Lessons from the Flower Kingdom

There’s a lot to be learnt from the marketing of a kid’s video game franchise. 

If ever there was a case study for the power of marketing to influencers rather than decision makers, it is the recent launch of the Nintendo video game Super Mario Wonder.

The game, released for the Nintendo Switch console, comes around seven months after the movie, which broke box office records. It was carefully deployed on the Friday before half term in the UK.

As a financial marketer, you may question the logic of discussing Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach, here, but the application of influencer marketing theory is absolutely textbook.

It tells us a lot about why marketing to influencers, rather than decision makers, can sometimes pay off and why we shouldn’t try to data track every single point of our spend.

A poll on one of the many industry gaming forums suggests that Nintendo is on course to shift more than 21 million units of Super Mario Wonder, globally, when digital downloads and physical card sales are combined. Each unit is priced at around £50.

Chances are, if you are a parent, you’ll know exactly the game I’m talking about. It is a perfect illustration of what happens when influencer marketing marries up with great content.

At the end of May, some of the kids’ channels on YouTube with larger followings started to discuss the news that a new Super Mario Bros game was going to be launched.

In the four weeks that followed, Nintendo released scenes along with some trial packs so that online influencers could begin discussing, broadcasting, and combing through the various aspects of the new “Flower Kingdom.”

This drip feed of new content – amplified by the reviews of game influencers – fuelled the interest (and the desire) of our kids to find out more about the latest instalment of the Mario franchise.

My son had already embraced the old Mario games more wholeheartedly after the film’s release, but was now enjoying fresh content from his favourite YouTube channels.

He felt involved in something new and, when he returned to school in September, there was only one topic of conversation – Mario.

As more reviewers were given access to the preview of the game, more content appeared. This fed a tidal wave of new YouTube panel shows, modified game versions, and videos of young people acting out their favourite characters. My son was absolute.

He needed Mario Wonder. Every chore he did that earned a financial reward went into his Mario Wonder savings tin.

And, just in case the parents, as the decision makers in this transaction, were in two minds about buying the game, they would find that Nintendo had planned a campaign just for them, launched at major London train terminuses from the end of September as they commuted to work.

A series of out-of-home billboards and animated video screens reinforced the “wonder” of Mario, clarifying the availability date – in case we were in any doubt.

Of course, by the time that London Liverpool Street had billboards and the Metro had adverts, the decision was already made.

The influencer of the decision – my son – had already reinforced the “need” with absolute clarity.

As B2B marketers, we often focus too often on the purse string holders – particularly in the modern, data-obsessed world where the finance director wants proof of ROI.

But here’s the thing, if Nintendo had focussed its entire spend on the budget holder, it may have made sales – there is enough about Super Mario in the recent zeitgeist to ensure that happened. But I’m willing to bet they would not have achieved the millions we have now since witnessed.

As for mapping “the customer journey” for the people in the finance team… well, that’s a little tricky for a five year old who doesn’t have a credit card.

This article is taken from Financial Promoter’s print magazine. Click here to subscribe to the next edition.