for Brand About Town and Nintendo is natural buzz that followed afterwards. It only took a couple of days before all of our friends were talking about it. My blogger pal Liebchen attended the party and couldn’t put the DSi down all night:

“Before I knew it, it was almost 9pm and I was still bent over the little device, trying to get to the next level of Dr. Mario. God help me when I finally get more games on this thing; someone might have to stage an intervention. For instance, if I were to get Mario Kart…I used to think that video games were something that you grew out of. I’ve never been so happy to be wrong.”

This is the kind of word of mouth you want surrounding your product.

What makes these events so valuable is the chance to connect with the consumer in a casual, low-key setting and allow them to test drive your product. Liebchen didn’t fully realize what the Nintendo DSi was all about until she picked one up, “I still liked playing other people’s games, but didn’t figure I needed one of my own but the DSi…it was just fun the games were fun; the camera; all of the capabilities I didn’t really know how much it could do.”

A great way for Nintendo to reach out to those outside the typical video gamer demographic, in fact I could easily see this model transferring over for different kinds of products. The key is to keep it casual, make it fun, and make it about the consumer.