Nintendo's UK marketing director Shelly Pearce has admitted that "There are many people out there that don't know what this [the Wii U] is" and announced a major new marketing push with supermarket chain Tesco.
Speaking to MCV Pearch said:
“We haven’t had the sales we wanted on Wii U hardware. We haven’t had the software for most of this year. But we have some quite ambitious numbers, particularly with some of our biggest franchises coming..
“Our monthly tracking shows that Wii remains the No.1 console for brand awareness. This offers us a massive opportunity to convert Wii owners to Wii U. Interest is starting to grow but we know we have a lot of work to do.”
She added: “There was a big misconception at launch about what Wii U is. And one of the big messages is that this is a new console and a new controller. There are many people out there that don’t know what this is."
As part of the new marketing initiative Nintendo will send out 300,000 leaflets to customers who bought a Wii at Tesco. The company will also take out ads in national newspapers and online. In addition, a UK-wide promotional tour will aim to reach 115,000 consumers.
As of August, the console, which sold just 160,000 units worldwide during the second quarter of the year, was still selling at a loss.
Nintendo's partnership with Tesco comes after rival supermarket Asda pulled Wii U games and consoles from its stores.
