Pokémon

 

  • Pokémon is a legendary franchise possessing a mass, devout global following – it is one of the most popular entertainment franchises in the world.
  • Debuting in 1996, the franchise sought to create a tent pole, unprecedented activation for the brand to attract as much attention as possible during its 20th anniversary.
  • TriplePoint and The Pokémon Company International (TPCI) came to the decision to use Super Bowl 50 as the launch pad – leveraging a Super Bowl commercial and superstar NFL athlete Richard Sherman to amplify the 20th anniversary given the telecast’s expected reach of more than 100 million viewers.

The Challenge

  • To capture the ROI needed to validate the steep investment for a Super Bowl commercial, Pokémon needed to breakthrough an insanely crowded brand marketing environment.
  • In addition to getting mass press coverage and online YouTube views Pokémon needed to authentically illustrate to consumers why it made sense for the brand to be alongside Super Bowl mainstays such as Coca-Cola, GM, Anheuser-Busch and Doritos.
  • Richard Sherman was not locked into an agreement until only 10 days before Super Bowl 50. Brands with other celebrities were booking media appointments for “Radio Row” roughly two weeks prior, therefore already full media schedules were a concern.
  • Sherman is a professed Pokémon fan, but given the tight turn, it was unclear the level of media training able to be performed to ensure optimal message pull through would be achieved.

The Approach

  • TriplePoint worked closely with TPCI to develop a strategy to unveil a 60-second version of the ad on January 25, almost two weeks before the Super Bowl to avoid the industry noise and own the conversation first. The 30-second version was held until Super Bowl Sunday, thus creating two news cycles.
  • We built targeted messages for press focused on relatable and motivational sports tropes such as hard work, teamwork and perseverance to connect the Pokémon brand to the Super Bowl.
  • Due to the tight timeline with Sherman, we leveraged the team’s strong relationships thanks to past Super Bowl, World Cup and Olympics experience to book a full schedule despite being “late.”
  • For Sherman’s media tour, we prepped him with easy to digest messages that naturally connected his past personal experiences with the brand. We also captured verbal agreements from all media outlets to grant time for Sherman to plug the brand.

The Results

  • The Pokémon Super Bowl ad and Richard Sherman media tour generated a maximum potential of 2 BILLION UMVs and 97% neutral-positive sentiment.

Super Bowl Commercial

  • Coverage appeared in more than 280 stories including top outlets: AP, ABC News, Ad Age, Ad Week, Bleacher Report, CBS News, E! Online, EW, Forbes, Huffington Post, Mashable, New York Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, TIME, USA TODAY, Variety, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and more.
  • Due to the early unveil of the ad, Pokémon generated the most YouTube views amongst all Super Bowl commercials with now more than 24.5M views (as of 3/8/16).

Richard Sherman Media tour

  • The media tour consisted of briefings with the top 15 sports and entertainment outlets including Colin Cowherd (FOX), Dan Patrick Show (NBC), ESPN, Jamie Foxx’s Sirius / Entertainment Tonight show, Jim Rome Show (CBS), Sports Illustrated “NOW’ and more.
  • 93% Pokémon Key Message Pull Through.

“It’s been 20 years for Pokemon, and about 18-19 for me, and that’s how I got involved with it…Pokemon meant a lot to me as a kid…It’s one of those things that transcends race, it transcends gender, and age. Even at Stanford, there were people that played it.”

Richard Sherman

Cornerback, Seattle Seahawks

Eddiemae Jukes

Eddiemae Jukes joined TriplePoint in 2002 and is proud to be a more than ten-year veteran of the firm. Her expertise in PR ranges from consumer electronics and games to financial and education tech. She’s worked with clients including Livescribe, Nature Publishing, Electronic Arts, Yodlee and LEGO. In her role as Partner/Vice President, Eddiemae creates strategic plans, develops messaging, and provides counsel on product and corporate PR. She has spoken at industry events including Austin GDC and GCDC, and she organized the PR for Games Conference. Eddiemae holds a B.A. in communications from Stanford University.

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Andrew Karl

Andrew Karl is an Account Director at TriplePoint who has been with the firm since June 2011. Andrew brings several years of experience in both high-tech public relations and video game editorial, having co-founded and run a gaming site for two years. While honing his craft at a high-tech agency, Andrew amassed extensive experience in the areas of media and analyst relations, running social media programs and campaigns, and spearheading corporate blogging initiatives. Andrew holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of New Hampshire. A rabid soccer fan supporting Liverpool FC and the United States National Team, Andrew is generally playing FIFA or enjoying a deep RPG, intense RTS, or any game involving zombies.

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Quinn Wageman

Quinn Wageman is a Partner at TriplePoint where he represents various video game and technology companies spanning all major platforms and business models. Quinn helped open TriplePoint’s NYC office in 2007 before moving for the firm to California. Additionally, Quinn has accumulated over six years of business development and B2B sales experience including browser games with Arkadium, wireless communications with NTT DoCoMo, and international trading with ITOCHU. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri International Business program, holding a dual B.F.A. and B.S.B.A. with a minor in Japanese (business-level).

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Gentry Brown

Gentry Brown is an Account Supervisor for TriplePoint, who reps consumer tech and gaming clients. Initially interested in the journalistic side of the coin (with stints at NYU’s Washington Square News and the Orange County Register) she rose to the challenge of representing clients in the ever-changing space that is technology and games, and became enamored with the fun of presenting and promoting them in a similarly dynamic fashion. After graduating from New York University in 2014 with a BS in Media, Culture and Communications, Gentry decided to head back to her native California for endless enchiladas, the ability to camp year-round, but mostly to be in the epicenter of tech culture.

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Richard Kain

Richard Kain is the General Manager at TriplePoint, with over 15 years of experience in corporate communications, product public relations, and public affairs campaigns. He provides strategy and counsel as well as corporate communications guidance to the agency’s clients. Rich previously worked as director of public relations for Vitria Technology, a publicly traded enterprise software company in Sunnyvale, and started his PR career at Fleishman-Hillard in Los Angeles. He is an active angel investor, with a portfolio viewable at https://angel.co/richardkain. Rich graduated from Haverford College in 1993 with a B.A. in philosophy and history.

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Jesse Bandeen

Jesse Bandeen is a Sr. Account Executive at TriplePoint. Although born in New York City, Jesse was raised in London, England before completing her BA in Sociology at Duke University. With her siblings and her closest friends drawn so completely into the tech world, its appeal was hard for her to resist and she was inevitably hooked. Jesse left her background in marketing for luxury goods in London and headed west towards the epicenter of the industry to work in the dynamic tech environment. In her free time she enjoys foreign TV shows, art exhibits, sci-fi films and playing volleyball.

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Justin Rende

Justin Rende is a Sr. Account Executive at TriplePoint. Born and raised on the East coast, Justin attended the University of Connecticut as an undergraduate to earn his B.A. in Communication. After working for a few years within NYC public relations agencies for pharmaceutical clients, Justin decided to follow his heart and make the journey to San Francisco to be in the center of tech and gaming. When not in the office, you’ll find Justin exploring the trails of local state parks or inside one of a myriad of virtual worlds accessed through his VR headset.

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Kate Lollar

Kate Lollar is an Account Supervisor at TriplePoint, specializing in media relations, corporate storytelling, PR and content strategy for gaming companies. Bridging the gap between public relations, marketing, social media and journalism, Kate has 11 years experience managing successful PR campaigns and communications for video games, digital media, technology and entertainment. She has been honored by the North American Press Syndicate for outstanding achievement in media relations. Kate hails from Memphis and earned a BA in Psychology from the University of Mississippi.

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Blane Humphries

Blane Humphries is a Sr. Account Executive at TriplePoint with an established background in video games, journalism, and professional communications. He began his gaming adventures in the mid 90’s with games like Westwood’s Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, since then ranging in taste from everything triple-A to the most obscure indies. After graduating with honors from Georgia Southern University in 2012 with a degree in Public Relations, Blane became an active member of the games industry as an editor for a gaming blog covering indie titles, and as Vice-Chair for the Atlanta chapter of IGDA. Prior to joining TriplePoint, Blane spent years working in various marketing and PR roles in representation of a range of developers/publishers.

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Kaydie Hansen

Kaydie Hansen is an Account Executive at TriplePoint. Prior to TriplePoint, Kaydie interned at Zeno Group and Ubisoft. She additionally serves as Community Manager of the global joystick manufacturer, Qanba USA. A Bay Area native, she graduated from San Francisco State University with a BA in International Business in 2017. The prospect of double jump and air-dash technology keeps her in the tech hub of the country.

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Emily Morris

Emily Morris is a Senior Account Executive at TriplePoint. Before joining the team, Emily worked in nonprofit communications and fundraising. Emily hails from the Chicago area, where she served as a breaking news and neighborhood reporter at DNAinfo Chicago before relocating to the Bay Area following a winter of subzero temperatures. She received her degree in journalism from the Missouri School of Journalism. She loves (and hates) writing, and she lives for pointing out grammatical errors. In her spare time, you’ll find her curled up with a good book, out for a run, but most often catching a movie at a local theater.

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Maxx Clark

Maxx Clark is an Account Executive at TriplePoint with an extensive background in the video game industry. After graduating with honors from Stanford University in 2012 with a degree in East Asian Studies and Japanese, he worked at a major Japanese marketing agency. There he managed accounts for many video game companies, gaining a multifaceted understanding of APAC marketing trends in the process. In addition, he has experience spanning mobile to console titles, planning influencer campaigns, and managing media relations with major news outlets. His favorite video game franchises include Super Smash Bros., Dark Souls, and the Legend of Zelda.  

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Alyx Evans

Alyx Evans is an account coordinator for TriplePoint. After graduating from Robert Morris University in 2019 with a BA in Communication and an MS in Organizational Leadership, she pursued her love of gaming and dove headfirst into the industry. When she isn’t working or gaming, Alyx can be found caring for her miniature zoo of reptiles or expanding her favorite anime list. A Pittsburgh native, she loves fries on all of her salads and sandwiches and the only ketchup she acknowledges is Heinz.

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Mike Mason

Michael Mason is an Account Coordinator for TriplePoint, working with tech and gaming clients. After graduating from the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communications in 2018 with an emphasis in Public Relations, Michael moved back to his childhood home of the Bay Area to get out of the rain. After short tenures as an Intern at a sports technology startup and then at an enterprise tech PR firm, Michael joined TriplePoint, accomplishing a lifelong dream of working in the gaming industry. In his free time, Michael enjoys live music, golfing, skiing, and being around his friends and family.

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