These days, the retail scene is awash in "Pokémon." Marking the 30th anniversary of Pokémon this year, companies across beauty, food, convenience stores and department stores are actively rolling out marketing that leverages Pokémon intellectual property (IP).
Corporations are going beyond putting characters on packaging to draw consumers with a range of Pokémon content that combines pop-up stores, hands-on events and limited-edition goods. Observers say Pokémon has established itself not just as a character, but as a blockbuster IP with a proven ability to pull in crowds.
On the 3rd, the Financial Supervisory Service's Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System (DART) showed Pokémon Korea's revenue last year was about 73.3 billion won, up 57.6% from a year earlier. Operating profit over the same period rose 49.4% to about 13.3 billion won. Advertising and promotion expense nearly doubled over the same period, from 8.2 billion won to 15.7 billion won, yet results improved sharply.
Ahead of the 30th anniversary, the impact of aggressively expanding licensing and marketing since last year appears to have fed into results. Pokémon IP, which began with games, has generated large-scale revenue in global markets by being used in animation, trading cards and a wide range of products and events.
Pokémon's popularity is being proven on the ground. On the 1st of last month, about 160,000 people flocked to the Pokémon Mega Festa in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, briefly halting the event. The Children's Day "Pokémon Run" event sold out its 5,000 tickets in 30 minutes on the day applications opened, and they later traded at premiums; centered on Pokémon cards, some related products are in short supply and prices are surging.
Collaborations with Pokémon are also continuing across Korea's retail industry. CJ Olive Young ran an "Olive Young X Pokémon" event throughout last month. A total of 61 brands in skincare, makeup and health supplements took part, unveiling about 230 collaborative products. Olive Young N Seongsu decorated the entire store with a Pokémon concept, and 13 key stores installed a photo zone and machines that print receipts with cheer messages.
Olive Young has been expanding collaborations with popular IP in recent years. As character IP tie-ups with Sanrio, Catch! Teenieping and Manggeureojin-gom drove customer traffic, it teamed up with Pokémon, which marks its 30th anniversary this year, to scale up the event. Considering the expense burden on small brands in-store, Olive Young is said to have covered the IP collaboration expense.
In food, Samlip, which led the Pokémon bread boom, stands out. Marking Pokémon's 30th anniversary, Samlip launched Pokémon bread with new tiebu-ssil (stickers) enclosed. Along with 100 tiebu-ssil featuring original illustrations by Pokémon's chief art director "Ken Sugimori," it also introduced a tiebu-ssil book for storing the stickers.
Baskin-Robbins released flavors inspired by Pokémon characters and rolled out collaborative ice cream cakes and Pikachu-shaped ice cream tub goods. EDIYA COFFEE successively introduced Pokémon beverages, keyrings and snack plates, while Isaac Toast is winning consumer response with set menus that include toast, Pokémon metal badges and shopping bags.
Convenience stores also enjoyed a Pokémon windfall. Of the four types of Pokémon card packs CU unveiled last month, 250,000 units sold in three days. The product contains five random Pokémon cards and was limited to about 265,000 packs, with 96% of the prepared volume sold. From the 1st to the 11th of last month, about half of the top 10 search terms on the Pocket CU application (app) were Pokémon bread and Pokémon cards.
Earlier, Lotte Department Store ran a Pokémon winter pop-up store at Lotte Town Jamsil from late last year into early this year, and E-MART last month held a promotion selling more than 200 popular Pokémon IP products at special prices. Even now, a flood of daily necessities branded with Pokémon—such as toys, detergents and bags—continues online.
Retailers are focusing on Pokémon's broad and loyal fandom. There are many popular character IPs such as Sanrio, Crayon Shin-chan, Teenieping and Harry Potter, but Pokémon is a rare content property that spans teens to people in their 30s and 40s. For teens, it's games and cards; for those in their 20s and 30s, animation and Pokémon bread; for those in their 30s and 40s, it taps nostalgia for childhood games and characters. With strong global recognition, it is highly useful for Korean retailers that have recently been stepping up efforts to reach foreign customers.
Meanwhile, in the global market, Pokémon's cumulative IP revenue has already far surpassed U.S.-born Mickey Mouse & Friends and Star Wars from Disney, which were created much earlier. According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Pokémon's cumulative IP revenue is $92.1 billion (about 139 trillion won), ranking No. 1 in the world. It exceeds Hello Kitty ($80.0 billion), Winnie the Pooh ($75.0 billion), Mickey Mouse & Friends ($70.5 billion) and Star Wars ($65.6 billion).