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Love it or hate it, Pokemon Go appeared overnight and made a big splash. They did big numbers, got massive press attention, generated a surge of social media exposure and dominated for a period of time.
Pokemon even had more daily active users than Twitter at one point, and they were generating millions of dollars per day.
But that won’t last forever. Here’s why and how they were able to create the “viral” craze.
It’s All About The Marketing
Sure it’s a cool app, I guess, but it’s all about the marketing. Pokemon has tapped into the performance marketing industry which they pay to generate millions of users at a fixed cost per user.
They recruit 100s of marketing companies to work on these performance marketing campaigns, and that is how they can saturate the market with Pokemon ads.
Before you know it, using this marketing saturation method, everyone has seen exposed to Pokemon many times and eventually will install the app. Unless you live under a rock, you would have heard about Pokemon and seen the ads at least a dozen times at this point.
Pokemon then tracks how much revenue all of these users are generating from different marketing companies. The marketing companies that generate the most profitable users they give more of their budget to. This survival of the fittest marketing competition allows them to earn the maximum dollar per user.
Deep Psychological Manipulation
Have you even been to a movie theater and watched the ads before the trailers? They show pictures of food, sounds of soda pouring, and popcorn popping. These ads are designed to get you to crave soda, food, and popcorn. Even the healthiest of eaters crave it, even if just for a second or subconsciously.
Pokemon and other wildly successful apps such as Candy Crush use the same psychological manipulation to get you to engage with and literally crave the app.
Remember the sound of the candy in Candy Crush? Someone spent many, many hours perfecting that to get the perfect subliminal response. If you were a big Candy Crush player, you might literally salivate if you hear the sound today.
I know even today a lot of my favorite games that I don’t play anymore if I hear the sounds or see the game in action on YouTube I crave it. These intentional manipulation tactics combined with a little nostalgia will surely get and keep most people hooked.
Gamification Keeps You Engaged
Gamification is another way to get and keep you hooked. Think of how all your favorite games have some kind of points system, money system or ability to upgrade your character. The idea is to make you want to compete with others and yourself.
Gamification is extremely important to keep gamers engaged and always looking to reach a new achievement. Some games and systems have an “achievement system.”
Even apps such as SnapChat and Instagram are heavily gamified. It’s like a game to see how many people have liked your post on Instagram or on SnapChat you literally earn badges as you engage more with the app and complete certain tasks.
All of these things are carefully orchestrated to keep you hooked and coming back to continue “leveling up.”
They Make Money When You Are Hooked
Mobile app creators know that the more you come back and play the more you may want to speed things up or enhance your game by buying in-app purchases designed as upgrades.
You have probably noticed that the same types of in-app purchases designed as upgrades are available in your favorite apps.
The in-app purchases are how most app publishers make the bulk of their money. They piggyback off the fact that they know you want to keep leveling up and doing better in the game. There have been stories of people spending 10s of thousands of dollars for in-app purchases to enhance their character or level up.
All of These Tactics Can be Replicated
Sure it helps to have a recognizable brand like Pokemon to create nostalgia, but that’s not the most important factor. Case in point, Candy Crush didn’t have a name before they made their app successful. They created this system from scratch using the intentional tactics in this article.
Marketing, psychological manipulation, and gamification are what really does the heavy lifting.
If done right, with careful execution of these tactics, and proper budget to acquire users you too can replicate this with Pokemon craze just about any game or app.