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RETAILBIZ: POPCORN ARCADE RANGE WWW.MCVUK.COM
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THREE’S COMPANY: DDI is confident that its trio of new titles will be a sales success amongst casual Wii gamers
Next up is Farmyard Party, which is a new mini-game collection for Wii based around farm animals and iconography. Options in the game include farmyard challenges, a party mode and a full four player multiplayer option. Gamers are encouraged to master the speed, power, skill and all-round ability categories to unlock bonus characters, new game modes and much more. Farmyard Party is also aimed at the younger gamer market, with cartoon visuals that are sure to appeal to the whole family. The final game in the Silver range is upcoming racer, Urban Extreme. Although the title is still aimed at the whole family, with your usual multiplayer options, DDI has broadened its horizons by targeting this game at the older 12-plus market. The title invites gamers to race and chase for
RELEASED: MAY 22
POPCORN PROMOTIONS
FORMATS: WII PUBLISHER: DATA DESIGN INTERACTIVE DEVELOPER: DATA DESIGN INTERACTIVE PRICE: VARIOUS DISTRIBUTOR: KOCH CONTACT: 0870 027 0985
money, so they can buy and sell cars, and take part in the Carnage mode, where everything can crash and burn. Urban Extreme also invites gamers to take out speed cameras before they get flashed and fined. The Silver range is certain to be a great impulse buy for the casual Wii gamer. And the range will also benefit from DDI’s extensive marketing campaign (see Popcorn Promotions, right). Keep an eye on this range when it hits shelves later this month.
As one of the leading casual brands on Wii, DDI is supporting its new range with a big print, online and TV marketing push. Farmyard Party, Urban Extreme Street Rage and Kidz Sports: Crazy Mini Golf will all benefit from the promotion. “Last year we backed up our titles with four big multi-channel TV campaigns, magazine promotions, and instore POS,” says DDI CEO Stewart Green. “This is major support for a valuepriced impulse range. For this range our customers can look forward to even stronger marketing driven sales and impulse purchases across the Popcorn line up.” TV Data Design Interactive’s TV campaign for the three games is set to run during the summer, between
the end of May and end of June, with videos showcasing the best features of the titles. The channels these ads will appear on include Sky 1 (around The Simpsons), Nickelodeon, Nick Toons, Cartoon network, Jetix, Pop and Citv. PRINT Each game in the new Silver range will receive full page ads in popular comics during May and June. The advertisements will appear in the Star Wars Comic, The Simpsons Presents Bart, The Terminator comic and the Transformers comic. PR DDI will be running reviews and competitions across national and regional press. The firm’s extensive PR push is also set to target sports, driving and golf media.