Nintendo To Launch Wii Fit In Effort To Appeal To Women
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Wii Fit "Balance Board" Offers Gamers
Range Of Games Including Yoga, Push-Ups |
Nintendo on May 19 will release Wii fit, an "add-on to the gaming system designed to appeal to women looking to lose weight," according to Suzanne Vranica of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The $90 "Balance Board" attachment, which "resembles bathroom scales" and tracks a user's weight and body-mass index, expands the "range of games that can be played on the Wii to include activities such as yoga and push-ups." The Wii Fit is a "daring move for Nintendo, aimed at broadening the gaming market -- dominated by younger men -- to women." Nintendo is planning a "massive marketing campaign ahead of the product's release," including a PR effort already under way. TV, outdoor and print ads, via Goodby Silverstein & Partners, S.F., will break the week of the product's launch and will carry the tagline, "How will it move you?" As part of the PR effort, ABC's "Good Morning America" host Diane Sawyer "tested the exercise game on the air last week." Sawyer: "It really does make you work." The Wii Fit already is on the market in Japan and has "proved hugely popular" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 4/23).
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