"They might want to contribute towards the Pokémon brand": The Pokemon Company's Susumu Fukunaga on hosting Pokemon Fiesta at IIT Bombay [Exclusive]

The recent Pokemon Fiesta event at IIT Bombay's Techfest featured not only a myriad Pokémon-themed attractions and highlights on the campus of the prestigious Indian tech institution, but also provided us the opportunity to sit down and talk with Susumu Fukunaga from The Pokemon Company.

Acting as brand manager for the iconic media franchise in Asia and India, Fukunaga answered a few of our burning questions in a face-to-face interview. Addressing how the brand plans to deepen its engagement in India, Fukunaga stated:

"We hope that in a few years, when these students step out into society, work jobs, and so on, they will encounter us and want to contribute to the Pokemon brand with exciting new content."

Read on to know more.

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The Pokemon Company's Susumu Fukunaga on how they see India as a viable market for the brand

Q. Why did The Pokemon Company choose IIT Bombay’s Techfest as a key platform to connect with students and visitors?

Fukunaga: We feel that college students are quite well-knit among each other as a community, so we think that this is a great place for people to enjoy Pokemon content together and have shared interests. One of our team members learned about the popular IIT Bombay Techfest and was able to get in touch with the organizers here.

Once they started discussing the possibilities, both parties realized that this could be something interesting, and that's how this whole event came to be.

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Q. How does Pokemon Fiesta align with the brand’s strategy to deepen engagement with India’s young and tech-forward audiences?

Fukunaga: Actually, one of our team members got to know the organizers. Then we discussed possibilities, and that's how the event happened. We hope that in a few years, when these students step out into society, work jobs, and so on, they will encounter us and want to contribute to the Pokemon brand with exciting new content.

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Q. What do you think is the growing relevance of these experiential events and community touchpoints hosted by The Pokemon Company that will help strengthen the Pokemon brand and ecosystem in India?

Fukunaga: When we ask people whether they are familiar with Pokemon, most of them say they do know about it, but what they actually mean by that could be completely different. Some people might enjoy the Pokemon video games, while core series fans know about every Pokemon and are very familiar with the world surrounding them.

On the other hand, others only know the word "Pokemon" and not much else beyond it. So, we hope that by attending and engaging with our event, those who know very little about the brand will learn more about Pokemon and broaden their horizons to enjoy what we have to offer.

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Q. Pokemon GO has been quite popular in India since its launch back in 2016. However, the mainline series on console has not enjoyed that privilege due to Nintendo not having an official presence here. Is The Pokemon Company and Nintendo looking to change that in the future?

Fukunaga: As you are aware, it is Nintendo's console; whether they are able to launch it in India, how they go about it - all of this depends on a lot of factors, so it's entirely their decision. That said, if and when that happens, our content will also be able to reach a much larger audience in India, which we will be very happy about.

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Q. What are your observations on how India’s gaming and fan communities are evolving, and what does this mean for Pokemon's future here?

Fukunaga: Ever since we began our full-fledged promotion in India when we inaugurated our "Indian Marketing Office” in 2023, we have noticed that a lot of people are enjoying our games, such as Pokemon Unite and Pokemon GO. But as we just said, whether or not Nintendo launches its console in India is not under our control.

What we can do is bring our experiences to smartphones, like we've done before (with Unite and GO). Plus, we have already announced that Pokemon Champions is coming next year to phones as well, so we hope that those who aren't familiar with Pokemon yet can also easily enjoy Pokemon battles.

🚨 Calculate the Pokemon type effectiveness to win battles with our newly launched Pokemon GO Type Calculator 🚨

Edited by Sijo Samuel Paul