Evolving Your Company (No Candies Required)

As Bo Burnham says, “We asked for this.” The nostalgia market is huge, with the world changing so rapidly, the 20–30 demographic asked for this. For something new to be addicted to — something nostalgic and something to make us more active: Enter Pokémon Go.

I admire the massive leap The Pokémon Company has made. Capitalizing on the need for something old, new, borrowed, and blue… or yellow or whatever team you’re on.

More impressive than their skyrocketing stocks, is the event that started it all. Back in 2014 when Google and The Pokémon Company ran an April Fool’s joke on Google Maps where Pokémon spawned sporadically, as John Hanke, founder of Niantic stated in a Game Informer article.

The prank was insanely successful, capturing its audience to the point of going viral. This is what lead to the obvious decision to develop this idea further. Two years later beta testing began in the U.S. — crashing their servers in the likes of Kim K or Mark Zuckerberg, whichever you prefer.

Now, I don’t know how the idea for the April Fool’s joke came to be, but I would like to acknowledge the simplicity in the idea that has taken the world by storm. The layout of previous Pokémon games is similar to our own world (mapping, etc), which is what makes this progression that has propelled Pokémon back into relevance so important. The answers were right in front of them, which is imperative to remember when evolving your brand, company, etc. to stand the test of time and propel yourself into the next era.

I would suggest to take a walk to clear your head, but I hear that’s not so relaxing these days.

Jess Bainbridge

@jessbainbridge