Nintendo discusses E3 Best Buy sampling events, were a huge success
Nintendo did something completely different for this year’s E3: allowing fans to sample some of its upcoming games at Best Buy locations. The outreach payed off, as the events were a huge success.
J.C. Rodrigo, senior product marketing specialist in Nintendo of America’s product development department, talked about Nintendo’s involvement at Best Buy while speaking with Polygon:
“We’ve wanted to do that for a long time. We really wanted to make sure we [brought] our experiences [to] the hands of people who want to try our stuff, as much as we could. We had lines like crazy at each particular location.”
Rodrigo also said that fans seemed to wonder why Nintendo hadn’t tried something like this before.
Not holding an E3 briefing didn’t lessen the company’s presence at the trade show. And in fact, Nintendo had more work to take care of than ever before due to its three-pronged marketing approach.
“You had the sales and marketing briefing for the people that needed to hear that information; you had the Nintendo Direct for people that really needed to know, generally, what was happening and what we’re coming out with; and then you [had] the sampling at the Best Buy [stores] that got that information out as well. So if you look at it from the content perspective and who needed to know, everyone got what they needed to know — just in different ways.”
Rodrigo also echoes similar statements made by Nintendo executives over the past few weeks:
“Software sells hardware, and focusing on the software is exactly what we’re doing.”
