Lotte’s Pokémon Town attracts 4 mn people in a month

[Photo provided by Lotte Group]

Lotte Group’s recent content business project, Pokémon Town, has been a resounding success and attracted 4 million visitors within a month of its launch. The group’s affiliates have been actively exploring content-based business opportunities ever since Chairman Shin Dong-bin gave a directive on May 8th, 2024, to strengthen the group’s content business by collaborating with global intellectual property (IP) companies. In the retail industry, the reinforcement of content is increasingly seen as a crucial strategy to attract online customers back to offline channels.

According to Lotte Group on Thursday, the “Pokémon Town 2024 with Lotte” event, held from April 26th to May 19th in Seoul’s Songpa-gu, where Lotte World Tower and Seokchon Lake are located, drew about 4 million visitors. This is a 25 percent increase compared to the same period during the previous year, with estimated revenue exceeding 100 billion won due to the increase in visitors. Pokémon Town was the first content business project conducted at the group level, with participation from 10 subsidiaries including Lotte Corporation, Lotte Property & Development, Lotte Wellfood, Lotte GRS, and Lotte Department Store. The project involved transforming the plaza in front of Lotte World Tower into the Pokémon Smile Plaza, with large art balloons featuring Lapras and Pikachu over the lake.

During the event period, Lotte World Mall sold products with Pokémon characters including beverages, donuts, and merchandise, leading to additional sales as customers went on to visit Lotte’s department and discount stores. Lotte said that 65 percent of visitors were in their 20s and 30s, with couples and families experiencing Lotte World Tower becoming a significant asset to the group.

Lotte Group established a dedicated organization within Lotte Holdings ESG Management Innovation Department to explore content business opportunities in December 2023. Shin urged efforts to develop models that enhance Lotte’s asset value via content utilization at a group meeting earlier in 2024, making content IP reinforcement a core management task across all subsidiaries.

“In this current environment where consumers are moving online, integrating differentiated content such as favorite characters, games, and idols into offline distribution channels is not a choice but a necessity,” a market watcher said.

[Photo provided by Lotte Group]

Following Pokémon Town’s success, Lotte Group affiliates plan to significantly expand content utilization businesses in the second half of 2024. Lotte Mart will open pop-up stores featuring popular game character IP at major stores in the third quarter of the year and plans to hold a pop-up festival using new Korean character IPs.

Lotte Home Shopping plans to create a game with Bellygom, its popular pink bear character created in 2018, and will launch it in the United Kingdom, Thailand, and Indonesia in July 2024, followed by Japan, Europe, and North America. The bear character is considered the most successful case in the local retail industry to date in Korea, and related sales are expected to increase from 16 billion won in 2023 to 20 billion won the following year.

Lotte Hotels & Resorts also plans to introduce goods such as dolls, tote bags, and tubes using its own character, “LUA,” introduced in December 2023, in July and August. Lotte Hotel launched “Pokémon Rooms” decorated with various Pokémon characters at the end of April 2024 and the rooms have remained fully booked thanks to May’s “Family Month.”