Nintendo Has Allowed its Characters to Thrive Online
A Real Search In Google Reveals That 'Mario' Has More Results Than 'Porno'
(Results may vary depending on location)
Unlike most other media producers, Nintendo has allowed its intellectual property to be freely discussed and used online. Nostalgia and Nintendo's openness to new technology has created an atmosphere that has allowed the company's characters to grow immensely popular. The example above shows that a Google search for the term Mario returns more results than a search for Porno. This is amazing in a media atmosphere allegedly driven by violence and sexuality. Mario has remained essentially the same non-violent and innocent character that he was 20 years ago, and he has still managed to attain inequitable popularity.
Nintendo Utilizes Its Special Understanding of the Internet Generation
The company has years of market research and experience in selling to this market. Just like a good web interface designer, Nintendo relies on conventions to make every one of its games feel familiar to its users.
Nintendo Can Make Terrible Ideas Great
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A fat hero with the super power to jump really high? He rides a tiny dinosaur with magic shoes? WTF! Only Nintendo has the video game Midas touch to create gold out of seemingly terrible ideas. With the exception of a few recent game systems, Nintendo has always led the world in video game sales. Now with the help of brilliant internet advertisements, Nintendo has regained its throne as the best video game system creator in the world.
Nintendo Flies Below the Radar and Creeps in Like a Trojan Horse
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Nintendo's and Microsoft's Headquarters
Nintendo's American Headquarters are located in Redmond, Washington, and are completely surrounded by Microsoft's Headquarters. Its single building is embarrassingly lacking compared to Microsoft's immense complex. The same could be said of Nintendo's internet marketing campaigns. They are usually small (relative to competitors Sony and Microsoft) but surprisingly effective.
Nintendo is Timeless
Mario's Evolution (Photo Credit)
Although Mario has gained a dimension (he's 3D now, like you and me), he is still the red overalls-wearing goof that he has always been. Nintendo knows that it has created something worthwhile and has worked hard to preserve it. The same can be said for its website. It continues to be the image heavy eye candy that is has been since 2001.
If you know of any other secrets Nintendo is using to rule the internet, please feel free to share your opinions and expertise in the comments. As always, e-mail me or send me a private message if you have any suggestions on how I can make my posts more useful. If that's not your style, feel free to contact me on Twitter (DannyDover) and/or Linkedin (Danny Dover). Thanks!
Searching "mario porno" yields about 3,000,000 results, which is just plain disturbing.
I think Nintendo has managed to remember one thing: it doesn't matter if you have a state-of-the-art processor, BluRay, HDMI output and chrome controllers if your games suck. The Wii opened up a whole new market with what was, by all accounts, sub-standard performance, because they remembered that games should be fun.
Actually:
mario - 5
porno - 2,365
porn - 45,000+
Oh wait, thats the # of search results on my my hard drive.
Another reason Mario has great mindshare online: all the awesome theme tunes.
In particular, the fact that they've not dropped a bomb on everyone who has recorded their own version. I can't supress a big grin while watching:
etc...
Awesome post! Nintendo does indeed rule the interwebs. Have you seen this? Not really related but topical:
https://img236.imageshack.us/img236/6081/mariostartu8.jpg
That comic cracks me and Jason up every time we see it. Bros before hoes, Luigi!
This is my favorite: Mario Betrayal
If someone can tell me where to get a poster of this, I will become their best friend. :)
If nintendo are so good at making crap ideas work to perfection, and if Mario and his lanky buddy Luigi are so popular, then why was this such a stinking pile of drivel!
Did it fail simply because only one of the "Bro's" was capable of growing facial hair and the price of a fake 'tache would have blown the budget for the movie? Or was it just a really, really, super awful idea that should have been a "nintendon't"?
Terrible Danny.
There are only 2 reasons for Nintendo's success.
Reason 1: Piracy
In the 1980s, the Asian version of the NES and SNES were the most pirated consoles of all time*. "Disk doctors" that attached to the top of the NES meant that all Nintendo games could be bought for 50c a pop at the local store. There was no reason to buy a Master System, Megadrive or TurboGrafx when you could get all the gaming you ever wanted on one console for a fraction of your weekly pocket money. Of course, Nintendo and their software publishers would go on to lose mega-billions of potential revenue, hence the next gen of Nintendo consoles would not use easily pirated CD-ROM technology...
Why Piracy worked: Piracy increases market share. Geeks and early adopters hopped onboard the modded console wagon. By the time the wave of mainstream consumers (that don't know how to pirate games) comes along, they are locked into buying the Nintendo because of market hype and market share of the NES. Genius.
[I always wondered why Hong Kong video game bazaars shutdown by customs officials were allowed to re-open a week later]
Reason 2: Gimmicks
In the last few years, after the failure of the N64 and Gamecube to capture market share (which were much harder to pirate games compared to the CD-based PS1 and DVD-based PS2), Nintendo went back to the drawing boards and found two gimmicks - the DS stylus and the Wii controller - that would allow for utter world domination.
Why Gimmicks worked: When you break it down, there are only four real segments - young male, young female, old male, old female. My maths says appealing to 2 groups is better than 1 and 4 groups, well that's just Nintendo laughing all the way to the bank.
To generalize:
-PS3 and XBox360: Young males.
-DS: Young male & female.
-Wii: appeals to every segment.
Awesome post as usual Danny.
"with the help of brilliant internet advertisements..."
...Great ad! I still can't believe they're pushing 2D games in 2008, but I guess there's no reason the market for such games would dry up if they continue to be entertaining. Oh and they should bring back DuckHunt. Not for the Ducks… but for the flying saucers. Good post Danny.
Agreed, this post inspired a blog post of my own (here) about this. How long can a novel, somewhat gimmicky system last? Sure they target a broader demographic but the quality of the material being produced for this system doesn't exactly have much longevity. I've been told the Wii fit chastises you for inactivity but I can't see many people caring much!
The Wii's current success is very much due to the power of effective promotion and marketing. That said, I don't think they've marketed online any better than their competitors (Sony and Microsoft), I think the success is mainly off the back of the originality of the system.
And this figure includes the people with the name mario on internet but I am not sure if there are too many people with the name 'porno' though :)
Great post!
I did notice that Mario changed his overalls in '87 (to blue) and again in '90 (to black) and '91 (back to blue). And in 2008, his stone-washed, muted blue/green blend is absolutely the height of fashion.
But yessir! He's the same crowd-pleasing fellow he's always been. Mario's always been my man! :)
Hold on a minute. Mario runs around all day jumping on people's heads and robbing gold coins out of pipes and innocent brick structures. Sounds more like a crooked plumber with Mafia ties who obviously has the cops on the payroll. ;)
I am getting 170,000,000 in NYC. That number will probably soon increase to over 200M as a result of this post being so popular, like every other Danny Dover post.
Hail Mario!
You've said :
"(Results may vary depending on location)"
LOL How can ths be possible ?
If you see the conversation in the comments, people are seeing different results in different places. This is because Google does not have just the one data centre - it has sevaral, and many unique to individual loactions. These crunch data in slightly different ways, to include, exclude local results, or may be running slower than other data centres etc - or for a number of other reasons...
Is it the same for yahoo ?
if not, i think we should use Yahoo's numbers
remi,
It is true for all large scale data services online. In order to serve millions of people who may be located anywhere in the world it is necessary to host data in datacenters located all over the world. This helps people in two ways.
First, it decreases the distance that the data must travel thus decreasing the amount of time it takes for the user to recieve data (latency).
Secondly, it spreads the server load. Lots of data sources are more reliable than a single centrally located source.
There is actually an entire industry around this. Content Distribution Networks (CDN) are used all the time by many major sites you probably use everyday. For example Akamai, a CDN, helps power, Adobe, Myspace, MTV and Verizon just to name a few.
Actually:
mario - 162,000,000
porno - 166,000,000
porn - 204,000,000
Depends on location my friend. The Google datacenter that serves me results in Seattle returns the results in the post :)
I thought my results might be different seeing that I am in Canada here. However, my results are the exact same as yours Danny. Maybe because Seattle is only a five hour drive away? I don't know ... it's kind of interesting though either way ...
Same numbers in California too
I dont know about datacentres, but google fight is ususally a definative winner for me...
I understand what you're saying about the search terms (including the fact that "mario" is going to bring up results about a lot of other things and people). I think it's still relevant that Nintendo did infiltrate the technological landscape of more than one generation with this series of games, and did so in a way that companies like Sega and characters like Sonic the Hedgehog never did.
These index counts are missing the greater point, mario and porno rhyme.
And this figure includes the people with the name mario on internet but I am not sure if there are too many people with the name 'porno' though :)
Mario was one of most frequent game I played in my childhood and the game become more exciting with the coming of Nintendo Wii. Realy Cool.
Dan you should be more specific in the research, "Mario" is too broad. I think Mario Bros would be more specific and represent better. I search in Google and get 9,450,000 result pages for "Mario Bros".
I thought of that as well. However, when I do a search for 'mario' the top 20 results are for the italian plumber, whereas when I search for porno, I get a mix of adult sites, sites about advocacy groups and sites related to a movie called 'Zack and Miri Make a Porno' (Its not pornographic).
The search of 'mario' vs 'porno' is more accurate when user intent is taken into account.
Danny,
Staying with tfirdaus' line of reasoning, a more fair comparison would be "porn", not "porno". Porno ganers 227,000 results and is beats Mario to a pulp.
Clearly you didn't do your keyword research. In this case, I'm sure your mom would be proud.
Trust you to know the difference.
So are you saying introducing a motion-based, get-out-of-your-seat controller was a "bad idea" that worked? I think it was brilliance given how many causal gamers HATE and are intimidated by the typical Xbox controller with 20 buttons. I am shocked that Sony and MS missed the boat so badly on this. Why would you not want to play games using normal, ergonomic actions vs. pushing tiny buttons. Now the only question is whether Nintendo can convert the more hard core folks with deeper games like Gears of War for Wii.
Good post and it makes you think! Don't really know if I'll be able to use anything I might learn by studying Nintendos strategies online, but its still fun to read!
*coin jingle sounds*
best nintendo blog post ever.
nintendo utilizes its special understanding of the internet generation image = brilliant
*coin jingle sounds*
SMB 1 time attacks.. Good times :)
Great post. However, no one's actually considered in their comments that the term 'Mario' is not exclusive to the Nintendo character - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_(given_name)
Between race driver Mario Andretti and DJ Mario Piu they account for 1M in my regions' search results.
'Super Mario' returns 27.5M results for me.
allintitle:mario nintendo, 403K or allintitle:mario game, 266K is a better indicator, surely? Especially considering allintitle:porno results in 23.8M results.
Nintendo's huge market share of late (certainly not apparent back in the '90s where PS1+2 dominated in UK at least), is largely down to its family-friendly and social games. In times where the media jump on the back of every games company producing un-pc or violent content, alarming parents the world over, educational games such as Brain Training on DS will prevail. Especially when celebrity endorsed by the likes of Nicole Kidman.
I'd also go as far as to say that a quarter of the bus stops (within close promimity to the towns' schools) I pass on my way into work have large wii & DS posters displayed. That's gotta be great for promoting educational gaming. Can't remember the last time I saw an xbox ad on the streets...
Thanks for this brainstorming.
NEWFLASH
Nintendo has just announced a new game featuring Brooklyn born Italian studs that move to Hollywood with visions of stardom. Failing miserably, they ultimately they land a role in a Roman toga movie called "Pornio Brothers".
GAH. fix yer link Sean :P