Every week in my integrated marketing class at NYU we discuss the hot topics from marketing that have occurred during the week. Each student brings in one brand to discuss in front of the class, and we discuss as a class. It’s great fun merging pop culture with branding with education.
I learn as much from them as they do from me, if not more!
As you can imagine, this week’s hot topic was Pokemon Go. Truthfully, you’d have to be living under a rock to not have heard of Pokemon Go at this point, but I’m not sure I fully understood it quite yet. Just hadn’t had the time to dig in.
Granted, my son back in the day was a huge Pokemon fan, but that was with trading cards and little figurines. He didn’t have this kind of gaming going on.
There was nothing like this going on back then.
This is true innovation we are witnessing here, with what I view as a huge shift in our culture of entertainment. It’s thumbs and feet working together, it’s fitness and couch-potato combined. We don’t often see big leaps in consumer behavior, so enjoy this one while it is happening.
And it came out of nowhere. Almost like a movie premiere with an opening weekend that breaks all the box office records. This broke many a record, and I personally love all the social posts showing dogs tired from doing so much walking!
From a marketing perspective, this little ditty is also huge. More downloads in a virtual nano-second than ever before. More uptake. More social posts. It has instantly entered into our pop culture mindset, literally over night. Whether you’ve actually played it or not.
The marketing opportunities are endless, as many local, national, and global brands have already seized. Some without even knowing it, yet we can bet it’s now going to become much more purposeful. It’s like Four Square on steroids.
Of course there has already been more speculation and drama than ever experienced, and some issues and crisis situations beyond belief...I guess this stuff is bound to happen when something so big comes to life so quickly with so much frenzy. Particularly in a competitive gaming situation. I sure hope the brand was prepared, because these issues can quickly take over the whole point of the brand and overshadow the excitement that comes with it. And no one ever wants to see anyone hurt. Classic need for some common sense and a brand issues/crisis preparedness plan in advance.
But with that aside, and it’s a big aside, we were all sure in my NYU class that this is just the first of many to come. A door has been burst open not only in gaming, but in creating brand experiences. We’ve only just begun and we have a few little characters from a Pokemon series to thank.
Stay tuned, the walk has just begin. It may soon turn into a run of brands joining the game.