I really don't think the marketing was anywhere near as bad as people say it was. It got a bunch of trailers and its only real misstep was not having an E3 trailer. Otherwise I can't imagine what more they could have done. It is ultimately a game with niche appeal.
Up until the demo I honestly had no clue how the game played, and they only really did written previews about the gameplay prior to that. Players shouldn't really be confused at how a game functions until the launch.
The E3 misstep.
Their marketing on social media was weirdly focused on items/food in the game rather than attempting to appeal to people by sharing the very funny dialogue from the game. It was like they didn't know the game was quirky and had meme potential.
They didn't seem to try and get influencers on board with the game. How hard would it have been to get some mid to big names playing the game?
Appeal to their existing audiences. There were FF references all over the game. They could have use that as a marketing tool. Crossover items in an active mobile game?
Heck, they could have baited the KH fans somehow without directly referencing KH to avoid copyright nonsense. After Nomura did that interview about how there wouldn't be any KH references, it seemed to deflate a lot of people who learned about TWEWY via KH. But regardless, there were very easily bait-able aspects of the game like the Dive and Remind features. Pretty certain there were a few Utada references because the translator for this game loves her.
There was a lot that could have been done. A creative marketing campaign could have boosted sales a little bit more than what they got, at least.
