What Made Pokemon Go So Popular and How Brands Can Take Advantage of It
People tend to walk the same lane as that walked down by the crowd. It’s hard to decide whether watching grown-up babies playing Pokemon Go with their eyes stuck on their phones while on the road is crazy enough or not. Surviving on the nostalgic craze, the world has come to know what the game is about, but not many seem to know the not-so-random success of the game.
Google, known for the April Fool Pranks it plays every year, introduced the concept based as a prank between Pokemon and Google in 2013. Their main idea was to have pokemons appear on the screens of the phones whenever someone tried to search for directions on the Google map locations. Tied to it’s a tendency of having a futuristic vision, Google had already created a game similar to Pokemon Go named Ingress with the very well known software developing company, Niantic Labs. Tried and tested by the companies through the years to know and understand the user experience, Pokemon Go can never be qualified to be a random success.
Social Media takes a new turn every year. There are a lot of aspects to focus on including introducing something new or reminding the audience about the past. Nothing can seem to defeat the response and hype created by planting a seed of nostalgia within people and it was exactly done for Pokemon Go.
Asking the question of whether one would believe in augmented reality and that 150 million users would use an AR application, none would have nodded their heads in agreement if asked a few months ago. Creating the hype and have people pouring in to download the app was not something difficult for the reasons that their research was in place & updated and the emotional connection was a cherry on the cake.
Anything and everything can be picked up to be used for a brand’s benefit in today’s time. Awaiting trends to build up, Pokemon Go is now taken up by brands to advertise themselves taking creativity to new heights. Brands advertise themselves and the offers given out to people are being based on the number the pokemons one has caught. Blogs about the same have been published giving away information about how to find and catch pokemons to the game addicts.
It is interesting how an April Fool Prank has proved to benefit brands in the long run. Taking McDonald’s for an instance, it is the first sponsored brand who proved to be successful in signing a partnership with Pokemon paying huge amounts of money to create Poke-Stops and Poke-Gyms within the McDonald’s outlets.
The large population of the world has been divided by the game into those who can’t care less about the craziness going around and the others who can’t stop themselves from going crazy. It has still not come into people’s consciousness that they have been walked into stores, restaurants and generating more business just for the sole desire to catch another pokemon.
A new benchmark is set by Pokemon Go in the gaming industry and the fact that incorporating AR applications is going to be a win-win is set clear! Despite the fact that people are not averse or unknown to this concept, games including carrying out exciting activities would drag the people to play the same.
Every trend that is set fades away in a while but it is important for brands to realize the dazzling future of AR applications and let go of the virtual aspect they have been trying to hold onto. The factor they all must now focus on is how to leverage the success of Pokemon Go to blend their future marketing activities with the new-set trend!
