The Most Effective Ad Campaign of the Year

Nintendo Wii can do it all. It can help you get physically fit, it can provide hours of off-of-the-couch fun, and it makes the best damned marketing case study.

The "Wii Would Like to Play" campaign by Leo Burnett won the Grand Effie at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York on Wednesday night. The Effie Awards celebrates advertising that successfully builds brands and sells products. Cool-looking, ultra-creative ads that didn't make a ripple in sales need not apply.

Mark Tutssel, chief creative officer of Leo Burnett Worldwide, said his agency's Wii campaign worked because it appealed to a whole new audience.

"Where its success really lies is the fact it didn't go for that notion that gamers are these young teenagers sort of nestling in the bowels of the earth," Tutssel says. "Nintendo has beautifully managed to connect people with gaming through the art of play and making play fun, interactive, a community for young and for old, and I think it's been a phenomenal marketing exercise."

Deborah Meyer, chair of the Grand Effie Jury, and vice president and chief marketing officer at Chrysler says the campaign will be remembered and studied for a long time.

"Leo Burnett's marketing strategy for the Wii will forever change the gaming industry and its dialogue with consumers," Meyer says. "The Grand Effie winning campaign delivered results that any C.M.O. would want to take back to their C.E.O."

(Please no jokes Chrysler jokes about delivering results. This isn't the time or the place.)

Other Grand Effie finalists, which also received Gold Effies, include: Anomaly Communications for the "Keep a Child Alive" campaign, BBDO New York for GE, JWT for Kimberly-Clark's Kleenex, and Secret Weapon Marketing for the Jack in the Box.

JWT, Ogilvy and BBDO are the agencies with the most wins this year.

by Willow Duttge