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March 2008 - Strategy Magazine
Marketer of the year

Top entertainment marketer: Ron Bertram
Gamechanger

by Natalia Williams
page 46

From third place to first in two years, Ron Bertram has led Nintendo of Canada's high-scoring comeback

There were skeptics who considered Nintendo's global directive, unveiled in late 2005, to go after families and adults over 45 unusual, even risky, and too far from the typical, well-tread video game target of 12- to 24-year-old males.

But as the old adage goes, with risk comes reward. And in the case of Nintendo of Canada's GM Ron Bertram, impressive rewards. "Ron has led Nintendo of Canada through a remarkable turnaround," says John Azevedo, Nintendo of Canada's senior marketing manager. "It required a very clear vision of the future, and involved considerable risk. He deserves much of the credit for the success we are enjoying now."

"Ron has a finely tuned sense of cutting through the noise to get to the relevant insights," says Pierre-Paul Trépanier, who worked with Bertram for four years at Nintendo of Canada and is now consumer marketing director at Nintendo's California office. "He gets internal and external teams aligned in understanding them, transforming them into strategy and executing with excellence."

The numbers prove it. "Two Christmases ago, everyone was writing Nintendo off as a bit player in the video game industry," says Bertram from Nintendo's Vancouver-based HQ. "We were in third place. Over the past two years, especially last year, we've turned that around. Now we're the market leader in a business that has almost doubled in size in two years." That equates to revenues that have jumped to $500 million from under $250 million over fiscal 2007.

Under Bertram's leadership, Canada now boasts higher market share than the U.S., and one of the highest market shares in the world. The portable console Nintendo DS was the most popular video game system, console or portable, in the country over 2007. Wii was the best-selling console. And the brand is also driving growth in the market in Canada's estimated $1.5-billion videogame market, according to November 2007 NPD Group figures.

Naturally, the sales sensation of both Nintendo DS, which launched in 2004, and especially of Wii, which launched in November 2006 and has already sold 20 million around the world, helped buoy a global game market now worth about $25 billion US. They also allowed Nintendo to regain its footing against rivals Sony and Microsoft.

But in Canada, which has the autonomy to create its own programs, "We've been a little more successful than the U.S. in attracting the expanded market," says Bertram. The secret: highly tailored executions to gain the consideration of a consumer indifferent to Nintendo - and gaming overall - by showing up in unexpected places and putting the product in their hands.

Over 2007, Nintendo was advertised in finger-twiddling environments like doctors' offices and airports. Gaming sampling kiosks were set up in the lobbies of office buildings, where potential consumers could play the DS over their lunch break. The tag to reach the so-called older gamer? "Do something with your nothing time."

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