Even though Nintendo has a lot of experience doing this for the Pokemon games and its other franchises, it should be willing to experiment. The tone its trailers set or the way they appear on release are important. Nintendo recently proved that with a spooky found footage-style trailer revealing Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark for Pokemon Legends: Arceus. The Pokemon franchise should make use of this type of viral marketing more often. Creating a sense of mystery or suspense before a big reveal is a great way to excite fans and set expectations for upcoming content.
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Examples of Successful Pokemon Reveals
The Pokemon franchise has come up with a couple of viral ways to reveal Pokemon and market new games. The recent Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark reveal is a great example. The Pokemon YouTube channel uploaded some heavily distorted video footage supposedly made by a Pokemon researcher exploring the wilds of the Hisui region. In the process, this researcher finds an unidentified new Pokemon before being chased off by something bigger. Fans jumped on this spooky video, determined to figure out the Pokemon’s identity, and some noticed the time of night the researcher mentioned matched Zorua and Zoroark’s entries in the Unovan Pokedex. Sure enough, the YouTube channel added a second version of the footage that was restored, revealing Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark.
Another great example came in October 2019 when Pokemon Sword and Shield were on the way. The Pokemon Company hosted a cozy stream called Pokemon Live Camera, featuring a fixed camera recording the Galar region’s Glimwood Tangle to spot Pokemon like Pikachu and Impidimp. However, fans saw something else run across their screen: a horse-like Pokemon in pastel colors. Fans quickly latched onto this mystery Pokemon as a Galarian Ponyta, and felt even more strongly about that hypothesis when it strolled across the camera again later in the stream. Shortly thereafter, Game Freak confirmed fans had spotted Galarian Ponyta, releasing a YouTube video showcasing the new Pokemon. The multi-day scheme to reveal Galarian Ponyta paid off, amping up excitement for the official reveal.
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Pokemon Should Use More Creative Teasers
These examples prove the Pokemon franchise could get more experimental when revealing new content. Most of the time, new Pokemon content is revealed exactly when fans would expect it. Nintendo releases large gameplay trailers during Pokemon-centric conferences, unloading all the details people could ask for at the same time. While it’s great to get so much information all at once, it also doesn’t leave much room for suspense. Fans love to share hypotheses when they can’t see the full picture of a game, but the current model of Pokemon marketing generally means there either isn’t room for guesswork, or there aren’t enough clues for fans to build off of.
Nintendo, Game Freak, and The Pokemon Company should give fans more to work with moving forward. The Hisuian Zorua and Zoroark trailer was a clear success, so Nintendo should latch onto that and brainstorm creative new ways that it can advertise content. Even looking at Pokemon Legends: Arceus, there’s some great options. For instance, a new teaser could tell a myth related to one of the Hisui region’s Pokemon Nobles, dropping clues about what known Pokemon the Noble evolves from. Fans would be more than happy to piece together the evolutionary line of a Noble based on legends and rumors.
Viral-style Pokemon marketing doesn’t even have to be related to new monsters. If a future Pokemon game brings back a classic Pokemon hero or villain, even the vaguest piece of concept art or the shortest gameplay clip hinting at the character would spread through the community like wildfire, getting fans excited for the official reveal in advance. Teasers about new locations could work the same way too, getting fans interested in a new setting by encouraging them to speculate about what kind of Pokemon live there or what part of Pokemon mythos has ties to that location.
Pokemon Fans Enjoy a Mystery
Pokemon’s past attempts at viral marketing show that there’s value in releasing information as a trail of bread crumbs, rather than giving fans the whole loaf. Pokemon fans are eager to delve into the game world, rather than just waiting for Nintendo or Game Freak to explicitly say what they should expect. Mysteries like Pokemon Live Camera’s surprise guest or the Hisuian found footage encourage fans to engage with the Pokemon world well before the new game comes out. Teasers like these don’t just build excitement for a specific announcement; they get fans invested in a new story and gameplay by encouraging fans to ask questions.
Pokemon marketing will probably shift soon. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are just about to release, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus will come out only a few months later. The franchise might enter a lull as Game Freak potentially starts work on the ninth generation of Pokemon games. If the series really is on the cusp of its next generation, that would be the perfect time for Pokemon to overhaul how it presents itself to fans. A new marketing strategy seems appropriate for core Pokemon games.
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