Collab king: Pompompurin nears 1B Xiaohongshu impressions

Sanrio’s golden retriever Pompompurin turns 30 this year, and the company is marking the milestone with a familiar playbook: collaborations. The execution is what sets this campaign apart — train wraps, high-low crossovers, and a global footprint few character anniversaries attempt. This year alone, the beret-wearing pudding dog, a Sanrio staple since 1996, has fronted a limited-edition Seiko watch, a Lazy Oaf apparel collection, a wrapped JR Yamanote Line train in Tokyo, a takeover of People’s Square metro station in Shanghai, a pop-up café in Singapore, and food tie-ups with McDonald’s Japan, Fujiya and Nissin Cisco. For brands watching IP-led marketing reshape consumer engagement across Asia, the campaign rewards closer study. Premium to high-street Released in April at 49,280 Japanese yen ($320), the Seiko watch is a limited run of 2,000 pieces, delivered in a presentation box shaped like Pompompurin’s house. The initial allocation sold out within weeks; a second production intake is now on pre-order, shipping from late September. Partnering with a prestige watchmaker anchors the anniversary at the top of the market, signaling that Pompompurin is a character capable of transcending generations and consumer groups. Collaborations down the price ladder — the Uniqlo graphic tees, McCafé’s first-ever character collaboration, a Pompompurin pudding frappe — trade on that positioning. The discipline lies in holding both ends at once. With Seiko setting the ceiling, breadth at the mass end reads as accessibility rather than dilution. Localized activations Each market received a different activation format, calibrated to local context. In Japan, the partnership with JR East turned infrastructure into storytelling. A wrapped Yamanote Line train ran from mid-January to February 1, followed by a three-month digital stamp rally along the Chuo Line, running from Tokyo’s Kichijoji to Kobuchizawa in Yamanashi via the EKITAG app. A giant Pompompurin balloon installation appeared at Tachikawa Station before moving on to Kofu. The activations were physical, sequential, and designed for a commuter culture organized around rail. Shanghai took the opposite approach: a yellow-drenched photo installation at People’s Square metro station, one of mainland China’s busiest interchanges with peak daily traffic above 700,000 passengers, running through June 14. Eight Pompompurin plush figures, each dressed for a different profession, sit with small “Easter eggs” tucked under their paws. The installation was engineered for Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote) — discoverable, photogenic, and detail-rewarding. The fanbase keeps growing: the Xiaohongshu hashtag “pompompurin” (布丁狗) stood at 970.7 million views as of publication. Activations like these give that engagement somewhere to go. Emotional value is the product “When GDP surpasses $10,000, consumer sentiment goes more toward spirituality and emotion,” said Cinthia Chen, Managing Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group, in today’s EU SME Center webinar on Chinese Gen Z. “That happened to China in 2019, compared to the 1910s in the US. Emotional value becomes the most important pursuit — as a result, Gen Z is seeking healing, comfort, and relaxation.” Pompompurin’s entire brand proposition is built on that idea. His anniversary theme — “Let’s forget about the difficult things” — reads as a direct product brief. The collaborations that land this year will be the ones that deliver on that feeling. The same logic explains why the collaboration portfolio spans so many categories. Licensing makes up around 53% of Sanrio’s China revenue, covering toys, apparel, homeware and food. The breadth is deliberate: the more contact points a character has with daily life, the more ambient its emotional presence becomes. Not everyone in the fanbase celebrates the collaboration pipeline without reservation. Siena Barr, an Adelaide-based media and communications student who collects Pompompurin, said, “I prefer Pompompurin products solo, as I feel that collaborations like to jack up the prices due to demand and limited edition stuff. There’s actually an example I can think of recently — the clothing brand Lazy Oaf has just released a Pompompurin collab and I feel the prices are way too high. I was excited to possibly buy something but now I’m not so sure.” Collectors who feel priced out of limited-edition drops are the same people driving 970 million views on Xiaohongshu, posting keychains on their bags and posing at train stations. They are the infrastructure of the character’s cultural presence — the collaboration strategy works partly because of them. 30 years, 1 product, multiple price points What makes Pompompurin’s 2026 campaign coherent is that it does not try to be one thing. A 49,280 yen ($320) Seiko watch and a convenience store cookie pouch can coexist in the same anniversary year because the character is a global household name with the equity to hold that range. The company’s financial disclosures point to strong growth in mainland China and Europe in recent quarters — numbers that reflect a multi-character strategy built over years rather than a single anniversary push. “Just collecting his items brings me a lot of joy — he’s all over my room,” Barr said. “It's definitely a conversation starter, and it's actually helped me make friends.” Thirty years in, that is still what the brand is selling: joy, shared across categories, demographics and regions.

Collab king: Pompompurin nears 1B Xiaohongshu impressions

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Collab king: Pompompurin nears 1B Xiaohongshu impressions

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag