Pokemon Go – A Revolution Hidden by Hype

A New and Augmented Reality for Location Based Marketing.

In its first few weeks, Pokémon Go has taken the world by storm. Tens of millions of users, impressive initial revenues and huge uplifts in share price. Marketers are keen to jump on the bandwagon and the opportunities go well beyond the traditional sponsorship business models. In fact the “cost per visit” and sponsored locations business model announced by Niantic CEO John Hanke will have retailers, restaurateurs, leisure operators and all other footfall, bums-on-seats and visitor based operations sitting up and looking at a new future of marketing opportunities.

Augmented reality (AR) has been around for a while and there are examples such as Toys’R’Us in Australia using a TRUmagic Easter Egg hunt which have been quite clever at pulling visits to the store. Previous manifestations had to use traditional advertising to inform potential customers but Pokémon Go revolutionises destination based marketing. The specific opportunity to host Pokemon “Gyms” attracting players to your venue on a cost per visit basis merely demonstrates the concept. Now that the creative and business worlds have seen the success of Pokemon Go and the financial model of cost per visit, it’s only a matter of time before this type of marketing becomes very common.

Google (now Alphabet) are heavy investors in Niantic Inc, the developers of Pokemon Go, and the game’s technology relies heavily on Google Maps. Imagine sitting in the innovation departments in Google, Niantic and whatever other relevant brands Alphabet owns and thinking about these four criteria:

1. Retailers and other destination sites will pay for visits

2. Consumers are looking for exciting new ways to use their phone

3. We have the technology

4. Point 1 will pay for point 3, with huge profits to be made

So obviously there will be an avalanche of new games copying the Pokemon Go specific idea of characters located in real world venues. But that will only be the start. Pokemon Go is a breakthrough for AR and it’s time for everyone that can benefit from this to start brainstorming. Point your phone and save! How about a “flash sale” app involving multiple High Street retailers? How about using this technology to expand the sophistication of points based offers such as Nectar? How about retailers improving links with credit card cashback schemes and deals when you pay with Apple Pay? And it won’t be just about discounts. Treasure hunt the gift with purchase? Lottery or prize draw entry by passing through a retail portal? The AR revolution has started and it’s heading to a High Street near you. The creative possibilities are endless.

The technology will develop further as computer vision and dynamic mapping allow greater interaction between your phone and the surrounding environment. Walk around a store and your phone app will be able to reveal offers that are genuinely exclusive and relevant to you, for example linking excess stocks to your past buying behaviour.

So by all means admire Pokemon Go for its creativity and innovative business model. But herald it for the way it will lead the revolution in AR marketing.