The Nintendo Power Strategy Reminds Me So Much of the NFL With NFL Films

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The Nintendo power strategy reminds me so much of the NFL with NFL films and the NFL print division. Not only are you doing what the NFL did, which is building hype around your media properties,. You are going one level further. As we just talked about, you actually have a direct relationship with the customer.

You may think you know the Nintendo story: a plumber named Mario, a princess named Zelda… and didn’t they buy the Seattle Mariners at some point? We thought we knew it too. And then we started researching and were blown away.

The lovable Disney-like Nintendo that we know today is a 130 year-old a playing card company (i.e. gambling), forged in the shadowy world of the Yakuza and shaped by a four-generation cycle of bitter family betrayal. And its unlikely transformation into a global multi-billion dollar media monopoly was led by an iron-fisted patriarch who — amazingly — never played a video game in his life! Get ready for one of our favorite stories Acquired has ever told — we couldn’t make this one up if we tried!

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