Some Excellent Advertising

This post will be dedicated to one, particularly excellent example of EXACTLY how do web can be made use of to advertise and build up hype for a product. It is also an amazing example of public relations, customer service, attention to the community, and crisis management. Overall a superb and impressively inexpensive method of advertising to the entire world. So what is this site? It is the Smash Dojo, a site designed to promote the Nintendo game Super Smash Brothers Brawl.


A brief history. Super Smash brothers is a Nintendo game franchise in which the player plays as one of Nintendo's beloved game characters (Mario, Link, etc.) and attempts to beat the holy living crap out of the other players who are, similarly, also controlling Nintendo characters. There have been two previous incarnations, Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Brothers Melee. Both games have been ridiculously successful and have enormous longevity, so with the release of the Wii there has been much anticipation for the next installment.

Here is where problems begin. Originally supposed to be a launch title, Brawl has been pushed back repeatedly (now resting at a release date of February 10th, 2008) for little publicized reason. Fans of the game were beginning to get annoyed about the delays, so Nintendo had to act. Unlike Microsoft, however which would probably have rushed the game and damaged the final product, the project leader, Sakurai, started this site.

Offering daily updates without fail in six different languages (seven if you count British) the Dojo has completely solved their anticipation problem. However it does not stop there, each post is written by Sakurai himself (and translated by someone else) and has a very personal and dedicated feel. He also keeps high regard of the community and uses the site to post about other Nintendo events and possible information.

This is the sort of promotion made possible only by the internet. There is no other medium that can deliver video, text, and audio updates all over the world everyday for such a simple cheap price. The site costs almost nothing, all they need is the webspace and a few skilled translators and they have kept thousands of eager fans completely placated. It gives me hope that other companies will catch on and realize that there are better ways to manage your community and at the same time cross promote contless other products, while at no point becoming intrusive.

Untill then I will just have to keep closing those pop-ups.