2020 Winner
2020 Winners
Nintendo of Canada
Nintendo Switch Playhouse
2019 was the third holiday season for Nintendo Switch, and despite the fact that this was no longer a new gaming system, the company had aggressive sales targets. Our research showed that the number one way parents decide what to get their kids for Christmas is simply by asking them what they want - and yet Nintendo Switch awareness among Canadian kids 8-12 was only 54.9%. As a result, our goal was clear: spark demand for Nintendo Switch among kids, securing a spot for the system on holiday wishlists across Canada.
Insights and Strategy
Nintendo has always leveraged experiential marketing to connect with kids, who can be challenging to reach through traditional media channels. But for holiday 2019, we wanted to try a new approach. Rather than creating an experience that would reach thousands, could we create a unique experience that would be sharable enough to reach millions? And so the Nintendo Switch Playhouse was born.
The Playhouse - a complete takeover of an actual house in Toronto - would open for a single weekend in early November, and bring Nintendo’s iconic games and characters to life through kid-centric gameplay experiences. Our mission? Bring the magic of the Playhouse to kids across Canada - even if they’ll never physically visit it - helping drive Nintendo Switch sales through the 2019 holiday season.
The challenge? Kids under the age of 13 can’t be targeted with social media advertising. And media channels that speak directly to kids in Canada are limited. To determine how to tell the story of the Playhouse, we leveraged three key insights:
- All roads to kids lead through YouTube: Ninety-two percent of children ages 6-12 surveyed by SmartyPants in 2019 use YouTube, making it the most widely used brand in the study.
- YouTube stars are major celebrities: 2018 Mintel research revealed that more than one third (34%) of US kids consider YouTube stars to be their top role models, outranking musicians (33%), athletes (27%) and actors (22%).
- TV isn’t dead (yet): Although there aren’t as many editorial opportunities with kid-targeted television media in Canada, traditional TV viewership is still strong among Canadian kids (78.8% reach, per ZenithOptimedia).
Leveraging these insights, we established three communications metrics:
- Put the power of YouTube to work for the Playhouse, securing endorsement from a high-profile YouTuber.
- Extend the reach of the Playhouse through YouTube content that drives at least 10M impressions on the channel.
- Leverage a relevant television partnership to engage more deeply about the Playhouse with at least 10,000 Canadian kids
Execution
We knew a YouTube personality would have the influence and reach we needed to make a big impact. And we found what we were looking for in EvanTube. This 13-year-old toy reviewer has an astonishing 11.6M subscribers across his three YouTube channels. Although he wasn’t from Canada, his channel averaged 3M monthly views from Canada. Plus, he’s a big gaming fan - his EvanTubeGaming channel has more than 1.5M subscribers.
Of course, we would work with Evan to amplify the story of the Playhouse, but we didn’t want kids to just passively consume content about this event - we wanted them excited and engaged. So we created a national contest to give four Canadian kids the chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to Toronto to experience the Playhouse alongside Evan. And we worked with Evan to promote the contest through pre-event content on his channels (in addition to post-event content recapping his experience with the Playhouse and Nintendo Switch).
Recognizing the supporting role of TV in reaching kids, we partnered with Corus Entertainment to host the contest, and promoted it across their TV and digital properties (notably, YTV) to extend the reach of the event, driving mass awareness and delivering key messaging around Nintendo Switch and the Playhouse.
Results and Impact
This campaign overachieved on all objectives. Specifically:
- We secured an authentic and relevant partner in EvanTube. Not only was he extremely effective in helping us tell the story of the Playhouse, but when Nintendo’s advertising team learned about the partnership, they decided to film Evan at the Playhouse for the brand’s 2019 holiday cinema spot.
- Our content partnership with EvanTube generated 15M impressions on YouTube.
- The contest we executed generated more than 15,000 contest entries - a record for Corus.
Ultimately, our success would be measured at the register. And the outcome is clear. The week leading into Black Friday, Nintendo of Canada recorded its strongest hardware sales of any week in Nintendo Switch history.