120 Pokémon IP packaging + game-like design, Master Kong's crispy and delicious food is really "knowledgeable"

This article uses the successful IP brand collaboration of Pokémon as an example to explain how brands can expand their influence by collaborating with popular IPs. In fact, sincere planning with heart and knowledge and interaction with Generation Z are the key secrets.

There is never a shortage of good IPs in the market, but there is a shortage of brand collaborations that can play with excellent IPs and make fans feel that they are "expert".

Coinciding with the Children's Day on June 1, when many brands are still racking their brains to use various fun marketing activities to attract children and adults, Master Kong's Crispy and Crispy Food has stepped out of the traditional Children's Day routine and cooperated with the super popular IP Pokémon. It has opened a paradise for young people in countless offline supermarkets with 120 completely different Pokémon character product packaging and game-like gameplay design. It has not only been warmly welcomed by young consumer groups, but also effectively stimulated repeat purchases. Some scarce Pokémon IP peripherals have even become the "social currency" among young people, successfully creating a new paradigm of IP marketing.

Backed by Master Kong, a brand with more than 30 years of history, how can Xiangbaocui catch the trend of young people and gain a large number of young consumers? Sorting out the cooperation between Xiangbaocui and Pokémon IP may provide us with some references and ideas for keeping the brand young.

01 120 different Pokémon packaging, crispy and delicious, playing a new IP collaboration

The collaboration between brands and IPs is not uncommon in the food industry, but not many can make good use of the collaboration and leave a deep impression on consumers.

There may be two main reasons for this:

First, the IP chosen by the brand for the joint venture is not well-known, or there is a difference between the IP audience and the brand audience. This may lead to consumers not being aware of the IP that the brand has joined forces with, or domestic consumers not being interested in foreign IPs, and young consumers not being familiar with old IPs, etc.

Secondly, brands do not have enough understanding of the IPs they are co-branding with, and treat them as purely commercial activities. This results in brands not being fully committed to the co-branding process, and formal co-branding activities will greatly consume the enthusiasm of IP fans, and may even bring negative impacts to the brand, and be labeled as "careless" by IP fans.

Xiangbaocui, which cooperated with the Pokémon IP, avoided these problems and was warmly welcomed by consumers and fans with its understanding and dedication to the Pokémon IP.

Specifically, the first step for Xiangbaocui is to find the right IP. As the world's number one IP, Pokémon is also very popular in China. It has a large number of fans from the 80s and 90s to the current 05s. It is a highly recognized two-dimensional IP among the people.

According to a survey, more than 700 million people in China are familiar with the Pokémon IP, and the total exposure of topics related to it on the Weibo platform has exceeded 1.7 billion. Even during the period when the protagonist of the Pokémon animation, Ash Ketchum, won the world championship, a topic called #Pokémon Ash Ketchum won two consecutive championships# rocketed to the top of Weibo's hot search list and received more than 74 million views overnight.

After Xiaozhi's victory became a hot topic, a large number of animation-related bloggers and self-media spontaneously shared this content, which shows that the Pokémon IP undoubtedly has extremely high popularity and a large fan base in China. Xiangbaocui Instant Noodles chose to cooperate with the Pokémon IP, which can be said to have penetrated into the young consumer group and found the IP that young people like.

If finding the right Pokémon IP is a good start, then the cooperation between Xiangbaocui and Pokémon IP can be called "knowledgeable". In addition to combining IP and products in a perfect way, it also grasps the minds of young consumers and launches activities that make consumers "buy it".

It is understood that Xiangbaocui will launch a total of 120 different Pokémon IP image packaging during this cooperation. When consumers buy Xiangbaocui with different Pokémon characters, it is like the protagonist Xiaozhi encountering and collecting different Pokémon creatures in the Pokémon world, forming a purchasing experience that echoes the plot of the IP animation to a certain extent, which greatly boosts the collecting emotions of Pokémon fans.

At the same time, 120 different packaging images were launched throughout the year. The amount of work involved shows how much effort Xiangbaocui put into this IP cooperation. Even the cartons were printed with well-known images such as Pikachu and Bulbasaur. The rich IP images and thoughtful packaging design allow consumers to experience the joy of collecting Pokémon throughout the entire purchasing process.

The ingenuity of Xiangbaocui can also be seen in the correspondence between the 120 packaging images and the flavors of the crisp noodles. Each flavor corresponds to an attribute of a Pokémon, and a different Pokémon with the same attribute is replaced with a flavor every month. Scallion Chicken Juice corresponds to the grass attribute, and its Pokémon images Bulbasaur and Chikorita belong to the grass attribute; the correspondence between the attributes of various Pokémon and the flavors of the crisp noodles makes IP fans smile knowingly, and also shows that Xiangbaocui really understands Pokémon.

This "understanding" of the Pokémon IP and fans is also reflected in the co-branded gifts of Xiangbaocui. In the co-branded activities of Pokémon, Xiangbaocui launched a variety of beautifully designed IP peripherals such as dolls, badges, refrigerator magnets, etc., which directly touched the hearts of the fans. In order to collect the desired Pokémon dolls and other gifts, many consumers not only bought Xiangbaocui many times, but also widely mobilized their relatives and friends to participate.

It is worth mentioning that the prize peripherals launched by Xiangbaocui this time, which require participation in the event draw, have been enthusiastically sought after by fans due to their scarcity. Posts showing the collection progress or "showing off" rare peripherals have appeared on platforms such as Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Tieba, and there have even been spontaneous exchanges and transactions on some platforms.

It can be seen that the fun and playability meet the fans' psychological needs to use it as "social currency" and display it on social platforms, while also bringing long-term value of IP cooperation to Xiangbaocui.

02 Use the language of young people to collaborate with UP hosts to explore stores, so that Xiangbaocui and Generation Z can play together

Xiangbaocui not only demonstrated its expertise in packaging and gift design during the IP cooperation process, and grasped its core fan base, but also did not fall behind in the promotion and marketing of the entire event, and adopted a series of marketing strategies and methods that were close to young consumers.

Xiangbaocui, who wants to connect with young people, has targeted Bilibili as its communication channel and collaborated with many popular UP hosts to promote offline treasure hunt videos. UP hosts in many cities will go to offline supermarkets, convenience stores and other places to collect the co-branded products of Xiangbaocui and Pokémon IP.

The process of UP hosts collecting in offline supermarkets is very similar to the journey of challenging different gyms and capturing Pokémon in the Pokémon story. The funny behavior of UP hosts taking Poké Balls to buy crispy and delicious products adds a lot of fun to the dissemination, further attracting the attention of young people and expanding the exposure of the marketing activities. Many viewers in the barrage area shouted "My youth is back" and "The packaging is so beautiful".

Judging from the results, Xiangbaocui's strategy of focusing on young people at Bilibili is quite successful. Not only has it received a lot of playback and exposure on the site, but it has also generated a lot of UGC natural traffic on other mainstream social platforms. For example, many consumers posted pictures of Xiangbaocui Pokémon packaging on the Xiaohongshu platform after purchasing it, and some people specifically collected their favorite characters and continuously updated new packaging for each issue. Xiangbaocui has attracted more consumers to play together on Bilibili and other platforms.

In addition to the fun marketing of UP hosts visiting stores, Xiangbaocui also adopted interactive gameplay that connects online and offline for its products.

The packaging of this Pokémon IP product comes with a Poké Ball design disc, and consumers can scan the code through the online mini program to enter a draw to win prizes including peripherals.

The rich Pokémon IP cooperative gifts stimulated consumers' desire to get a set, greatly increasing the repurchase rate of the product. At the same time, among the fans who want to collect related peripherals, there is even a greeting that asks each other "Have you collected them all?" when they meet, which shows the effectiveness of the interactive gameplay combination of Xiangbaocui.

Relevant data shows that from December to January this year, after the launch of the Xiangbaocui Pokémon IP product, the total PV of the online pages launched by Xiangbaocui exceeded 6.93 million, and the total UV of the pages exceeded 2.1 million. These two data in January this year showed an increase of more than 100%, which directly proved the popularity of the Xiangbaocui event.

Finally, from the product itself, the snack attribute of Xiangbaocui that can be eaten whenever you want is also very consistent with the eating habits of young people. Its deliciousness also helped the rapid breakthrough of the cooperation between Xiangbaocui and Pokémon IP. The success of the joint venture between Xiangbaocui and Pokémon IP is not only due to the success of the world's No. 1 IP, but also the result of both parties running towards each other.

03 Conclusion

It can be seen that Master Kong, which has been established for more than 30 years, is an enterprise that has very clear ideas about brand positioning and product characteristics. On the basis of doing a good job in its main business, it has carried out targeted image building for each business brand.

For example, the most familiar Master Kong instant noodles have supported China's space industry for six consecutive years and became "China's Space Support Supplies" this year. Its "space-grade quality" products have become synonymous with high quality in the instant noodle industry.

Looking forward, Master Kong will embrace young consumers with its crispy noodles, and play and eat with Generation Z and even Generation α (those born after 2010); looking back, Master Kong will stick to its original aspirations and become a space-quality enterprise and national brand that people can trust. Being able to face different consumer groups and adopt flexible and effective brand strategies may be one of the secrets of Master Kong's longevity.

Author: Lumens

Source: WeChat public account "Morketing (ID: Morketing)"