Context

For the first time, Niantic brought Pokémon GO Fest to Paris at Parc de Sceaux. The event was an opportunity for the French community to gather and celebrate the community around a shared adventure.

With millions of active players worldwide, Pokémon GO has evolved far beyond gaming and, over the last few years, has established itself as a creator of social links and moments of exchange that encourages people to get together IRL.

Based on a previous study we did for Niantic, we found that French players feel isolated and desperately need these community events to make those human connections real. This is why we decided to focus our campaign on the feature that only works through in-person interaction: trading.

Challenge

The campaign had two goals: raise awareness for the arrival of Pokémon GO Fest in France and re-engage former players who might have drifted away from the game.

While Niantic already had an influencer list, we had to extend it to reach a more mainstream audience with different content creators. To tie everything together, we imagined a concept centred around trading that could speak to the French community and highlight the social aspect of the game.

Our Approach

As trading is only possible by meeting in real life, it emphasizes the spontaneous connections that the Pokemon GO Fest generates, with its allowance of 6 special trades during the event. We wanted a concept that would push the community to discuss their experience of the game in a natural way but also to give them a good reason to meet up and trade during the festival.

This led us to create “Les Échanges Légendaires” (“Legendary Trades”), a TikTok-focused influencer activation designed to highlight this mechanic. We partnered with content creators Assane, Ibgmidnight, and Katales88, inviting them to share their most memorable trading stories, showcasing how behind each of these trades lies a human interaction. They shared these moments with their community and encouraged them to do the same for a chance to win tickets for the event. This content spoke to a large audience to showcase how Pokémon Game Fest is the best moment to get back in the game.

During the Fest itself, our creators met fans at Parc de Sceaux to trade with them and take the time to exchange as a community. These moments were then shared on their platforms to present how these exchanges created heartfelt opportunities for the community to come together.

Results

• 10M Views
• 65K Likes