[Iguana Man]

Who says the Wii isn't innovative! It's grabbing a whole new customer base never heard of before, the AARP crowd!

How cool is this!

Snipet:

A look at some other marketers' strategies for courting consumers north of age 50:

Nintendo.

The video game company is not only showing up at AARP conferences the way many marketers show up at college spring breaks, it also has donated Wii game consoles to retirement community recreation rooms across the country. Nintendo's theory is that if it gets potential customers to sample the player and its games, those people are significantly more likely to buy game consoles for their homes — to use themselves and, perhaps, to pull out when the grandchildren visit.

"The percentage of people in that (50-plus) category is going to increase dramatically," says George Harrison, Nintendo senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "We had to find ways to appeal to this aging audience."

The Wii's intuitive and active design — the remote is wireless, motion-controlled and not button-heavy — makes it attractive to casual gamers as well as novices of all ages, he says. "Historically, game controllers had multiple buttons to push and were too intimidating."

Stephen Baranowski, 56, from Oxford, Conn., enjoyed a test drive of the game console at the Wii booth where Crawford was playing.

"I've probably never bought a video game in my life," he says. But after time on the $250 system, he says he's likely to splurge on one. "The technology has reached a point of use — you can use your natural ability to play a game."