So it's very clear now that Nintendo is taking extensive measures towards a new found initiative - raising awareness of its brand. We can see it with their anouncement to make mobile games. We see it with their partnership with DeNA, and their announcement of a new membership program. We see it with their partnership with Universal. We can see it in the appearences of their IP in movies like Wreck-it-Ralph and Pixels. We see it with Amiibo which, anecdotally of course, my sister knows about, despite me never talking about them at home due to my lack of intrest.
Now don't be mistaken, I'm not saying that people are unaware of their brands, but the cultural relevance of them is weaker than it once was. The mindshare they used to have is undeniably weaker. That's what doing these sort of things is so important. They keep Nintendo in their minds as a company that is culturally relevant. You may have never touched Minecraft a day in your life, but you damn sure know about it and know that it's a massively relevant IP today. That's good brand awareness. People back in the NES era calling all video games "Nintendos" is good brand awareness.
Now, while increasing and raising brand awareness is a complex and multifaceted task, one obvious way to raise it is through TV and movies. While movies are a separate thing entirely, I really want to focus on shows. While a lot of people are having fun speculating on which IP would best fit a TV series, what interests me much more is how all those shows would even get aired.
What time slot? What network? Would it only be one network? How many shows would there be? The whole thing is complicated, but I think an important aspect of Nintendo is the sence of ecosystem that they have with their IP. When they make shows, they'd need to be on one Network, but that creates an issue. If there are too many shows Nintendo wants running at the same time, that Network would have to move around its own timeslots to accomidate. There's also the issue that network television is becoming more and more archaic.
My solution is the title of this thread. Nintendo should enter an exclusive deal with Netflix. A deal in which the all of the IP they make shows for air exclusively on Netflix. This is benefitial for many reasons.
1. Netflix is a platform without many exclusive shows. In other words, it's not known for much in the way of unique content yet. This allows Nintendo the unique proposition of being able to almost have its own little television network. With enough IP, Netflix becomes known as the platform with which to watch Nintendo shows, much like any regular network. This allows for a focused platform to distrubute their shows. This is obviously great for Netflix as well, considering how powerful these brands are. The same way Spongebob is associated with Nickelodeon and Hannah Montana was associated with Disney Channel, Mario can be associated with Netflix.
2. Netflix is extremely accessible. It's cheap, on-demand, independant, widely distributed, ad-free, and viewable on virtually every modern platform. This means that the barrier to entry in seeing these shows is extremely low.
3. Netflix would aid in the marketing of these shows. Obviously Netflix would have a significant investment in the success of these shows, meaning they would help give them "1st party" coverage. You'd see the Nintendo shows on the front page and in recommended lists. Nintendo might even get its own tab. That's not to mention the advertizements outside of the platform.
4. Netflix would invest in making sure these shows are actually good. It's no secret that Netflix has excellent writers and directors. They've been doing really well with their shows like Daredevil. With a roster of Nintendo IP to adapt, they'd want to make sure those shows upheld the same high level of quality. That's only good for Nintendo.
Now a real stroke of genius would be if Nintendo could work out some deal similar to the XBLG one, where Netflix would be free to all membership program members, but that is very unlikely due to the nature of that program. Nintendo would have the benefit of being able to market the shows on their own platforms, and fans could easily watch these Nintendo shows directly from their Nintendo hardware, which makes for a great, contained experience. Even still, there is so much Nintendo would gain from such a partnership that is wouldn't suprise me if that was already in the works. This would be the most effective and modern way for Nintendo to usilize their IP in the TV space.
