November 16th started off as midnight rolled by, with my wife and I remembering our first kiss, one year ago. Then came a half hour’s worth of laughter, as I shared my fun memories of my cat whom would be 17 today. All of that goodness going on, plus the day being Shigeru Miyamoto’s 61st birthday must have inspired me to write this piece, which began as a Wall Post on Nintendo’s Facebook page, in response to the new Skylanders Wii U bundle. It kept getting bigger and more in depth, so much that now it’s the article I’m sharing with all of you and Nintendo.

The favor that I’m asking from all of you that read this, is to share your thoughts on it. Positive or negative, I appreciate it. Furthermore, if you do like it, pass this article along to Nintendo@Nintendo.com and let’s see if we can make a difference.

Here are my ideas on how Wii U can regain steam while 3DS simultaneously helps out its 8th gen brother and further promotes itself.

“Play Call of Duty: Ghosts and Assassin’s Creed IV, FIRST on next-gen, with Wii U.” (That…arguably, should have been the message from the beginning, but it wasn’t. So below you will see my thought process on the future of how Nintendo should market the Wii U).

Running commercials like that would be a good idea, so that viewers become more aware that Wii U #1, is a next-gen gaming machine and #2, has these high profile 3rd party games.

Putting individual commercials out there like, “Experience next-gen Batman: Arkham Origins…Only on Wii U and enjoy EXCLUSIVE GamePad content.” are essential, but are only one piece of my bigger, proposed strategy.

A message like that will promote the image that Wii U is also a platform that’s #1, got a variety of popular titles, #2, is a next-gen machine, and #3, is appealing because of the simple-yet-effective delivery of attracting people to the Wii U version because of the exclusive GamePad content.

The same general ideas I’m providing can be attributed for all third party games, too. From Rayman Legends to Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Nintendo can’t bundle a high profile 3rd party games with every Wii U and keep putting out multiple skus every month, they can deliver exclusive, Wii U specific commercials.

Yes, 3rd parties run their own commercials for the likes of Batman or Call of Duty, and at the end of the commercial, sometimes they put up the boxes in a staggered setup, of the different console versions. Other times it’s only in the writing at the bottom of the screen. Neither have been helping Nintendo that much.

And then you have the specific Assassin’s Creed IV commercial for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. And you have the specific Call of Duty: Ghosts commercial for Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Nintendo needs its own specific Assassin’s Creed IV and Call of Duty: Ghosts commercials because in advertising, those that advertise more frequently and with a clear, appealing delivery, are going to get more in return.

There even are “bundle commercials” which show off a variety of 1st and 3rd party titles in unison made just for Microsoft’s and just for Sony’s machines. Nintendo needs its own, awesome commercials that are kind of like a mini E3 or Nintendo Direct “sizzle real” of titles for both Wii U and 3DS…and have both platforms in the same commercial with 1st and 3rd party games that really are so wonderful, appearing in them.

1) Live action variety filled with in game footage, 2) Wii U and 3DS joint marketing, 3) Blend of Exclusive 3rd party games with Exclusive Nintendo branded games with multiplatform games, all for Nintendo’s next-gen console and next-gen handheld.

This commercial should be two minutes long in total and be broken down into four 30 second TV spots, with the whole, glorious thing being able to be viewed online and in movie theaters.

The Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, Batman: Arkham Origins, Rayman Legends, Call of Duty: Ghosts…

Luigi’s Mansion 2, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Pokemon X and Pokemon Y, Mario Kart 7, Fire Emblem: Awakening…

Super Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros. 4, Assassin’s Creed IV, Sonic Lost World, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Bayonetta 2…

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Mario Party: Island Tour, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Wii Fit Sports U, Wii Sports Club, Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games…

A 16 Wii U to 8 3DS split of HOT, HIGH QUALITY games. First party, third party, “The Family of Nintendo”, exclusive content, many titles only for Nintendo, next-gen, out now and in 2014. Nintendo needs this.

The commercial has to start off with an actor or actress…let’s go with PaulGaleNetwork for now and begin clearly indoors in a living room with the opening up out of a box and/or starting up of a Wii U console and hopping into a live action reality of being these heroes from the games the person is about to play, then show gameplay footage as well, both in front of the TV with the footage on the HD big screen and on the GamePad, using specific gestures. Now after putting the GamePad down in its cradle, walk out the door with a 3DS being pulled from the pocket and as it’s turned on, once again, entering a live action world mixed with gameplay footage from these titles that you’re about to see.

After being out and about, come back home at night, and whereas in the beginning of the video where of the games shown on Wii U, there were more E for Everyone titles than T for Teen and M for Mature ones (but still having that variety of all three), now at night, the sizzle real has a greater percentage of T/M games to E ones.

It’s a three part commercial but needs to be broken down into four 30 second segments. And to achieve this, you have to mix the content from the three parts, together to effectively have two middle acts.

Its design is: 1/3…1/3…1/3
Its commercial setup will be: 1/4…1/4…1/4…1/4
Online and in theaters you’ll see: One stellar 2 minute advertisement

This is what Nintendo truly needs in my humble opinion. It’ll show what the Wii U and less importantly (at this point) 3DS are all about. Wii had the “Wii Would Like to Play” series and it worked big time. Wii U has not found itself yet, but I believe that “Wii U Here and 3DS There” can be just what Nintendo needs. (That and individual 3rd party commercials for Wii U versions of games). Hopefully Big N will use some PGN and make this happen. 🙂