Building custom sound for a viral Pokémon GO trailer

LAUNCHING A TRAILER FOR ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS GAMES

As Project Manager for the Pokémon Go trailer launch, I applied agile methodologies to facilitate a music licensing deal involving Niantic, a trailer house, and a music production vendor to create three original songs for the 'Timeless Travels' Season Trailer. Our sprint focused on captivating fans with nostalgic and epic music that highlighted new game features. Challenges included team availability near the deadline, which we managed through daily scrum meetings, virtual listening sessions, and implementing task time buffers to ensure that we delivered a compelling trailer on schedule.

Challenges and Solutions:

  1. Feedback Plan: To allow for continuous iteration on our product, I convened Niantic staff and our trailer team in weekly listening sessions and biweekly email check-ins. This setup enabled all relevant stakeholders to remain updated on the progress of our project, and empowered our team with client feedback to ensure our musical vision aligned with their promotional strategy.

  2. Team Availability: Multiple team members were unavailable near the project deadline, which shortened our production schedule. I worked through this challenge by managing:

    • Daily Scrums: We scheduled daily scrum meetings twice a week to keep everyone aligned.

    • Virtual Listening Sessions: Adapting music industry practices from my background as an artist, I organized 30-minute virtual listening sessions to encourage openness among team members in sharing and implementing feedback.

    • Time Buffer: I drove our team towards the finish line with a 3+-day buffer against the final deadline, to ensure we delivered a completed product on time.

Results and Impact:

  • Frequent inspection of the music product enabled our producer to streamline the process.

  • High-quality assets were delivered days ahead of the deadline.

  • The ‘Timeless Travels’ trailer we produced for garnered 1.8 million views across different social platforms, a ~20% increase in comparison with other videos posted from the Pokémon GO account that month.

Overall, our agile approach and effective communication contributed to a successful project outcome.

Kyle Shin