Best Toy & Hobby Website

For nearly two decades Pokémon has been creating worlds filled with playful characters that capture children’s imaginations. With a vast collection of rich content and an engaged and expanding fan base, Pokémon and POP recognized an opportunity to deepen Pokémon’s relationship with its fans online.

To find out what fans wanted, POP conducted focus groups with the brand’s toughest critics – kids. We also engaged their parents in frank conversations about their family’s online practices. What stood out was that parents were actively encouraging their children’s mobile use, perceiving that mobile devices provided them with a greater level of control over their kids’ online activities. With this in mind, we built the new pokemon.com for mobile devices first, then for desktop.

Our research showed that the complexity of Pokémon’s offering could be overwhelming, especially for new fans. However, what piques fans’ initial interest—and keeps them coming back—are the 700+ Pokémon, each with its own attributes. Based upon this insight, our design prominently features an “Explore Pokémon” option that leads to an interactive, searchable database filled with highly visual representations of each Pokémon type. With large kid-friendly touchpoints and a “Surprise” button to encourage discoverability, fans have a place to become versed on the Pokémon universe.

Within two months of launching the website, Pokemon.com received a dramatic increase in new visitors and a 70 percent increase in page views. Perhaps most telling, the percentage of new visitors to the site through mobile skyrocketed by nearly 35 percent.

Contributors:

Director, Online Marketing, Pokémon:	Andrew Hartpence
Online Marketing Manager, Pokémon:	Doug Derham
Web Development Manager, Pokémon:	Eric Bessette
Creative Lead, Pokémon:	Masahiro Manabe
Client Partner, POP:	Erin Boyer
Account Director, POP:	Deb Kay

POP

Location: United States