Gail Tilden is an American marketing manager and consultant. She formerly worked at

Nintendo of America is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards. ...

where she was instrumental in helping with the advertising of the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...

's introduction to the North American market, and establishing the ''

Nintendo Power ''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninten ...

'' magazine.

Career

Nintendo

Tilden joined

(NoA) in July 1983 and by September was named the Advertising Manager for the company. At this time, Nintendo was primarily focused on

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

s though had just released its first home console, the

Famicom The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...

, in Japan. Within the United States, the video game market had just crashed, in part due to oversaturation of the market by unlicensed third-party games for the home consoles of the time. Nintendo waited for some time to bring the Famicom into the United States, and sought to position it to avoid the pitfalls that had led to the 1983 crash. Tilden was part of the team to figure out how to bring the system to U.S. to appeal to consumers while distancing it from the issues that led to the crash, with Tilden leading the

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

and advertising. Tilden, along with others, decided to initially launch the system - remodeled and rebranded as the

(NES) - in a limited test market of New York City in October 1985 to gauge reaction, and with additional test market releases in February 1986. This allowed them to figure out what games to pack in with the system for its full release later in 1986. Following the NES's release, NoA found that there were players looking for help in trying to complete the new games. NoA's president Howard Phillips established a phone help line for players to call in for people to get help, but believed there were other solutions for this. Phillips and Tilden decided to create the free '' Nintendo Fun Club'' newsletter as one means; players could join by filling out cards packed in with the NES games and mailing them back to NoA, and in return sent them the newsletter with gameplay tips and other information. At its peak, the newsletter had more than 600,000 subscribers, which became too costly to operate freely. This led to Phillips and Tilden to create ''

'' by 1988, a monthly magazine that provided similar tips for players as well as other related Nintendo news. Tilden served as the magazine's editor-in-chief in its early days. Tilden was responsible for launching Nintendo's presence on the Internet in 1995, and was promoted to the Vice President of Brand Management for NoA in 1998. This also included managing many of the Nintendo

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

rights, including the ''

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

'' brand. She helped to seek other venues to bring Nintendo's IP, notably the ''Pokémon'' animated television show, so that it was consistent with the branding Nintendo wanted for the series, in contrast with the panned 1993 ''

Super Mario Bros. is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game ''Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for th ...

'' film.

Post-Nintendo

Tilden left Nintendo in 2007 to work as a freelance consultant for startup companies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tilden, Gail Video game businesspeople Living people Year of birth missing (living people)