This summer, Pokemon Go became one of the biggest trends to hit your social media feeds. Whether or not you participated in it, Pokemon Go became a cultural phenomenon that piqued the interest not only of the players, but also of business owners who wondered what the key was to creating such a flashfire of engagement and customer acquisition. Let's break down how Pokemon Go became so successful and how you can use its tactics for your own business:
Nintendo/Niantic Understood the Mobile Market
According to statistics published by Oplader Shoppen, mobile commerce has become a $79 billion industry, Nintendo understood that there would be an advantage to taking their platform from a console in the family room to your phone, they could remove the burden of an immobile product. By capitalizing on the mobility of the game and the ability to include paid upgrades, they were able to create a product that had low entry, was always available, and look good by promoting outdoor activity.
What You Can Learn: How can you make your product easier to access? Is there a way to make it smaller, modular, or easier to get?
Pokemon Go Involved Community From the Start
By creating teams, allowing for sharing of secrets, tricks, and involving friends, Pokemon Go ensured success. The more fevered the need to collect Pokemon, the more the players would share, which led to an inescapable amount of updates that would eventually pique curiosity of friends...and the cycle would begin again.
What You Can Learn: Find the "new to market" users in your fanbase and begin to study what causes them to obsess over a brand or product, then involve them in new product releases to help build awareness, encourage anticipation of launch, and develop a stronger community.
Niantic Timed the Release Perfectly
Making an assumption here, but I would venture a guess that Niantic (the developer of the app) and Nintendo both knew that capitalizing on the summer would be the most advantageous time to release Pokemon Go, both due to the weather and the fact that one of the targeted demographics, teens and young adults, would be out of school and needing things to do. Add in the fact that it gets the kids out of the house, and you're adding on support from parents which helps grow the potential for money to be spent on the game via microtransactions.
What You Can Learn: Timing matters, so be sure to strategize the best time for your product or service launch and work backwards, making sure you have ample time for a successful product launch.
Once you break down these factors, it's easy to see why Pokemon Go created such a craze so quickly. The secret is in these three timeless tactics, so if you're looking to create hype around your next launch, give one of these tips a try and you'll be on your way to creating a successful launch in no time. (And if you want to see what all the fuss is about, give this Pokemon Go Beginner's Guide a quick look before you get started.)