Nintendo and Coke join up in fun and games venture

Nintendo has teamed up with Coca-Cola to launch a £2m joint promotion.

It is the Japanese video games giant’s first tie-up with a major packaged goods brand.

The initiative kicks off this week, with Nintendo running a joint promotion on cans and bottles of Coca-Cola brand Fanta.

The games company says it marks the first move of what may prove an ongoing partnership with the soft drinks organisation.

The promotion will be supported by an above-the-line ad campaign that will run across mainstream terrestrial and satellite television channels as well as the national press.

There will also be in-store promotional material and an online push.

The Coca-Cola/Fanta promotion offers consumers the chance to win Nintendo Wii and DS consoles in daily and weekly draws. There will also be a final competition in which everyone is automatically entered for one last chance. To participate, players must text or enter a code online.

Ben Taylor, trade marketing and promotions manager at Nintendo, says the initiative is aimed to build on the momentum generated by the successful launch of Nintendo’s Wii games console last year.

He adds that it is timed to coincide with a second wave of releases and marketing activity around the Touch Generations sub-brand, which launched last year.

It is designed to achieve maximum brand awareness for Nintendo and build on its lead against Sony’s PlayStation 3 console.

Says Taylor: “The promotional tie-up with Coca-Cola addresses the core Nintendo target market and creates further awareness among family members who control the household’s purse strings – namely mums and dads.

“The advertising campaign,” he points out, “will aim to show the human side of gaming.”