2. The Key Word is “Redefining Advertisements”

Iwata - I’m sure anyone who’s read this far has a lot of question marks popping up in their mind. “Just what are these people saying?”

Everyone - (laughs)

Iwata - I’m sure that’s the case (laughs). Beppu-san, would you please explain how you were introduced to Dentsu?

Beppu - It all started when they proposed the “TV Buddy Channel” (※3).

Iwata - The “TV Buddy Channel” is a Wii Channel that functions as a TV guide.

※3 “TV Buddy Channel”＝ One of the Wii Channels. Used to view TV listings of your registered region up to a week ahead of time. Includes various services such as the ability to stamp a program, that the Wii will then send a reminder to you about 30 minutes before it starts.

Beppu - Right. During the first pitch there were advertisement slots in the TV guide. And I thought that customers were there to view the TV guide, and wouldn’t really be interested in the advertisements. So I mentioned that I preferred not to have the advertisements put in.

Iwata - That’s quite a rude thing to say to someone from an advertising company (laughs).

Beppu - (laughs) At one time I actually worked at an advertising agency, so I totally understand the want to put ads in there. I mean, including ads in the TV guide is exactly how Dentsu’s business functions. But I said that from Nintendo’s point of view, it’s not something we want to do. So at that point the discussion began to fizzle out.

Iwata - Everything was starting to fall apart.

Beppu - Right. At that point I suggested that if they could make a proposal for ads that customers could select of their own volition, something they’d actually want to watch, then from Nintendo’s point of view it could at least be a possibility. In other words, I wanted the ads to become entertainment, and to my surprise Dentsu responded with, “We’d appreciate it if you would let us carry through with this as a project to seriously consider.” That’s how it all began. That’s when Yukawa-san here was brought into the project team.

Iwata - Yukawa-san, how were you approached about participating in this project?

Yukawa - The head of the channel who was my boss during my Dentsu years said to me, “Hey, you like games?” (laughs)

Iwata - You were asked, “You like games?” just out of nowhere? (laughs)

Yukawa - I responded with two words - “Love 'em!” And then he said, “I’m giving you a mission then.”

Iwata - So perhaps if you had responded with, “I hate games,” you wouldn’t be sitting here today?

Yukawa - Probably not (laughs).

Iwata - (laughs)

Beppu - So then we were negotiating with four people from Dentsu, including Yukawa-san, and the first thing we decided was not to include ads in the “TV Buddy Channel”. Instead, we decided to work together to come up with a plan for something based around the concept of “Advertisements as Entertainment."

Iwata - In other words, you decided to come up with something where customers would choose to watch advertisements themselves.

Beppu - Yes. Not something where ads would be pushed to them, but that they would go out of their way to watch.

Iwata - That’s easier said than done.

Beppu - Indeed. So for the first three and a half months we’d have meetings every week where we just didn’t see eye to eye.

Iwata - That was pretty big of you to meet with someone who didn’t jive with you every single week, Yukawa-san.

Beppu/Yukawa - (pained laughing)

Yukawa - I personally had been working at Dentsu for 18 years, so my ideas for what kind of ads were good for industry were ingrained in my way of thinking. Even though it was ultimately consumers that the ads were targeting, “The marketer is number one” had been integrated into my being. As such, I guess it took about three and a half months to make that switch in my head.

Iwata - You needed that much time to change your perspective to a customer focus. So then after three and a half months was the change fairly quick?

Yukawa - There was one particular event that set it off. I really do love games, so as it turns out, I have hardware by platform holders other than Nintendo.

Iwata - Naturally. If you really do love games, you want to play them on all different kinds of hardware (laughs). In fact I’m quite sure plenty of our employees are the same.

Yukawa - Well, when playing that at home my wife would get sour and say things like, “Stop playing those games soon.” And as it turns out, only when I was playing the Wii would she enjoy them with me (laughs).

Iwata - Your wife is someone who didn’t originally play games?

Yukawa - Correct. I had the opportunity to see with my own eyes how the Wii opened up the hearts of people who don’t like games at all, like my wife. Having experienced first hand this event where where someone who had no interest suddenly gained an interest, and began to think, “Just what is an advertisement?”

Beppu - And that’s when Dentsu came up with their key word for the project - “redefining advertisements."

Yukawa - Right.

Beppu - Just a bit before that Nintendo was saying how we wanted to redefine games to have even just one more person in the world enjoy games…

Iwata - The phrasing I used was, “expanding the definition of games”.

Beppu - Right. “Expanding the definition of games.” And Dentsu was saying, “Redefining Advertisements."

Yukawa - Let’s make them not something that people are shown, but that they want to watch.

Iwata - And so that’s the origin of “Wii no Ma” - changing from a framework where they’re pushed to viewers between programs, to something that customers would go out of their way to watch. I’m sure it would be applicable to say that you had to begin with figuring out what would be needed to make that a reality.

Yukawa - Yes.

Beppu - Over three and a half months we had finally gotten on the same page about making advertisements something customers would want to watch themselves, but the next hardship we had to face was figuring out specifically what the content should be. It took us another three to four months to figure out what kind of interface should be presented to customers.

Iwata - You had to think of something that had no prior precedent, so naturally it wasn’t easy.

Beppu - Right, we were having trouble coming up with something concrete… And then, throughout our discussions the concepts of “family” and “everyday life” began to crystallise, so the “tea table” and “calendar” presented themselves as the interface.

Yukawa - That’s right. I think the “calendar” came first.

Beppu - At that point opinions began to split into two factions - the “calendar faction” and the “tea table faction."

Yukawa - I think the “calendar” is a tool, and the “tea table” is a space. Then the concept of “bonds” was added, and finally the start line was defined for us based on “Family - Life - Bonds."