First, one can't be sure if they didn't want to move. But, San Fransisco and New York are both very unique cities, and not everyone can really enjoy a life in either city.
Second, your last sentence of the first paragraph shows a lack of understanding of how the job market is. Companies more often then not will try to hire employees of competitors.
And they worked for Nintendo, which no matter what your opinion is, they are one of the most influential companies for the past decade. Love him or hate him, Mario is EVERYWHERE. Every god damn place there is mario. Even people that have never played a video game know mario, and this is partial due to marketing.
That is a huge accomplishment.
You come from a important position from a big company like that, and you can look forward for other companies fighting over you.
Second, it's no more common to move in marketing than most other jobs. Yes, you market around the US, but that doesn't mean you need to be all around the US to do that. You only need to be at one place. If you need some data of an area, you have other people get that data. There are actually companies that are set up JUST for that kind of thing, to collect data for other companies.





