Company: Pokémon USA, Inc.
Agency: Ketchum AMP Eventage
Timeframe: 2006-2007
The Pokémon brand once dominated pop culture, congesting store shelves with products that included video games, trading card game, a TV series and movies. But despite Pokémon's "once indomitable
popularity, in recent years, the brand had lost shelf space in American toy stores, because it had become less top-of-mind with retailers, as well as the media," says Suzanne Lyons, vice president,
assistant director/Communications & Media Strategy Network at Ketchum.
To reenergize the Pokémon license, Pokémon USA, Inc.'s internal PR unit teamed up with New York-based Ketchum to create a groundswell of renewed excitement, visibility and reaffirmation of demand
for the brand in an effort to prove Pokémon's staying power and popularity to licensees and retailers.
"Pokémon was celebrating its 10th anniversary so they wanted to create an upswell within their fan base and let people know that Pokémon still has the same sort of momentum or popularity with kids
even though media had been a little fatigued with the brand," says Chris Kooluris, senior media specialist at Ketchum. The Pokémon company "still wanted to show people that, 'You know what? We
haven't lost our popularity with our key audience, which are the kids,'" Kooluris says.
From a business perspective, the objective was to regenerate the Pokémon brand presence on retail shelves. From a communications standpoint, the angle was divided into three objectives:
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Communicate popularity and continued existence of Pokémon by securing 500 stories in mainstream and trade outlets
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Engage core consumers in celebrating the brand, ultimately increasing traffic to the pokemon.com Web site
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Reinforce the brand's top spot among licensees
"From a PR standpoint, just sparking media's interest was a challenge for the brand because it had been around for so long," Kooluris says. "Pokémon was once on the cover of Time magazine, and 10
years later, kind of creating that resurgence with the brand in the eyes of media, was a challenge for us."
The "Pokémon Recaptures Pop Culture Phenomenon Status" campaign needed to appeal to a vast audience, including licensees, core customers of kids and parents and trade and mainstream media in the
top 25 markets.
The team employed a four-phase approach to the entire year's activities:
Timing Is Everything
"First, we focused on building brand success through awareness among media and licensees to communicate Pokémon's leadership and staying power," Lyons says.
The team acquired an exclusive four-page cover story about Pokémon's 10th anniversary and the brand's staying power in License! Additional features included those in Toys & Family
Entertainment, Licensing Book and Toy Fair Times -- purposely timed to appear in the Toy Fair issues.
Pokémon also returned to Toy Fair to re-establish its leadership presence among its peers and media following a 10-year absence. The team set up an interactive booth at the event and hosted more
than 25 trade and mainstream media outlets. A giant 10th anniversary timeline boasted the brand's history and showcased plans for the 2006 celebration events, while attendees read press materials of
similar content via Pokémon's news center at pokemon.com. The team circulated a "through the years" B-roll package to New York-based media and major newsfeeds to enhance coverage.
Lasso In The Consumers
"In Phase 2, we expanded that approach to include consumers in 10th anniversary celebration activities where we provided Pokémon fans with experiential opportunities to celebrate the brand's 10th
anniversary," she says.
The Pokémon Journey Across America mall tour collected more than 125,000 fans -- including parents -- on its 24-city stops between March and July. Each visit included a video game championship
with two winners -- (12 and under category, 13 and up) -- receiving an all-expense-paid trip to New York to compete in Pokémon Video Game National Championship, to be held in August. The key is to
give your audience incentives that are compelling to them, Kooluris says.
The Mastermind of Mirage, an anniversary TV special aired by Pokémon and the Kids WB!, marked the introduction of the Mirage Pokémon.
Teaming Up
Phase 3 "featured an announcement of Pokémon's new licensing partnerships, which both surprised and excited the licensing and retail community," Lyons says.
Fresh off a positive Toy Fair and Journey Across America, the Pokémon brand announced two major partnerships at the Licensing Show event: a new master toy licensee agreement with JAKKS Pacific,
with plans to roll out consumer products to mass toy retailers in 2007, and an agreement with the Cartoon Network to be the new home for the Pokémon TV series, which entered its ninth consecutive
season in fall 2006.
The Grand Fnale
"The final phase converted awareness, fan involvement, and partnerships into target-reaching media coverage designed to transform growing consumer, media and licensee interest during the
anniversary year," Lyons adds.
On Aug. 8, 2005, Pokémon held an anniversary party in New York's Bryant Park with an estimated 25,000 attendees that included fans, 30 media outlets, licensees and partners. The Pokémon Party of
the Decade was the largest public event ever held in Bryant Park; Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg declared it "Pokémon Day" in New York. Fans experienced a live stage show, played yet-to-be released
Pokémon video games, downloaded exclusive characters to their video game consoles and listened to emcee Hulk Hogan, who encouraged contenders during the final round of the video game championships.
More than 550 print, broadcast, radio and Internet placements, excluding blogs, ranging from Live with Regis & Kelly, U.S. News & World Report to Brandweek and Licensing!, flooded the
nation's media outlets, reaching more than 60 million viewers and listeners. The team garnered coverage in all 50 states and the top 25 media markets, including the New York Post, Newsday, Los
Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, Detroit News, Orlando Sentinel, and nationwide local news programs.
More than 90% of the garnered coverage referenced Pokémon's 10th anniversary and mentioned its resilience across multiple sectors, including video games, its TV series and trading cards.
The Public Relations Society of America also awarded Ketchum with the prestige of the Silver Anvil Award for Reputation/Brand Management-Business in the division of Companies with sales up to $500
million.
CONTACTS:
Chris Kooluris, 646.935.4098, [email protected]; Suzanne Lyons, 646.935.3955, [email protected]
Best Practices and Recommendations
A little research goes a long way: Research may be one of the starting points of a PR project, but it can be a vital component to a campaign's success. Solid study allowed Ketchum AMP Eventage
and Pokémon's internal PR unit to decipher the brand's key audiences, the best way to reach that audience, how the team should craft its message and ways to find a relevant tone of voice, says Chris
Kooluris, senior media specialist at Ketchum.
The firms divided research into four constituents:
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Media audit of Pokémon coverage between 1999-2005: Insight showed that media interest and understanding of the brand's popularity was waning, highlighting the need to educate mainstream
and trade media about Pokémon's staying power
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Pokémon fans' Internet habit reviews: The team gained insight following
several searches of Pokémon fan sites and recognized that the best way to
reach and engage the "hard core" audience is to communicate directly to
fans online via http://www.pokemon.com.
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2004-05 Pokémon Rocks America events analysis: Insight initiated inviting key fan site bloggers to events, and directly reaching loyalists through brand-sponsored events.
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Mintel "Kids' Lifestyles" Research: The research showed "what sort of different things are competing for kids time and attention," Kooluris says. "To show them the best way to engage kids and
parents, what angles would work the best, whether it's an event, something interactive, something online." The team recognized that the best way to engage kids and parents in celebration activities
is via highly interactive events, supplemented by live webcasts to engage kids and parents online.
Energize and Engage
Reenergizing the Pokémon license required Ketchum AMP Eventage and Pokémon USA, Inc.'s internal PR unit to engage core consumers in celebration of the brand through a variety of media outlets. For
fans nationwide who were unable to attend the Pokémon Party of the Decade, the team shared its event via:
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Streaming the event live at pokemon.com and on AOL, reaching kids and parents online
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Hosting Pokémon fan site bloggers as media VIPs to engage the online fan community
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Circulating press releases and event photos to media
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Distributing B-roll package via satellite
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Partnering with Teen Kids News to produce a kid-focused segment that ran in more than 200 markets
The effort proved significant. "Through the Pokémon Journey Across America mall tour and the Pokémon Party of the Decade, more than 150,000 kids and parents nationwide participated in the 10th
anniversary celebration between March and August," says Suzanne Lyons, vice president, assistant director/Communications & Media Strategy Network at Ketchum.
The year-long activities also drove attention to the pokemon.com Web site. The team built relationships with the online fan community by ensuring press materials of upcoming events were posted to
the site before they were distributed via wire, as well as providing a live webcast of the Party of the Decade and hosting fan site bloggers.
"Year-long initiatives significantly increased consumer traffic to the brand
site, http://www.pokemon.com," Lyons
says. The pokemon.com site boosted its position as the 43rd most-visited children's
site in January 2006 to no. 28 by September 2006, according to Hitwise "Children's
Web sites ranking."