The Pokémon Company: Evolving into an Everlasting Brand

Super Bowl 50, the fiftieth annual championship game of the American National Football League played in February 2016, featured 52 commercials, and brands spent more than six million dollars each for a 30-second commercial slot. Surprisingly, the commercial that garnered the most popularity on YouTube was not one of the regular advertisers. It was an entertainment brand best known for its video games and characters—Pokémon. It reflected twenty years of faithful corporate efforts that had protected and nurtured the Pokémon brand ever since its debut on February 27, 1996, in the form of a video game for handheld devices.
Even on this commemorable day, however, Tsunekazu Ishihara, president of The Pokémon Company, was asking his staff and himself a familiar question: “Is that really in the best interest of Pokémon?” This question came out of a sense of urgency that motivated him and his vision for the Pokémon brand, having seen firsthand how rapid growth and record-breaking sales had led countless other games to quick obsolescence. In fact, Pokémon itself had once run a real risk of becoming nothing more than a fad.
As he looked to the future, Ishihara pondered threats and opportunities, such as the intensifying competition due to the accelerating development cycle of video games and the maturation of emerging economies. He asked himself how he could make the Pokémon brand one that could endure and continue to grow over the next 25 years.