Petition Against Dragon

There is a smartphone game called "The Battle Cats" that has been downloaded 90 million times worldwide., created by the Japanese company Ponos. This game, featuring quite, or rather, extremely quirky characters, has had a Lunar New Year campaign created for the Korean and Taiwanese markets.

Speaking of LNY, it involves the twelve zodiac animals, yet curiously, cats are not included. Meanwhile, the year 2024 celebrates the dragon, which, as you may know, does not actually exist. Yes, the dragon is the only zodiac animal that is not real. Why should a non-existent dragon be chosen over cats, which are both adorable and popular? This situation, which could be described as "cat discrimination," has prompted the cats to take a stand.

We created a petition site to change the Year of the Dragon to the Year of the Cat, encouraging people to sign it. The more signatures we received, the more "cat food cans" — the in-game currency — we offered to give away to participants.

But that's not all; we challenged gamers born in the Year of the Dragon in Korea and Taiwan, making them join the petition for the Year of the Cat if they failed to clear the stages we designated. This was a strategy to communicate the essence of this seemingly cute but actually very strategically demanding game, making professional gamers sacrifice their skills to spread the word.

As a result of the campaign, we saw significant increases in new and returning users, and in-game purchases were boosted, making for a successful celebration of the New Year. Happy Meow Year!