sega

Back in the 16-bit war between Sega and Nintendo, it was Sega’s clever marketing department that released some great advertising campaigns. These campaigns were used to either discredit Nintendo’s offering or make you think twice about jumping over to the red side. Campaigns like “Genesis does what Nintendon’t” and “To be this good takes Ages” were memorable campaigns and are still being talked about to this day. Sega protected their (market) patch by firing these broad shots at Nintendo. It obviously worked, as the Genesis had a huge market share in North America. However, things did change once Sega started experimenting with add-ons and lost their way. To their credit, Nintendo built their reputation by consistently producing high quality products and eventually the SNES overcame the market deficit and made it to the top of the 16-bit ladder (in North America) by 1993. Once on top, Nintendo proclaimed “Nintendo Is What Genesisn’t” – a stroke of genius.

Sega’s campaigns were great; however, the boldest examples came from SNK. Their advertising was based around the 24-bit power of their Neo Geo AES (Advanced Entertainment System), and they were shameless and aggressive. The advertising was clearly aimed at male gamers – with ads like “If you’re still playing Sega, NEC or Nintendo you’re nothing but a weenie! If you’re playing the incredibly high powered Neo Geo system you’re a real hot dog!” and the menacing pitbull mascot proclaiming that the Neo Geo was “Bigger, Badder, Better”. However, my favourite Neo Geo advertisement was the raunchy “I Remember When He Couldn’t Keep His Hands Off Me!” – perhaps the ad should have come with a warning.

SNK were going after every player in the market, not just the big boys Sega and Nintendo. Even poor old NEC (TurboGrafx-16) was being attacked. With the premium price of the AES system and games, SNK had to do whatever they could to snag some market share, even if it meant fighting dirty.

Being the king of the hill makes you a target, so it would have been no surprise to Nintendo to be in the crosshairs of every competitor’s marketing department. Not only were they being attacked on the console front, Nintendo was also fighting the handheld war with Atari (Lynx) with their “Lynx Eats Boy’s Lunch” ad blitz and Sega (Game Gear) with their “Separate The Men From The Boys” campaigns. It is safe to say, we all know how that battle ended.

They say that imitation is the best form of flattery. I hope to see more of this old school mud-slinging marketing for the new generation gaming systems.