The Virality of Pokémon Go (and How It’s Similar to Snapchat)
I know what you’re thinking… “oh no, not another Pokémon Go thinkpiece. We get it, one of the top fan-focused brands in the world made a game so it’s popular. Let’s move on.”
While it may be easy to dismiss the popularity Pokémon Go and rest it solely on the laurels of the Pokémon brand (which obviously is a significant contributor to its success), I believe there are lessons that other developers and marketers can take from how rapidly the application has grown.
If you’re wondering what Pokémon Go is, have a look at this video:
I know that Ingress, an app developed by the same company, was first in this gamified augmented reality space. However, a quick trip to their website can show you why it didn’t catch on nearly as quickly. The app is very technical, can be difficult to understand, and doesn’t have the same loveable brand tie-in that Pokémon Go does.
But that’s not the only reason why Pokémon Go is popular.
Pokémon Go derives a lot of their success from the same tactics Snapchat has used to grow in popularity over the past few years. Pokémon Go is inherently social from the ground up and builds its social aspect not in the traditional sense of sharing on social media platforms, but through elements that promote the app through word of mouth (similar to Snapchat). Pokémon Go builds social sharing into their app in the three following ways:
- Occupying the entirety of a user’s screen and only working when opened
- The gamification of visiting new areas and points of interest
- The emergence of a “secret society” and obvious public usage
1. Pokémon Go occupies the entirety of a user’s screen and only works when opened
Pokémon Go requires its users to have the app open and in-use in order for you to catch Pokémon, gain experience, etc. You can’t turn on notifications and be notified when a Pokémon is in your area, that ruins the magic. By occupying the entirety of a user’s screen and requiring usage, users are more actively engaged with the app and have it open while walking around in public areas. Having the app consistently open and engaging with it increases the chances of you using it around others, thus prompting more people to learn about the app.
This is incredibly similar to Snapchat, which also requires users to be fully engaged with the app in order to use it. You can’t use Snapchat in the background of anything, if you’re watching a Story or a Snap and leave the app, Snapchat resets and puts you back into the default camera screen. When someone receives a Snap, they have to tune out everything that’s going on around them in order for them to view and respond, since the Snap disappears eventually.
Pokémon Go is similar because, whenever a Pokémon appears, the user must catch the Pokémon quickly before it runs away. Pokémon Go, similar to Snapchat, forces people to stop their lives to engage with the app. That characteristic is incredibly powerful, especially when seen from a social sharing point-of-view. If a friend is talking to me when I’m viewing a Snap, I’ll tell them to “give me a second” while I finish watching. The same can be said for when I’m catching a Pokémon — I need to be fully engaged in order for me to use the app. This provides an obvious opportunity for me to discuss with my friend what I’m doing that caused me to (rudely) tell them to wait, spreading the word of the app even further.
Pokémon Go’s use of the camera (along with augmented reality) has also propelled it into the spotlight due to the shareability of the events in the game. There have been countless examples (like the one below) of people sharing the times a Pokémon has appeared in their life. These images, with the iconic Pokéball and Pokémon in the forefront, further the social conversation about the app and cause users to look for fun situations from which they can create their own unique posts. Users want to be part of this community of Pokémon Go sharers (since they see posts about it all the time on their social media) and, as such, they contribute to the trend of posting, continuing the cycle of social popularity. Snapchat experienced a similar phenomena by having Twitter accounts dedicated to posting screenshots of Snapchats or funny Snapchat Stories.
2. Pokémon Go gamifies visiting new areas and points of interest
In Pokémon Go you need to visit PokéStops in order for you to gain experience, Pokéballs, items, etc. PokéStops are located in areas around a city, often in points-of-interest (however miniscule the point-of-interest may be). Remember — Pokémon Go only works when it is actively being used (taking up the entirety of your screen), so people who want to go to these PokéStops need to do so while actively engaging in the app.
Since people want to travel in groups when exploring new areas, more friends tend to be involved in the app. They are all actively using the app, increasing the network effect since they’ll want to explore new areas with new friends as time goes on.
Snapchat has a similar element with the Geofilters feature. Whenever a user visits a new area, they are able to “unlock” unique filters that are only available in a certain place. Thus, whenever someone is in a new area, the first thing they’ll do is take out Snapchat to take a picture and see what filters are available. Similar to Pokémon Go, most of the time when people are in new areas they are with friends or a group of people. If a user finds a cool filter, they’ll often show it to their friends, further prompting and rewarding the usage of Snapchat in these situations. Pokémon Go rewards users who use it in new areas with Pokémon and PokéStops, Snapchat rewards users with Geofilters.
3. Pokémon Go causes an emergence of a “secret society” and obvious public usage
The aforementioned points of interest were often points of interest before Pokémon Go was released (or, at the very least, highly populated areas). Those who are unfamiliar with the app see groups of youngsters coming to the area, fixated on their phones, getting excited (when they catch new Pokémon), and leaving. It prompts people to ask “what are you doing?”.
That question is all too familiar with users of Snapchat. Their lenses feature could easily work with people pressing a button to alter the lens. Instead, Snapchat prompts users to open their mouths or raise their eyebrows to cause the transformation. This prompt, seen from an external perspective, makes users of Snapchat in public seem crazy. People focused on their phone, sticking their tongue out, then quickly giggling and sending the Snap off.
Even more recently Snapchat has prompted users on many of their filters to “try it with a friend”. This is the purest form of marketing imaginable: word of mouth. When a user sees this prompt, they want to find a friend so they can “unlock” whatever cool feature Snapchat has. Snapchat originally did this with their “face swapping” feature, encouraging people to show Snapchat to their friends and have them try it.
Not to mention, since PokéStops are the same for all users of the app, moments like this begin to happen:
These shareable moments occur because it is impossible for you to effectively use Pokémon Go in secret. You can’t be a low-key user of Pokémon Go. You need to be actively engaged with the app, going to new areas, and (quite often) running into people in these areas who are also using the app. It’s obvious through the actions of users who in an area is playing Pokémon Go, just how it’s easy to tell who is sending a Snapchat. This constant reinforcement of the app makes users want to use the app more and join the community surrounding it. It makes the users of Pokémon Go be “in the know” and those who aren’t be puzzled with what’s going on.
This sense of being “in the know” about Pokémon Go creates authentic word of mouth through usage of the app. People want to know what you’re doing, friends want to join in on your PokéStop excavations, etc. The more you use Pokémon Go, the more people you’ll find using it, and the more invested you’ll be in it as a result.
Conclusion
Whether Pokémon Go is a fad or not honestly remains to be seen. The app is so bare bones right now that there is a ton the developer (Niantic) can do with it. Trading Pokémon, meeting other trainers, etc. are all features that are in the pipeline but have yet to be in the app. Niantic made the right move by introducing only a few features in the first release of the app to teach users how to use it, rather than them being overwhelmed with all of the intricacies available. This makes Pokémon Go super easy to pick up, but very difficult to put down.
What is impossible to ignore is how truly fantastic of an app Pokémon Go is from a social perspective. Those in marketing and app development need to take note as to how Pokémon Go effectively built social sharing into the core of its app, and not through the traditional social means. Pokémon Go, similar to Snapchat, utilized word-of-mouth (not other social media platforms), to spread the word about their app and in the process created a truly immersive and engaging experience.
