It’s summer and you see lots of young folks (millennials) busy on their cell phones as they vigorously and purposefully seem to be rushing to a destination. Where are they going? you would tend to ask yourself, if you are not familiar Pokemon Go.For a quick overview watch the NBC video on this post. The amazing thing that the augmented reality Pokemon Go game has been able to do, is to engage millennials with the physical world. For as we know:
Millennials are hard to “engage” in the physical brick and mortar world. They much prefer digital engagement on their digital device.
This is a big reason that political marketers are worried about millennial voter turnout on election day. Despite all sorts of social media engagement from their loyal millennial supporters. Loyalty is not what is lacking but it is the unwillingness to physically move and engage with the real world.
The great thing about Pokemon Go is that it has got younger people out in the fresh air from being cooped up on a screen indoors. We believe that getting the kids out to play is the best thing since the cell phone took off. Hopefully, Pokemon Go will be able to fix the driving-playing-accident problem. You are supposed to walk and if you are at above 20 miles an hour you don’t find any “new eggs” as the game goes to sleep.
The marketing opportunity for all brick-and-mortar businesses with Pokemon Go is huge as people walk around to find the Pokemon creatures. Here are some questions to consider depending on your business:
- What if we are a local or mobile stores- (low unit value- quick buy)?: If you have a local store (eg. pizza) or a mobile business ( eg. Food or Ice-cream truck) putting out “lures” to get about 30 walk-ins spending 60 cents on advertising via “lures” or 2 cents a walkin, is a marketing no-brainer. Your product or service needs to be low-unit price and quick buy decision(eg. pizza slice, sandwich lunch,ice cream). Even if you have a service business like a nail spa or a hair salon and you really can’t do 30 haircuts immediately, try to sign up the Pokemon Go traffic for your newsletter, get their phone numbers and names and request them to like your Facebook page. For more details on Pokemon Go for local businesses read the Walter Chen piece in Inc. Magazine.
- What if we are local businesses that are high value and/or long sales cycle:High and/or longer sales cycle businesses includes car dealers, insurance agents, apparel stores, electronics stores etc. People tend to check out things more than once before they can decide because of the expense and commitment involved. For such prospective customers it is important that you capture the contact details of the Pokemon Go traffic. Have a signup sheet to get name,cell phone number, email address so that you can keep up contact.
- Is Pokemon Go something that will continue? It may seem like a fad but Pokemon Go and the augmented reality industry has arrived. It helps that Nianticlabs the creators of Pokemon Go is a Google venture. And they should be able to deploy their massive learning from AdWords into marketing opportunities for this new channel. Pokemon Go and the augmented reality genre is surely going to evolve and change. But then marketing is constantly changing as newer opportunities to engage audiences arrive.
- Is the effort and distraction worthwhile? If your business needs to engage with millennials, this is a great channel and the effort is certainly worthwhile. Remember that Gandhi quote (1890) “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him.” Pokemon Go is able to literally get a customer to your premises. How can having a potential customer at your business be a distraction?
Beyond more foot traffic for local businesses, augmented reality that encourages people to move around and be more active, is great news for better health. About StratoServe Digital Marketing Services