Flashback to the late 1990’s – Pokémon just entered the U.S. market as a riveting videogame that had users catch and battle Pokémon creatures on their Gameboys. A television show, trading cards, and an entire brand followed. Now, the Japanese-based game has made their way into previously uncharted mainstream gaming territory: augmented reality.
Pokémon Go is the first augmented reality game to hit the mainstream market. The app takes data from Google Maps and helps users experience the game from their physical location to find different Pokémon and play the game.
MarketingDIVE recently took a look into the impact the game has had on the global market and what this means for the future of marketing. The company responsible for the game, Niantic Inc., is paving the way for companies to reap the rewards of such a venture. The company has been “developing marketing tie-ins with different stores and banks” and that, ideally, “marketers could tap into the game’s geophysical qualities by making certain rare characters available at particular stores.”
Video gaming isn’t the only industry looking to reap the rewards from virtual marketing. Dassault Systemes has a long history of working with augmented reality from marketing cereal to collaborative design.
Industry watcher Monica Schnitger noted that it could change the future of design.
Putting AR into millions of hands massively changes the game (pun intended) for visual tools. What teenager, about to enter the workforce, will be content to stand with paper drawings when they’re used to superimposed AR? On a device they carries anyway? And didn’t pay extra to have? Who even needs to learn the art of interpreting flat drawings into a 3D context, when we can walk around a virtual object and learn about it from all angles? If we’re trying to determine the best placement for that subway platform bench, why not digitally try it out it with AR while standing right on the platform? A lot of what we’re used to doing at our desks in a more abstracted way becomes “real” and possible out in the field with AR.
If Pokémon Go is any indication on the direction augmented and virtual reality is headed, companies across all industries ought to be quick to jump onto the bandwagon. Otherwise, their competitors might just “catch ‘em all!”
