Who is behind the Pokemon Go PR campaign?

Dear colleagues and guests of the virtual world Habrahabr, I submit for your consideration the second study that we undertook on the topic of the PR campaign Pokemon Go. I confess that the second idea was much harder for us, because the task was desperately nontrivial: to find an ideologue who is always in the background in such large projects. Since June 27, we have received many options for a possible ideologist of this campaign. Basically, all the ideas circled around the employees of the corporations Nintendo, Google (now Alphabet), The Pokemon Company or the global advertising agencies that serve these corporations. But for many days we could not find any specifics.

The turning point was a careful study of the investors of the company Niantic labs, which we were advised to do by experienced colleagues engaged in long-term investing in securities. Excerpts from the official blog Niantic from February 25, 2016, which describes the entry of an investor with extensive experience in advertising: "... I am pleased to announce that a number of partners have joined us ... They all invest, but more importantly, each brings unique strategic resources to our team. David Jones and his company 'You and Mr Jones' invest unprecedented knowledge of new technologies in building brands ” ( source )
')

Who is Mr. David Jones?

Obviously, only a very experienced, versatile person with excellent connections in the world media holdings could become the ideologue of such a well-coordinated and beautiful work. David Jones is just that kind of person.

The portal krugercowne.com reports:

“Title holder: Young Global Leader from the World Economic Forum and Sustainable Business Leader 2013 from The Guardian, David Jones is the youngest global CEO in advertising history, managing both Havas and Havas Worldwide. David was enrolled in the "hall of achievements" of the American Federation of Advertising in 2005 and was recognized by Adweek.com readers as one of the two most influential top managers of the decade.
In 2015, David Jones raised an investment of $ 350 million to launch the company “You & Mr Jones“. As the creator says, this is the first company in the world specializing in brand technologies. The company's mission: to bridge the gap between brands and technologies ” ( source )


Since 1989, David Jones has been working in advertising for the largest global brands.

Since 1998, he has held the posts of CEO in large advertising agencies, from 2009 to 2015, he heads the largest in the world (part of the “big 5-ku”) communication agency Havas Worldwide (316 offices in 75 countries of the world). Details about Havas Worldwide .

David was Kofi Annan's ideologist for the TckTckTck campaign for climate justice, and is called one of the most successful PR campaigns in history (among similar initiatives) with 17 million people who signed up as “climate allies.” ( source )

Since 2007, David Jones has worked closely with David Cameron and the Conservative Party of Great Britain as part of the future campaign of the future Prime Minister until Cameron was appointed to the post in 2010: “We did a lot of work by following those who successfully coped with it. as well as we watched the elections in the USA in order to understand that we can learn useful things. I think the use of social media will be really exciting and interesting, ”he says and smiles. - I look forward to this game " ( source )


David Jones - Zuckerberg’s Facebook Monetization Advisor since 2013 (member of Facebook’s Client Board): “Mr. Jones is now acting as Mark Zuckerberg’s advisor who is building the Facebook advertising business to establish contact with major brands” ( source )
This is a man who goes to the advertising festival in Cannes to learn and lure talent to his agency www.youandmrjones.com



Since 2013, David Jones has been researching how social networks influence brand image and how the world's largest brands should behave on social networks .

Since 2009, David Jones has been organizing the One Young World forum, where the most famous entrepreneurs and politicians of the planet speak : www.oneyoungworld.com

David Jones Announces Bill Clinton at One Young World Forum ( source )



This is a person who personally knows many politicians and major entrepreneurs of the planet:



On July 12 (7 days after the launch of the application) an information about the use of Pokemon Go for business needs was sown ( this is described in detail in my first article ).

On the same day, July 12, there is an article in Business Insider, in which David Jones himself announces the mechanics of the game for business: “You have to understand that anyone who does at least something for retailers or restaurants has the ability to integrate their brands in the app. Real grocery stores can sell virtual berries; real pharmacies could treat, sports shops, gyms, now there are a lot of opportunities for integration. The potential is huge. ” ( Source )

Compare the PR campaigns from David Jones:

1. Brand SONOS
   Description of this successful case: "Sonos speaker wants run house" (2015/11/10 · By Jeff Swystun)
   “Sonos is on track to reach a $ 1 billion sales plan this year ... David Jones, ex-CEO of Havas and the founder of“ You & Mr Jones ”calls the branding and technology sharing“ brandtech ”. The Harvard Business Review articles describe that "similar companies use technology to create the necessary emotional interaction with products so that customers want to share this with other people." Sonos has used this effect to the point that 1 million homes in the United States have now become Sonos homes. ”
   (original in English)

   “It’s a bit like ...” David Jones, “brandtech.” “Recent piece is the Harvard Business Review states,” Brandtech companies want to share with others. ”
   Sonos homes. This includes:
   
   
   See Google. Table - comparison of sowing patterns by analogy with the sowing of Pokemon Go
   
   
2. Forum "One Young World"
   See Google. Table - comparison of sowing patterns by analogy with the sowing of Pokemon Go
   

What do these brand PR campaigns have in common with the success of Pokemon Go?
General: 1. seeding scheme, 2. distribution channels of information stuffing, 3. David Jones.

Why do I conclude that David Jones is the ideologue, and not someone copied his seeding scheme?
The answer is simple: you can duplicate it, but not so simple, since the possibility of direct access to the world's largest mass media is earned mostly not even with money, but decades of building relationships with key players in this market - editors-in-chief and journalists.

PR campaign for Pokemon Go

You can read the study of the PR campaign in the first article .

After a comprehensive study of the issue, we believe that the ideologist of the campaign for Pokemon Go is David Jones. In short:

1. David had a reason to do this project personally, because He is a direct investor in the company Niantic labs.
2. David Jones has extensive knowledge of branding and advertising technologies, including viral mechanics, as well as knowledge of political PR technologies and successful experience in this.
3. He has excellent acquaintances with the entire elite of the world media market, experience of interacting with the media for the largest advertising and PR campaigns in the framework of work in HAVAS World Wide.
4. Experience of successful promotion of commercial brands in a similar seeding scheme. In particular, SONOS and One Young World, cited above.

For those who are not familiar with the topic of “sowing viral information”, I recommend watching videos from the Cannes Lions 2015 festival. Starting at 30 minutes, it will be about sowing (distribution): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoHKFcWuUk8

We tried to contact David, but for many years in high advertising positions we were taught him not to publish his e-mail. Having sent letters to all available addresses, we have not yet received comments.

If it turns out that I am wrong and someone else is the ideologue of the campaign, I will publicly “sprinkle ashes on my head”, apologize to the person and continue my research. My confidence is ninety-five percent. But only for the reason that the author did not confirm his involvement in the work on the PR campaign. Therefore, five percent still laid on a probable error.

The purpose of this article

To bring the PR campaign to its ideologist David Jones (an investor in Niantic labs) and invite him to Ekaterinburg for the possible holding of his forum “One Young World” in 2017 or 2018.