Monday, March 14, 2011

Just Saw My First U.S. 3DS Television Commercial - UPDATED


I was wondering when they were going to start advertising. Unlike other people, I don't think it's at all late to start advertising the 3DS. For one, they have been promoting it without commercials, like appearing with it on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Advertising a month in advance or so seems like it's really only meant to build hype, and as hard as it is to convey the 3DS's stereoscopic 3D without glasses to someone, it seems to me it would be better to advertise as closely as possible to when you plan on having playable demo units available.

I missed the very first moments of the commercial (busy on the computer) but it seems like they're only showing off the blue 3DS. They highlighted the augmented reality, though they didn't explain that it was augmented reality, and they showed off Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition over a first-party game as well as Steel Diver. They of course took the time to say that it was glasses-less 3D. I've forgotten if they put the price or date on the commercial, but I'm fairly sure they advertised a "learn more" website, so hopefully the 3D without glasses bit will get people interested enough to learn all there is to learn about the 3DS.

Do you guys think they should have advertised sooner/later? If you've seen the commercial, what do you think? Could they do better?

EDIT: I mistook the "Take a look" moniker as "here's a website". I'm surprised they didn't at least point people towards Nintendo.com, but right at the moment, the first Google results for "nintendo 3ds" are Nintendo's own sites.

4 comments:

  1. "Do you guys think they should have advertised sooner/later? If you've seen the commercial, what do you think? Could they do better?"

    Well, comparing it to the Kinect, which supposedly had(or still has) a $500 million advertising budget...Nintendo is waiting a little long to start generating PUBLIC excitement.

    While we are gamers, and probably knew about it the day the 3DS information was announced, many people won't have any idea until they see a commercial for it...as you just did.

    Microsoft had purchased the top ad space on YouTube last June, the day after their big Kinect showing, that was 5 months before Kinect released.

    I don't think it will matter though, as I'm guessing Nintendo will sell out of its initial 3DS shipment, and it will probably remain that way for a while...

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  2. Yeah, in the end I'm sure they expect a lot of "word of mouth" from people that buy the 3DS at first. Mobile demo units.

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  3. Was this the commercial:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgBi4Tl32XM

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  4. Yeah, it's the only 3DS television commercial for the U.S. so far.

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