Wendy Woodhead

Pokémon GO is everywhere. Even if you think it hasn’t touched your life, you’re wrong.

Wherever you see people hunched over or blindly following their phones down the street, you’re witnessing the craze in action.

If you’re a business owner, then you’d do better than to turn your nose up at it. The success of this app-based game has many lessons to teach us about what makes an advertising campaign work.

1. Sell the benefits

The obvious benefit of gaming is fun – and Pokémon GO certainly captures that with its cute collectable Pokémon (pocket monsters). But there’s another major USP for this app and the clue is in the name. That’s right, this app gets you, your kids, your elderly parents out walking…and enjoying themselves while they do it.

Successful advertising copy starts with – and reiterates throughout – the benefits of your product.

2. Have a niche

The obvious niche for Pokémon GO is it’s novel approach of fusing gaming with exercise. It turns expectations on their head, i.e. that gaming is unsociable and unhealthy.

This niche doesn’t just set the app apart from its competitors, it endorses the app to families and schools. With new advocates and audiences on board, there is potential for spin-off activities, events or promotions.

3. Cultivate a loyal base

Pokémon GO works because it has a loyal fan base. They’re the guys who were playing this back in the ‘90s and who climb into their Pikachu onesies every night.

If you have a core of customers that respect you, have an emotional bond with you, and show brand allegiance to you, then you have a better chance of success with new products. They will carry your message through word of mouth and become your advocate. Reward them with newsletters and discounts – in essence, keep them in the loop.

4. Have broad appeal

Complicated isn’t always better. The original Gameboy version of Pokémon has been made more universally user-friendly with this app to encourage mass participation. The concept is simple and means it can be enjoyed by all ages, regardless of whether they have any prior knowledge of the game. Plus, by making this game available via smartphones, one of the most common devices, Nintendo has made it more accessible.

5. Reinvent

Don’t be afraid to reinvent a classic. That’s what Nintendo did with Pokémon GO, making it relevant to an age of socially reclusive gamers and our health-conscious culture.

Ask yourself, how can this product appeal to the modern-day buyer? Is there a way I can turn it on its head? Can I create need for what is essentially a desirable product? Can I make something unhealthy, healthy?

6. Sell ‘the game’

Gamification is the concept of making mundane, outdated or difficult tasks fun. It’s the act of rewarding ‘players’ with points, discounts, promotions and events. Think: your favourite store card or coffee shop loyalty card.

Well, Pokémon GO does this with exercise by turning it into an interactive hunt and rewarding persistence with advancement through the levels. When you get out of the house, you can find new monsters; when you walk 2km, 5km or 10km, you hatch an egg (and the bigger the effort, the better the return).

7. Bring people together

The game channels interactivity, both with the app but also with the offline real world in the form of visiting landmarks and chance encounters with fellow players. When something brings people together in this way to bond over their nostalgia and passion for a brand, then their emotional ties grow even more.

How can you bring your customers together? Perhaps if you’re in gourmet foods, you could hold regular wine or chocolate-tasting evenings for your loyalty card members.

The success of Pokémon GO is certainly giving businesses and advertisers food for thought when it comes to future campaigns. But even if your business isn’t quite at the point of app-based gaming or GPS targeted marketing, you can still learn about what creates loyalty among your customers. And a lot of that starts with how you communicate with them through your content – both online and off.

If you want to take your copy to the next level, get in touch with me today and I’ll help you score points with your customers.