Reviving the Pokemon Brand

[yarrboots]

Just found some interesting things.

I searched 'pokemon' on Google Trends and generally it looks like it has a rising trend, and peaks during the summer months when there's no school.
http://www.goolge.com/trends?q=pokemon&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

Search 'ash ketchum' though, and the trend is rising even more steadily, with peak searches during the winter breaks. I wonder why the graphs dont correlate?
http://www.goolge.com/trends?q=ash+ketchum&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

Remember Squirtle and Jigglypuff? They’re Back (The New York Times)

...
Also in June, Pokémon USA’s trading card unit began shipping a new series of cards featuring the 104 characters created for the Diamond and Pearl introduction (like Piplup, Chimchar and Turtwig) as well as many of the old characters.

It was the first time that new games, a new television season, and a fresh batch of cards were introduced in this country at roughly the same time, Ms. Rawlinson said. “All the elements support each other,” she said. “The kids play the Diamond and Pearl games and watch the new shows, and they immediately want to get the new cards.”

Another element of the revival has been a change in toy vendors, from Hasbro to Jakks Pacific, which introduced a new product line. Jeremy Padawer, Jakks’s vice president for brand marketing, said Hasbro had focused on a few main Pokémon characters, but his company is shipping toys that use more than 100 of the 500 characters.

The new merchandise was showcased this summer at the Toys “R” Us store in Times Square, which opened a temporary Pokémon boutique. Next month, Toys “R” Us plans to open Pokémon boutiques in its 585 other domestic stores, said Ronald D. Boire, the president of Toys “R” Us.

Sales of the trading cards this year have already exceeded sales for all of 2006, and by the end of the year are expected to triple last year’s total, according to Pokémon USA. The June 4 debut episode of “Pokémon Diamond and Pearl” on the Cartoon Network was the top-rated show that day for boys ages 6 to 11.

Total merchandise sales this year are expected to exceed $50 million, compared with less than $4 million last year, Ms. Rawlinson said.

After the overexposure issues of recent years, the company has learned to be more selective about licensing its name. “We get requests for all kinds of products, but now we turn a lot down,” Ms. Rawlinson said. Would-be Pokémon products that ended up on the reject list include diapers and gerbil cages.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/business/27pokemon.html?_r=1&ref=business

Maybe the shift in marketing approach wasn't so bad after all. Seems to me like they're going back to the original formula of the 1990's craze. Or maybe it was the age of the original fans? I know I stopped watching the anime around the Johto saga(about the time I entered high school), then picked it up this summer with Diamond & Pearl(college). I know there are a lot of fans my age too- did you ever take a hiatus from pokemon? What brought you back?

 

[Zeta]

I know there are a lot of fans my age too- did you ever take a hiatus from pokemon? What brought you back?

A combination of Gold and Silver being sort of disappointing, and then learning there was no way to transfer over or catch old Pokemon and Ruby and Sapphire. Digimon recently did a thing where they tried to replace all their old characters with new versions and I thought Pokemon was doing the same thing. FireRed brought me back.

 

[JB88]

I wonder if CN airing Pokemon episodes has anything to do with it. Isn't CN a popular channel?

DP brought me back. I didn't like RS since I was so tied to GSC, but since it would be on a new handheld I decided to come back.

 

[HomicidalClown]

I'm not entirely sure what made me stop digging Pokemon. I guess I just associated it as just kid stuff, but I don't really know why. Sure it might be kid friendly, but there's no harm in liking it. I just got back into it recently. I saw my old Gameboy sitting on my dresser, and I thought giving the old games another play would be fun.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Digimon recently did a thing where they tried to replace all their old characters with new versions

"Recently"? They reinvented themselves every season, save for the second coming off the first, and even then they had mostly new characters.