Nintendo's Marketing Campaign Receives Effie Award

Leo Burnett’s “Wii Would Like to Play” for Nintendo’s Wii won the Grand Effie at the 40th Annual Effie Awards last night at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York. Since 1968, winning an Effie award has become a global symbol of achievement, as the Effies honor marketing communications ideas that work.

The “Wii Would Like to Play” campaign chose not to embrace an obvious strategy, namely fawning over the prized teenage male gamer. Instead, Wii targeted his mom, dad and grandmother. While the competition catered to a narrow audience, Wii invited everyone to play. As a result, the Wii has been sold out nationwide since the launch and ignited a cultural phenomenon in how people experience video games.

The Grand Effie winner decision was based on a deliberation of the top five scoring Effie campaigns by a jury of top marketing executives from the client and agency side, led by Deborah Meyer, Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Chrysler LLC.

“Leo Burnett’s marketing strategy for the Wii will forever change the gaming industry and its dialogue with consumers”,” said Deborah Meyer, Chair of the Grand Effie Jury and Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Chrysler. “The Grand Effie winning campaign delivered results that any CMO would want to take back to their CEO.”

The five Grand Effie finalists included:

• Anomaly Communications for the Keep A Child Alive campaign “KCA’s Media Ambush of the iPhone Launch” in the Media Idea category.
• BBDO New York for GE’s “Ecomagination Round 2” campaign in the Green category. Agency partners included OMD, AMV BBDO, Stinson Partners and Syrup.
• JWT for Kimberly-Clark’s Kleenex “Let it Out” campaign in the Household Supplies & Services category. Agency partners included Mindshare, GMR and Ketchum.
• Leo Burnett for Nintendo of America’s “Wii Would Like to Play” in the New Product or Service category. Agency partners included Starcom Worldwide and Golin Harris.
• Secret Weapon Marketing for the Jack in the Box “Sirloin vs. Angus” campaign in the Fast Food/Casual Dining/Restaurants category. Horizon Media was the media partner on the campaign.