Nintendo Plans Huge Online Ad Push, Ad Revenues Up

Nintendo plans to hit online ad space harder than ever during the lead up to the Wii launch.

In an interview with New Media Age, Nintendo's Rob Lowe claimed that, "We're just in the final stages of putting our media plan together for Wii, but in terms of online our spend is way more than anything we've ever done before." The European marketing campaign, using the 'Wii Move You' slogan, will target mainstream sites such as Lycos, Yahoo! and MSN. "Particularly over the launch week we'll completely take them over - you'll go online and see Wii everywhere," added Lowe.

In related news, Reuters reports that online ad revenues are up 37 percent in the US, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The report claims that online ads have generated a record of nearly $8 billion over the first six months of 2006. With all three "next generation" consoles supporting online play, expect a heavy online ad presence this Fall.