How Pokémon Go captured the focus back on Data

Manish Choudhary

Pokémon Go is undoubtedly an augmented reality phenomenon. As the most popular mobile game in history, it has left Twitter in the dust after attracting more users in just three days than the social media giant had attained in the last decade. According to a report by SimilarWeb, Pokémon Go even had more user engagement than Facebook, with daily revenue of more than $1.6 million in the US alone.

Despite the game not yet being launched in India and other major markets such as China, South Korea, India ranks fourth in terms of the game downloads from the file hosting website APKMirror. Since the game has come out, APKMirror's traffic has gone up by almost 600 per cent.

Read more: Pokémon GO finally releasing in India

The numbers are certainly impressive, but the true phenomenon is how in one launch, The Pokémon Company has rewritten its future, and the future of its gaming competitors, all thanks to Niantac’s location-based technology. It’s transformed itself from a card trading and video gaming leader to a potential data analytics and marketing genius. The crowdsourced location data Pokémon Go is generating (Niantic’s privacy policy states they do collect location data and data from your mobile device while playing the game) has great potential due to its volume of users; and marketers may want to tap into that data if greater customer insights are unveiled.

To succeed at Pokémon Go, you must visit real locations, in person, real time. The accuracy and precision of location data then becomes absolutely critical – get it wrong and risk the wrath of millions of players, not to mention neighborhood residents. Get it right, you create a global movement that transforms the way we previously considered merging our physical surroundings with interactive digital experiences.

With Pokémon Go, Niantic has created a new market and a new channel for capturing data. While Niantic isn’t the only company capturing location data and providing location-based user experiences, it is one of the first to exhibit the power of location data in a popular, consumable and strategic game play way.

From social media location check-ins, to geographically-targeted marketing campaigns, to ‘Find my nearest…’ services offered, location-based data drives some incredible hyper-real experiences.

Manish C, Pitney Bowes

There are few instances when businesses can capture data generated by large volumes of people in a particular physical location, for example - events like music festivals, major conferences or gatherings at landmarks. Niantic captures not only where and when a player is at a specific location, but how they’re interacting with people and things at that location.

This type of relational data drives the concept behind the Internet of Things and gives context to consumer behavior.

Some location-based activities that Niantic is able to capture customer data from include:

1. PokeStops

In-app purchases, such as Poke Balls and Incense, help capture more Pokémon. You can buy these within the in-game shop or collect them at PokeStops throughout the game, clearly indicated on a map. PokeStop locations must be accurate for the game to seamlessly connect the virtual and real worlds and are determined based on a combination of historical/cultural landmarks, geo-tagged photos from Google and locations suggested from Niantic’s previous geo-location game Ingress.

2. Lures

Shops and restaurants who want to increase foot traffic can purchase lures from the in-game store which spawns more Pokémon to a specified location when activated. Many retailers and food chains will keep a lookout on luring discounts and offers once the release date is slated for India.

3. Advertisements

Advertisements in physical locations will soon start popping up in the game, drawing attention not only to a location, but to promotions offered at that location. Rather than the pizza restaurant drawing gamers to it, they can now place advertisements for discounted deep dish pizza at the nearby park where players are congregating.

Geospatial data generated through Pokémon Go is in high demand because the data is almost guaranteed to be accurate—after all, it’s tested every day by millions of users.

Niantic has undeniably created a paradigm shift in gaming and geospatial data. Apps such as Swarm/Foursquare have taken the “gamification” approach with check-ins, but Pokémon Go has upped the ante and players can’t get enough. Indirectly, they have also transformed the way we think about the physical and digital worlds.

It is no longer physical or digital, it is now physical and digital. There is an undeniable synergy between the two consumer experiences businesses can no longer ignore. In creating Pokémon Go, Niantic has discovered the value of a single customer view that embraces context and location, and it’s incredibly powerful.

Augmented reality gaming will radically increase although it’s going to take time to show drastic results. The immersive nature of the gaming content helps in engaging the consumers and is exactly what brands would want: to engage users into a more realistic and applicable experience of the product.

Additional note:

Pokemon Go was recently released in the Asian market and is still number one mobile game in Singapore. The app is yet to reach official app stores in India. Niantic Labs, the developer of Pokemon Go, is mum on the subject of releasing the game in India, but that doesn't mean the game's expansion has come to a halt.

(Manish Choudhary is SVP- Global Innovation & Managing Director India, Pitney Bowes Inc. Views expressed here are of the author and CyberMedia does not necessarily endorse them.)