Pokémon Go exploded seemingly overnight and shows no signs of slowing its viral pace. The augmented reality app’s astoundingly rapid success is due, at least in part, to its mastery of viral loop marketing. While many other apps have created successful viral loops, Pokémon Go’s approach is remarkably unique in a number of ways that mobile marketers can learn from.
- Organic Discovery
Unlike other viral apps that rely primarily on users’ social networks or contact lists to attract new users, Pokémon Go requires players to explore new areas of the real world around them. We see groups of people playing outside a PokéGym or visiting PokéStops, which are physical-world places marked as points of interest within the augmented reality of the game. Passersby watching users play become curious and then download the app as a result.
Because the app is discovered organically, outside the app store and without search or via Facebook ads, this significantly decreases the “viral cycle time,” or the time it takes for a user to gain interest in an app and then ultimately cause others to use it as well. When the entire population—as opposed to just an install cohort—is encouraged to participate, the app is likely to grow much faster.
- A Truly Personalized User Experience
The importance of creating a personalized user experience is nothing new, but Pokémon Go takes it to a whole new level, as the game is unique to each player’s specific location and the time of day. For example, users have a better chance of discovering a nocturnal fairy or ghost Pokémon at night, and water types can be found near bodies of water.
Personalizing content and experience based on individual users’ behaviors, preferences, social graph data, locations and environments has a significant impact on engagement, retention and satisfaction.
- User Generated Content and Interaction
Pokémon Go users can visit PokéStops to retrieve various items, like PokéEggs that hatch into Pokémon and Poké Balls for capturing wild specimen. They can also make PokéStops more enticing to both Pokémon and fellow players by using Lure Modules, which last for 30 minutes and thus guarantees user engagement for that amount of time, and also accelerates a user’s progress in the game.
Having numerous user-generated gameplay experiences is critical to keep users engaged and coming back. When users can create and interact with content, they essentially become promoters of your app, which makes UGC key to going viral.
- Unbounded Playing Time
Unlike other games with play periods that are level-based or limited with lifetimes or energy, Pokémon Go users can play the game as long as they want by walking to additional PokéStops in the surrounding area, without having to pay. The game never ends and the ending is a moving target keeping users engaged for extended periods of time, and players are always incentivized to continue progressing through the game gaining more experience and mastery.
A loyal, engaged user base, fueled by personalized and fresh content, creates more opportunities for monetization both within and outside the app.
At the End of the Day, Usage Is King
There are a number of lessons to be learned from Pokémon Go, like thinking outside the box of the social network invitation. But perhaps most importantly, apps that create personal experiences for its users build a loyal and passionate user base. Apps that enable users to create, modify and interact with content, makes app users promoters of the app, which is key to virality. Usage remains the key metric on which app publishers should focus.
Dickey Singh is the co-founder and CEO of Pyze.
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