Second Euro marketing boss quits Nintendo

Nintendo Europe is looking for a new marketing chief after Niclas Friese-Greene abruptly abandoned the position after only a month in the job. It is not known whether he has another job to go to.

Friese-Greene was appointed head of marketing in August, following the decision of former marketing head Franco De Cesare to quit the job and relocate to the UK (MW August 29). De Cesare continued to work alongside Friese-Greene as a consultant during the handover period, but Friese-Greene has left before the process was complete.

According to a Nintendo spokeswoman, Friese-Greene left the company for “purely personal reasons”. He joined Nintendo from consumer electronics manufacturer Grundig, where he was head of marketing. Prior to that, he worked at food producer Kraft in Germany.

Whoever takes up the post will be responsible for co-ordinating the gaming company’s European marketing activities and supervising its branding strategy across all franchise operations.

In March, Nintendo began the ad campaign for its GameCube console, prior to the console’s launch in May. According to AC Nielsen, the video games company has so far spent &£3.5m on advertising the console in the UK.

Leo Burnett is responsible for Nintendo’s global creative business. Starcom Motive handles media planning and buying.