Public Relations
My name is Jason Dotson. I’m a Communication major, I’m graduating with a public relations emphasis, I have two years of marketing experience, and I want to work at Nintendo.
I’m a kid at heart.
If there’s a chance that I can work for the company that shaped my childhood growing up, I’m going do everything I can to take it.
The problem is, Nintendo doesn’t usually hire new graduates in my major.
I have to find ways to make myself stand out.
That’s exactly what I’m hoping to accomplish with my senior project. My goal with this project is to use my experience in market research to demonstrate to Nintendo that, despite my inexperience, I can be an asset to their marketing and public relations divisions.
So, let’s talk about this project.
THE INITIAL RESEARCH AND DESIGN
I read through most, if not all of Nintendo’s financial reports and Investor Q&A meetings. From these reports I came to understand that its Nintendo’s aspiration as a company to strengthen and grow their intellectual properties, or IPs.
I used this idea to form the basis of my project, which was to use the crumbs derived from instances of Nintendo publicly sharing their sales data to piece together a (somewhat) complete report that they can use to further expand and strengthen their IPs.
This led to me mapping out an initial project that was a little too ambitious for what I had the means to achieve.
I want to be able to demonstrate my capacity for problem solving to my employers. I also want to demonstrate my digital marketing and SEO experience to employers. I want to marry these two concepts into a single project. With that in mind, I am going to be presenting a problem to a potential employer, compiling data around that problem, compressing that data into usable information, displaying that information as an easily digestible graphic and presenting an actionable solution from that.
For the sake of this project, and for my own personal motivation, I am going to be centering this information around Nintendo. Specifically, I am going to be using the limited data that they present each year at investment meetings and supplementing it with NPD sales numbers and labor costs to determine which of their dormant intellectual properties would make the most financial sense to relaunch.
I am going to be using this information to create a graphic in Tableau. Once I have created the graphic, I am going to relaunch my resume/portfolio website with this information as its centerpiece. This website will have several videos and graphics pertaining to my senior project as well as other hard skills that I have developed over the years.
Finally, I would like to use my SEO and marketing experience to launch a digital ad campaign across various online platforms including search engines, online markets, social media and email marketing.
THE CHALLENGES
There were a few challenges present in this proposal that I just didn’t know about.
First, I had issues with Tableau.
Tableau is the preferred data analysis/visualization program of Nintendo. I wanted to increase my chances of getting hired by certifying myself in Tableau’s certification courses. I was under the impression that these courses were free for students…
They were (to an extent)!
I was able to take a third of the certification course before I was hit with a paywall. I had limited access to Tableau’s software, and I could no longer get certified.
Launching a digital ad campaign was the other thing that I had to cut from my project. I midway through my project that if I wanted to make the video as engaging as possible, then the footage that I would need to use could violate fair use. I didn’t want to have entertain the idea that my video would get claimed before potential employers could, so I dropped it from my campaign.
THE COMMITMENT
It was a good thing I did, too. The research aspect of this project took nearly six times as long as I had originally intended. The details listed in my hours below:
10/5/2020 1:11 – Exporting Nintendo Stock prices, NPD sales data, media mentions, and more into a single file. I also researched what dictates stock value to see if that would be an accurate metric to track within this study. Midway through my research I realized that I would need to understand Nintendo’s core demographic before I could perform accurate research on a potential product that would either appeal to them or reach past them.
10/5/2020 – 1:03 Bought color correcting software, video filming equipment and researched individuals who would be willing to animate an intro for my brand. There are plenty of great candidates for under $40 on freelancer sites such as Fiverr.
10/7/2020 – 1:51 Did some research into Nintendo’s target audience, as well as some basic research on their company goals, current client base, and media mentions of their dormant franchises over time.
10/8/2020 – 1:00 I kept digging until I found the archive of monthly sales data released by NPD throughout the years. This archive goes as far back as 1996, giving me more than enough information I need to conduct my research.
10/14 – 1:41 – I added release dates for every Nintendo title and began the process of adding average stock increase and sales estimates.
10/22 – :18 – Fiverr research
10/23 – 1:24 – Tableau training
10/27 – 4:03 – I began compiling all of the data that I have gathered into usable information. Through this I was able to narrow down over 300 published franchises to 69
10/28 – :32 – I spent a little bit of time compiling more data, this time media mentions specifically, into usable information that will help me narrow down the 69 franchises.
11/5 – 1:38 – I reviewed the media mention data for several video game series
11/6 – 1:22 – I reviewed the media mention data for several video game series
11/7 – 2:51 – I kept combing through rows of data regarding the media interest in dozens of series
11/8 – 6:04 – I finished the media mention audit and narrowed the games series from 69 to 41
11/9 – 4:39
11/10 – 8:24
11/11 – 10:13 – I read through hundreds of financial reports from Nintendo and various research firms to gain rough estimates of the sales figures from every franchise in my project.
11/12 – 9:41 – I Finished creating the sales estimates for each game in every remaining franchise and cross referenced that with Nintendo’s console sales numbers to find the average attachment rate of each series.
11/13 – 7:58 – Compiled all of my information together to create my top 10 Franchises, Wrote video script, and designed set.
11/14 – 2:00 – Began editing video
11/16 – 3:00 – Edited Initial Filming together
11/17 – 22:00 – Cleaned up audio, watched tutorials on various visual effects, re-edited content, began reshoots, recorded audio voiceover, compiled various clips of filler footage. Put finishing touches on video, report, and written portion of project.
THE RESULTS
I’m pretty happy with how things turned out. Like I mentioned before, Nintendo doesn’t grant public access to most of their company’s data. That led me to pour myself into the research portion of this project in ways that I never have. I reviewed thousands upon thousands of lines of data and hundreds of different reports. I hope that Nintendo and other potential employers can see my project as a proof of concept. I’m willing to dig deep to find solutions to unclear questions. I hope that this extra mile will be enough to help me find gainful employment upon graduation.
Video Outline
Introduction
– Have you ever been scrolling through a website, saw a picture and thought “I want this guy’s life!”?
– Looks up from screen. Facial Hair and working at Nintendo
– That’s why I patterned this project to make me a more valuable prospect to Nintendo as a company.
– Specifically, this project/video will demonstrate my work ethic, skills that according to Nintendo’s employment application, they value, and ability to go the extra mile to solve problems and find solutions.
What is the problem?
– So, let’s find some solutions
o Nintendo wants to expand their IPs (likely with mobile games contributing, possibly not),
o Increase the value of Nintendo Switch Online,
o Move hardware/software and
o Make investors happy.
– I’m going to use data to determine which of Nintendo’s dormant IPs they should revisit.
The Caveats
– The resources that I had to find this data were the best I could afford, free, but are likely behind the standard of more advanced data gathering resources a company like Nintendo has at their disposal.
– Freemium software social searcher, Google trends data, Old NPD, CESA, and Media Create reports, reaching out directly to development studios, formulas used to determine basic estimates.
– Think of this as a proof of concept. I’m willing to roll up my sleeves and dig to find the answers to unclear problems.
– If I’m hired on as a part of your team, I’ll apply this same level of commitment and quality to learning whatever resources you have.
– Anyway, let’s jump in!
The Methodology
– Online interest (comprised of media mentions and google search interest), review scores average, attachment rates (comprised of sales estimates for each individual game)
– Online interest because of stock history (most important)
o Mention online caveats
– Review scores because of IP and Nintendo’s brand value
– Attach rate because of sales and profitability
o Mention what a Nintendo Switch release needs to sell to be profitable
The Report
– Well over 300 initial IPs
o Used the separation of IP and Franchise to narrow
– 70 games left
o Used Online interest to narrow that down
– 26 games left
o Used the combination of media mentions, aggregate review scores and attach rate to narrow down
o Excluding Wii series (Series Wii Collection or micro console)
o Excluding NES remix (put that on the online service)
o Excluding Pokémon Stadium series
The Top 10
– Explain each top 10
o Details about them on an individual level
The outro
– Recap of what I was hoping to accomplish with this project.
