Why brands should care about Pokemon Go

Launched on July 6, 2016, Pokémon Go has quickly become a phenomenon in less than a week. Pokémon Go is a free-to-play location-based augmented reality mobile game, developed by Niantic and published by The Pokémon Company as part of the Pokémon franchise. It has been released worldwide for iOS and Android devices.

The game encourages players to explore their cities, driving real world traffic for local businesses and leverages GPS and cameras on smartphones to simulate the Pokémon catching experience from the older games in the real world.

Tapping on to this online sensation, Ansible, the mobile marketing division of IPG Mediabrands, has released a study on ‘Why Should Brands Care About Pokemon Go’.

Scope for Brand Associations

Pokemon Go players must leave their homes and explore their neighbourhoods and cities, following a digital map that leads them to various characters and locations. Niantic just announced that they are willing to create in-game sponsorship opportunities soon.

For now, the game is monetised by in-app purchases by users. Because the game gets users out into the world, there are marketing opportunities surrounding the game.

While the camera-enabled AR experience built around location services, creates the game’s most share-worthy moments as social feeds. Facebook and Twitter include almost non-stop screenshots from the game in the last week.

How can Brands Leverage

Brands without physical locations will have a tougher time capitalising directly on the latest Pokémon craze.

There would be more opportunities to get in front of Pokémon Go players through in-game ads or sponsorships.

This is a good time to think about ways for augmented reality to drive new opportunities for one’s brand. AR can be a great way for customers to envision a company’s products in their lives and to launch digital experiences from signage or product packaging. What we can do now through a smartphone is just the beginning.

How can Retailers Leverage

The nature of Pokémon Go demands players go outside and walk around. Already, there are stores and cafes seeing a spike in foot traffic because their locations are hotspots in the game. The New York Times reported that one bar in Harrisburg, Va., has started offering discounts to Pokémon Go players on a specific team, while a tea shop in San Francisco offered a “buy one get one” deal to Pokémon Go players.

If one of your locations is lucky enough to be at or near an in-game hotspot known as a PokéStop and you’re willing do a little work and make a few in-app purchases, you can drive even more traffic and sales. L’inizio Pizza Bar in Queens used that strategy and boosted sales by an incredible 30 per cent.

So far a brand can’t buy the insert game feature for sponsorship, but the CEO of Niantic has said that they are working on it.

‘Lure modules’ are an item in the game that attract Pokémon to a PokéStop location for 30 minutes. Anyone in the area can take advantage of the lure and they usually attract crowds of players. The lures last for 30 minutes and, if bought in increments of $100, cost $1.17 per hour. Lures are purchased in the in-game store with Pokecoins, which are purchased with real money.

Incense works similarly to lures, in that it attracts Pokémon, but these should not be used by brands as they only create extra Pokémon for the user deploying them, not for other users in the game. They are not tied to a location the way lures can only be used at PokéStops.

Gyms are destinations players to battle with other players’ Pokémons, whereas a PokéStop is a checkpoint that players pass by for a few seconds to get free loot. So far, Niantic has full control over the creation of PokéStops and Gyms.