Wii Fit Commercials Spotlight

WiiKarmaramaThe Wii Fit commercials use actors to demonstrate how to use the Wii Fit through activities and camera work that mimics what the actors are doing, followed by the tag line, "How will it move you?"May 2008Wii Fit goes after consumers who want to use the product for exercise and game playing but the commercial has a particular focus on women who want to exercise and children for both exercising and playing games.Women, a man and children use the Wii Fit to play balance games and exercise. Most of the commercial focuses on exercising with the Wii Fit instead of playing games.A woman wiggles her hips and the camera wiggles along with her before she stretches to her left. The camera takes off to the left where the next person is a boy bobbing his head to play a soccer game. The camera bobs with his every move before taking off to the next person who's doing yoga. And so on until the end of the commercial that shows a close-up of the Wii Fit and the tag line, "How will it move you?"• Excellent camera work in this commercial. It really grabs your attention right from the start.

• The ad does a good job of showing people of various ages using the product, demonstrating that the Wii Fit is not just for kids.• You have to be familiar with the Wii brand and what the product does for you to "get" this commercial. Although the Wii is extremely popular, you still have consumers that won't know what this particular product is just from the commercial.

• At this point, the bigger problem with Wii's advertising is that Nintendo can't keep up with the demand. The Wii Fit is also hard to find in stores already because of pre-launch hype.• The song in the Wii Fit commercial is called On Board by Friendly Fires.

• Wii Fit was originally called Wii Health Pack in September 2006 but Nintendo announced the name change at an E3 press conference on July 11, 2007.

• Wii Fit was first launched in Japan in December 2007, Europe in April 2008 and in Australia in early May 2008. Wii Fit wasn't released in North America until mid-May 2008.

• The TV commercials that launched the Wii gaming console debuted November 15, 2006.

• In 2006, Nintendo announced it would spend more than $200 million in advertising over a year to launch the Wii, making the Wii ad campaign the largest in Nintendo's history.

• By comparison, Nintendo spent $75 million to launch the GameCube console in 2001.

• In 2007, Karmarama won Nintendo's $13 million advertising account. Karmarama's worked with clients IKEA, CNN, Goodyear and The History Channel.

• Ad agency Leo Burnett is responsible for the Wii ads that helped launch the console. But the agency resigned from the account with Nintendo in May 2007. Trade publications cite Japan's interference with the agency's handling of the account as the reason for the split but an official statement from a marketing director within the agency said the reason was due to "a change in business requirements."

• Leo Burnett previously held the Nintendo account for seven years and was also the agency in charge of the $25 million contract that helped launch the Super Nintendo.

• The Wii's successful launch helped Nintendo increase its media spending from $5 million to $13 million.

• In December 2007, Wii pulled its advertising from England because Nintendo couldn't keep up with the demand. The company pushed back its planned advertising efforts to early 2008 instead.