Spikes Asia
DENTSU X, Taipei / POKEMON / 2023
Overview
Entries
Credits
Background
After COVID pandemic has passed, people now can travel anywhere. However, COVID has changed our lives drastically – We can manage our lives without going out much, utilizing more E-commerce and food delivery apps. Even in Taiwan, usage of E-commerce has exceeded 40%, and the E-commerce market size has reached at USD170mil in 2022, which is over 20% growth YOY in last 3 years.
In addition, some people are still anxious to go out, even for domestic travel.
However, there are definitely demand of traveling and people have restricted themselves for nearly 3 years. People now need something to encourage them for adventure.
Pokémon’s brand purpose is to let people travel and discover something new. Now the pandemic is fading out, Pokémon would like to create reasons for people to go out leveraging their contents. This is not for their product sales but for contribution to local and global societies.
Idea
Our idea is 'Let Pokémon be in live' in the real world, to take people out for adventures. Therefore, we started the idea from contents to attract people to make actions, then where and how to show these contents. We placed the contents in the town (nearby our target audience), on local transportations (carry our target audience locally), and on the aircraft (carry our target audience even to outside of daily lives). In addition, we organized the event to feel and touch Pokémon.
The idea was not very complicated, but our challenge was to find our partners to make it social phenomenon. We collaborated with Taiwan's national flag, China Airlines, and local metros and governments to make this as a social event - Not by buying media for the placements.
Strategy
We targeted all generations even those who are not familiar to Pokémon.
Our strategy was to create the joy of going out by leveraging Pokémon IPs, just like Pokémon games and animations. We ideated to prepare multiple layers of executions so that people could meet Pokémon at many places - overseas and domestic transportations, and local signature sites.
Our first challenge was to look for the best partners who we can share our visions to make this a social phenomenon. To make this project happening in everywhere, we looked for several transportation partners and local governments.
The other challenge was to build creative contents that people experience Pokemon and share the experience to others. We built “Pokégenic” spots where people can take creative photos with Pokémon in real lives.
Execution
As mentioned, we prepared multiple executions where people could meet Pokémon.
[Aircraft Wrapping]
We made 'Pokémon Aircrafts' with China Airlines for international routes. In addition, the interior and cutleries carried Pokémon.
[Pokémon Metro]
In collaboration with Taipei Metro and Taoyuan Metro, Pokémon-themed metro trains were operated to carry travelers and commuters.
Both Metro also launched Pokémon One-Day pass which contributed to increase number of passengers.
[Pokégenic]
Taipei City government offered 10 public spaces for Pokémon drawings. People could enjoy discovering the photogenic drawings. Each Pokémon’s drawing could be completed with people to take photos together. We could see many people cannot stop sharing the photos on SNS.
[Pokémon Go Safari Zone & Pikachu Dance]
Lastly, we prepared a place to experience Pokemon. Pokémon Go players could catch rare Pokémons in Taipei. And the evening time, people could really meet Pikachu dancing in the largetst park there.
Outcome
The series of campaign successfully attracted media and people in Taiwan.
All campaigns were quickly triggered by almost all TV news media and various online news in Taiwan. The PR value reached at more than TWD 60 million (approx. USD 2 million).
There were over 10,000 social media posts within 1 month after launching, and it is even growing. Those posts were spread to attract new fans as well.
As for the number of Metro passengers, Taipei Metro increased 5,060,395 passengers (110%) and Taoyuan Metro increased 337,317 passengers (126%) compared to same month of last year.
This campaign was not for product sales but it contributed as the result. The Pokemon Go event in the campaign recorded 25,600 players to join, and the latest Pokemon game title for Nintendo Switch recorded the highest sales ever in Taiwan and worldwide.
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