Whether you’ve downloaded it yourself, or you’re witnessing more people staring into their screens lately, you’ll know that Pokémon Go mania is in full swing.

Despite limited advertising, the game has skyrocketed in popularity, and managed to add $7.5 billion to Nintendo’s market value. The Japanese company’s shares have more than doubled since the game’s launch last week but unlike other successful videogames, films and television shows, its advertising has been almost non-existent. You’ll likely have heard people talking about the game, but have you seen any official promotion?

In this post, we’ll consider why the game has been such a huge success – and the marketing lessons we can all learn from Nintendo’s ‘pocket monster’ app.

What is Pokémon Go?

First of all, the quick version, what is it?

Pokémon Go is an ‘augmented reality’ game that challenges users to find and catch Pokémon in real world surroundings.

As it explains on the official Pokémon website: “As you move around, your smartphone will vibrate to let you know you’re near a Pokémon. Once you’ve encountered a Pokémon, take aim on your smartphone’s touch screen and throw a Poké Ball to catch it.”

It’s a pretty simple premise, but these key marketing lessons demonstrate why it’s turned into such a cultural phenomenon.

Lessons 1 – Use reward systems to increase engagement

According to a report from SurveyMonkey, the retention rate of Pokémon Go is over double the industry average, and the game is pulling in revenues at twice the average rate for casual gamers. After people have downloaded the app, what has caused such high levels of engagement?

At it’s most stripped-down, Pokémon Go is basically a fitness app – it rewards players for being physically active and exploring the outdoors. The combination of reward systems and fitness has helped apps like RunKeeper, FitBit and Nike + Running see huge success recently. The ‘gamification’ of fitness is definitely a popular trend to latch onto; because it works.

In this case, the reward system takes the form of increased likelihood of catching rarer Pokémon, as well as a gradual levelling system. It’s simple psychology, but the brain responds to this kind of gratification and reward, and leads to continual engagement and loyalty.

By rewarding players, engagement with the app has continued to grow since its launch – mobile users currently spend more time on Pokémon Go than Facebook, Snapchat and Tinder. And more people are searching for terms relating to ‘Pokémon Go’ than ‘porn’. The game has definitely made an impact on the internet…

At Purpose Media, our focus is e-commerce, where this kind of reward system can take the form of loyalty schemes, exclusive offers, early access and more. It’s about rewarding the people who keep coming back to you. Consider how you can deliver value to your customers. Persuade them to connect with your brand and remain engaged.

Lessons 2 – Focus on your existing customers

Most businesses put a focus on finding and selling to new customers, but if you’ve already established your brand, why not look to your existing customer base?

Back in the 1999, the original Pokémon games took the UK by storm. By 2005, Pokémon had become one of the biggest media franchises of all time, grossing $30 billion worldwide, from video games, anime, trading cards, and a theme park in Nagoya, Japan.

This is a pretty substantial customer base to build on, and hyperbolic compared to most businesses, however there’s a lesson to be learnt – you can’t rely purely on brand new business. You should also be nurturing the leads you’ve built up over time. Nintendo made a point of keeping the game focused on the original 151 Pokémon in order to maximise nostalgia and engage with their original audience. They no doubt had one eye on reaching nostalgic millennials, as well as growing new fans.

Take a similar position with your marketing; build up your lists of leads, and touch base regularly to offer additional value. To sell more to your current customers, think about how you can grow trust in your company – and how you can offer continued value. Whether that’s exclusive deals or expert content, you should give to your prospect lists, and reciprocity will be your reward.

When you’re nurturing your lists over time, these contacts will grow in value. The more successful touch-points you have, the more these people are likely to do business with you. They maybe weren’t ready to do business when you first contacted them, but that will certainly change over time.

Lessons 3 – Don’t underestimate word-of-mouth referrals

Nurturing contacts over time has another valuable benefit – one that Pokémon Go has utilised to incredible effect.

The impact of referrals and social proof has been demonstrated time and time again; it’s why marketers utilise testimonial quotes on landing pages and why advertisers pay huge fees for celebrity endorsements.

It’s also what makes apps like Candy Crush, Angry Birds and Pokémon Go take off.

Social media feeds have been packed with Pokémon-related discussions– so if you’re not interested in the game, you’re probably sick of hearing about it.

The avalanche of Pokemon chat means there were more tweets covering ‘Pokemon Go’ in the week of it’s release, than there were at peak times for ‘Brexit’ and ‘Euro 2016’.

Whether it was a deliberate ploy or not, the app was available through unofficial sources before it was released by Nintendo, and that certainly got the ball rolling. Screenshots were appearing and tips were being discussed before Nintendo made it’s (official) first move. This apparent exclusivity meant that people who did have the app were actively putting their opinion out there – Pokémon Go had brand advocates before it was even released.

Word-of-mouth referrals rely on your loyal fans. The people you’ve consistently wowed and built relationships with are the people who will talk about you positively. For Nintendo, these discussions sparked awareness and curiosity which brought more downloads, and more people to join the discussion – a viscous cycle of viral marketing that companies dream of.

Remember that customers are four times more likely to buy with referrals from friends, so don’t ignore your current customers as a marketing channel in itself.

If you think that spending time on the people who have already done business with you is wasteful, consider how they represent you. Each one of your customers could be sending out a message about your brand that is far more valuable than anything you could send.

Lessons 4 – Capitalise on technological trends

Technology is constantly changing and chasing trends often leads to being one step behind at best… so how do you see actual results?

You innovate, try new tactics, do it better.

Pokémon Go uses a combination of geocaching and augmented reality. The former is an outdoor activity that’s been around since 2000. Participants use GPS to hide and seek containers, ‘geocaches’, as a form of modern day treasure-hunting, albeit with modest treasure.

It’s technologically-driven, but it’s not exactly new. Augmented reality is the real game changer. This is defined as real-world environments with elements augmented by computer-generated sensory input – sound, video, graphics etc.

Again, Nintendo aren’t the first to do this. Boeing researcher Tom Caudell coined the term in 1990 to describe a digital display used by aircraft electricians that blended virtual graphics onto physical reality.

More recently, it’s been used in novel ways on apps like Inkhunter to demonstrate how a tattoo would look before making it permanent or Zombies, Run! – for those who are motivated to exercise by impending doom.

Pokémon Go has combined these two trends, added a few gameplay elements and created something that improves on what was before. If the app was purely geocaching without AR, or vice versa, it’s doubtful it would have taken off in the same way.

You don’t need to jump on every bandwagon, but it pays to keep your finger on the pulse. Follow industry thought leaders. Think about which trends are seeing success and how you can adapt to them – and make them better.

Lessons 5 – Great branding can make the difference

Attributing the app’s success to technical innovation wouldn’t be telling the whole story… in fact, mobile game company Niantic, Inc. released a very similar game in 2013.

Ingress is another augmented-reality, massively-multiplayer game, in which players capture ‘portals’ at places of cultural significance. The gameplay of Ingress is very similar, more in-depth even, than Pokémon Go, however its success isn’t near the same scale.

Why? Because Pokémon is a 20-year-old household name. It’s an established brand with the market presence that comes with that.

Consider all of the images emerging of Pokémon in real-world environments. The game’s inclusion of augmented reality means that these screenshots can be taken and shared virally, portraying the brand as playful and creative – without Nintendo doing the heavy lifting.

Everything about the Pokémon Go brand is built around it being shareable; accessible, social media-friendly, nostalgic.

From a business perspective, it shows that you can have all the features and benefits of your competitors but lose out because you haven’t considered your branding.

Conclusion

You may well be sick of hearing about Pokémon, but you wouldn’t be if these lessons hadn’t been so fruitful.

With the perfect storm of technology, community and branding, Nintendo have created an app that looks certain to break more records. While the game has been praised for encouraging activity outdoors and for bringing people of different backgrounds together, these marketing lessons offer a different perspective.

Consider how your business can learn from this phenomenon – you don’t need to start posting Pokemon-related content or ‘luring’ gamers into your business, but do consider that Pokémon Go is currently more popular than Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.

If a different internet fad had made that much of any impact, would you be rolling your eyes and saying ‘my prospects don’t care about it’?