5 LESSONS ANY BUSINESS CAN LEARN FROM POKÉMON GO

We’re sure that by now, you’ve heard all about the craze surrounding Pokémon Go. If you haven’t, it is an augmented reality game where you can catch and evolve Pokémon in real life. According to recent data, over 60% of the people that downloaded the game onto their device are playing it daily.

Unlike Candy Crush, Angry Birds, or Clash of Clans, Pokémon Go gets people outside and moving around. In order to play the game, users need to walk around their neighborhood to find and catch these creatures. You can also find “gyms” where you can fight other Pokémon and help your team take it over. Though people are still glued to their phones, they are getting outside and meeting new friends.

After following the craze (and participating in it) for close to a month, we decided to compile a list of things that marketers and businesses can learn from Pokémon Go.

EMOTIONAL CONNECTION
With a business, you must find a way to connect with your customers and build on it over time, whether it is through nostalgia or innovation.
One of the main reasons why this game is so popular is because it connects with people on an emotional level. The kids that used to play the original game in the 90s are now adults and it makes them feel young all over again.

Along with that, it has started to bring gamers together in the real world and helping them make new friends. Look around the city and you will find multiple groups of people playing and battle each other. There are even missed connections on Craigslist! 

BE ACCESSIBLE 
Having a good business presence is one of the main factors of how well your business will do. How are you going to attract customers if they can’t find you?

Another reason the game took off is because of how accessible it was. Nowadays, developers usually release an iOS version first with an Android version later on. With Pokémon Go, it was available on both platforms on the get-go so anybody can play the game. All you have to download the app and you can start catching Pokémon around your area immediately. However, the only holdup has been server issues since there have been a ton of people playing the game 24/7.

CREATE BUZZ
You don’t have to play the game to know how big it is. It’s gotten to a point where you know when someone else is playing it and this creates curiosity for those who do not play the game.

The game first launched in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States before spreading to the United Kingdom, Spain, etc. Each roll out created TONS of buzz that got the rest of the world envious. Some people are using a workaround in countries like China, where the game is banned, to play the game.

Apple announced the game had set a new App Store record with the most downloads in its first week than any other app in history. Along with that, it is currently raking in more than $1 million every single day.

ENGAGEMENT
A lot of businesses have also started to take advantage of the buzz to attract new customers. T-Mobile is offering excluding data from Pokémon Go so it won’t eat up data causing overages.

Niantic, the game’s creator, stated that there will be sponsored “PokéStops (a place of interest where you go to get extra items)” in the near future.

START SMALL AND PIVOT IF NECESSARY
Niantic was created by John Hanke, who has a lot of experience with geo-location services (he was one of the key figures behind Google Earth and Google Maps). Before Pokémon Go, Niantic had a very similar game called Ingress, where users could collect points by going to the various pound of interests much like PokeStops.

Ingress was popular in its own right but the company took it and created something wildly popular just by adding Pokémons to the game. Some may think Niantic is an overnight success but it has been around for a long time and the company’s roots lay deeply in geo-location and this is what makes Pokémon Go an addictive game.

written by Jamie Pham

Source:

https://thirsty.agency/5-lessons-business-can-learn-pokemon-go/