Over the past few weeks, you have probably heard a lot about the
latest app craze sweeping the world: Pokémon
Go. For those not familiar with this
latest obsession, Pokémon Go is an augmented reality
game launched the first week in July by Niantic an Alphabet spin-off company. Players
(or trainers as they are called in the game) are tasked with finding and
catching Pokémon that have been placed in various real-world locations. The
game capitalizes on the Pokémon brand, which was started in the 90’s with video
games, playing cards, and an animated TV series. For millennials who grew up
with Pokémon, this game has tapped into the nostalgia of trading cards in the
playground and waking up early to watch Ash “catch ‘em all” on the show.
Pokémon Go is available on Android and iOS devices and has become one of the
most downloaded and played apps on the market, surpassing some of the most
popular apps in recent years, including Twitter
and Candy Crush in the short time it has been available.
Augmented reality (AR) refers to when computer-generated
images are superimposed into the real world. In the game this happens when
users are catching new Pokémon, the screen switches to the camera view and
shows the creature in the user’s actual environment. Pokémon Go is by no means
the first game or app to use AR technology. In fact, Niantic has created other
mobile games in the past using the technology, but they did not experience the
same success as their latest creation. Businesses have also experimented with
AR technology, such as Yelp’s “Yelp-Monocle” which shows local restaurants and
businesses overlaying a street view image. One of the most successful uses of
AR has been Snapchat, where users are able to use different filters when taking
photos to have different appearances (i.e. dog ears, misshapen heads, etc.).
Given the wide-spread success of these apps, it is evident
that consumers are ready for the next generation of app technology and Pokémon
Go has set the bar for what is to come. While some brands have already started
to integrate AR into their apps, we should expect this trend to increase in the
coming months. Brands are going to be looking for developers with the knowledge
and skillset to leverage AR and other similar technologies to meet the
expectations of what consumers are looking for in apps, while at the same time
trying to outperform what is already on the market. As a relatively new
technology the individuals with the expertise to support this type of
development are not as wide-spread as standard app developers; therefore,
brands will need to target digital shops with specialization in this
technology.
From a marketing perspective, the demand for this type of
niche technology know-how can be used as an
argument for digital decoupling (the separation of creative from production
of digital work). One of the key reasons why a brand would decouple their digital
agency services is to ensure that they have access to individuals with the
specialization in the latest technologies and platforms available. As the
complexities of digital app development grows, creative agencies are struggling
to provide the personnel with the skills to support their clients’ needs. When
creative agencies are not able to meet a client’s development needs, they will
leverage third party relationships with digital shops to fulfill these
requirements. Decoupling eliminates the middle-man in this scenario and allows
organizations to work directly with the developers responsible for producing
their assets. The debate over whether or not a brand should decouple their
agency services is one that has been discussed for years and not limited to the
digital space, but as the needs for specialization increases, the benefits of
digital decoupling strengthen.
Pokémon Go is a little over a week old and it has already had an
impact on the digital landscape, we should all stay tuned for what is to come as
this game and the technology grow and mature.
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