Don’t Worry, Doug Bowser is Nothing Like his Nintendo Character Namesake
Yes, yes, it’s true. Our hero and savior, Reggie Fils-Aime will be retiring as the President of Nintendo of America this coming April. It’s a piece of bittersweet news for fans of Nintendo who have enjoyed Reggie’s leadership over the years; we’re pleased to see him go out on top, but boy will we miss him.
Thankfully, as you’d expect, Nintendo has a highly qualified exec to fill his spot. Doug Bowser will be filling the shoes of the “my body is ready” man that we know and love.
You guys don’t have to worry, though, as Doug Bowser has quite the portfolio when it comes to marketing and sales. In fact, he had a lot to do with the success of the Switch specifically, leading the sales and marketing efforts for the hybrid console.
The Nintendo Switch, of course, has become Nintendo’s fastest-selling console ever and has also taken the spot for the fastest-selling console of this generation. It’s fair to say that Bowser’s marketing acumen was likely at the center of the console’s early success.
He helped to make sure that video game retailers such as GameStop, Target, and Walmart, to make sure that the Switch was up front and had an appealing aura around it. Whenever you see a beautiful Switch demo station, you can thank the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Doug Bowser.
While he may know how to sell the Switch and other Nintendo-related products, Bowser also worked at EA (Electronic Arts) for about eight years where he also did some marketing and planning work for the company that publishes heavy-hitters like The Sims, Battlefield, and the recently released, Anthem.
Bowser Breathes Success, Not Flames
Prior to joining Nintendo in 2015 as Vice President of Sales, Bowser was working at a different company for over eight years, as we mentioned before, this company is EA (Electronic Arts).
Now, when we think about EA, we might taste a little bit of salt in our mouths, not because of the recent distrust with the company, but more because of EA’s tendency to push microtransactions on their audience – something that Nintendo never really dabbles in beside character DLC packs for games like Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros.
Bowser started out at EA as the VP of Retail Planning and Marketing, moved on to become the VP of Business Planning, and almost two years later, left the company with his final title as VP of Global Demand Planning.
Bringing Bowser into Nintendo during 2015 was most likely due to Nintendo searching hard for someone with years and years of sales experience, like Bowser more than definitely has. When you look at the sales numbers that EA games achieve, any company, including Nintendo, would want a piece of that sweet ‘ol pie.
Bowser’s Short History With Nintendo
Fast forward to the middle of 2015 and Doug Bowser is now sitting pretty at Nintendo of America as the Vice President of Sales, leading the sales department in making sure that Nintendo products weren’t looking all ugly and sad in that Walmart or Target close by your home.
After only having this position for about a year (boy, this guy gets promoted fast), Bowser was the Senior VP of Sales and Marketing, in which he lead sales, consumer and digital marketing, retail marketing & strategy across North America and Latin America regions.
Nintendo, and of course, Reggie Fils-Aime, must’ve thought well of Mr. Bowser, because as of April 15, he will be overtaking Fils-Aime as the new President of Nintendo of America.
Being mentored by the big man in charge, Fils-Aime, Bowser hopes to continue his legacy and follow in the footsteps of Reggie. In Nintendo’s announcement of Fils-Aime’s retirement, Bowser had this to say regarding his promotion:
“It has been my great fortune to work with and be mentored by Reggie for four years at Nintendo of America and rest assured, we will continue to build on his work to evolve and expand our brand, furthering Nintendo’s global mission of creating smiles. There are millions more of those to come.”
With this mans long history with sales and marketing, we hope that Bowser can be half as “meme-able” that Reggie Fils-Aime was. We also hope that he can continue to help to keep the success of the Switch rolling and whatever next console Nintendo has in store for us.
Sources: [LinkedIn, Nintendo, MCV, GlobeIntel]
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