Where does your Pokémon strategy lead? Place yourself on the Pokémon map, Photo: Stefan Povysil

You have probably also noticed in the last few days: The streets are busier, dynamic group formation processes are taking place, "moving outdoors" seems to have become much more attractive again. So far, so normal.

But a closer look reveals one thing in particular: People's eyes are fixed on their mobile devices. So are these the first really noticeable effects of "augmented reality"?

Pokémon Go is a so-called "free-to-play location-based augmented reality mobile game". Within the first few days of its release, it was downloaded millions of times and almost crashed the servers. In a nutshell, it's about using cell phones to track down fantasy creatures by wandering around, capturing them, training them, and dueling with other players in arenas. In the meantime, it has become apparent that real locations near Pokéstops register significantly more frequency. Pokéstops are prominent points where players can get virtual equipment.

For the Point Of Sale (POS), there are therefore a multitude of opportunities to use the trend of the year to your advantage with well thought-out Pokémon Go marketing. The developer of the "mobile game" allows, for a fee, the marking of the respective business, store, restaurant, etc. as a location on the Pokémon map. In analogy to Google Ads, where payment is made per click, the Pokémon Go remunerations model is based on so-called "visits". The simple equation is: more Pokémons in a store attract more people, who can be motivated to make a purchase at the POS with clever discount promotions such as "Catch a certain Pokémon in our store and get 5% off". Nevertheless, to actually be able to boost sales with Pokémon Go depends on the relevance of the respective product portfolio for the Pokémon community. Not every business will be able to capitalize on this hype.

McDonalds is already leading the way and is one of the first to be represented on the Pokémon map with its name, logo and several branches. T-Mobile in America is thinking about a promotion to exempt the game from download costs for a year. Shopping centers are looking to position themselves as Pokémon hotspots via social media to attract more customers. Since the game is very data hungry, players often "log in" to local WiFi networks using their name and email address. This provides an opportunity for data collection for direct marketing activities.

Finally, it should not go unmentioned that even Hillary Clinton wants to use Pokémon Go to get more voters to cast ballots in the US presidential election. Will there be Donald Trump as a legendary Pokémon at the ballot box? We are curious.

Sources:

adage.com/cmo-strategy
adage.com/pokemon-a-crazy-tech-fad-business
xovi.com