Dive Brief:

• In July, the mobile augmented reality game and viral sensation Pokemon Go created 1.1 billion interactions and was engaged with by 231 million people on Facebook and Instagram, according to Adweek.
• Other popular topics on Facebook and Instagram in July included the new Ghostbusters movie and the two major presidential conventions.
• Pokemon Go took off immediately after its July 6 release, quickly surpassing Instagram and WhatsApp in average time spent, Tinder in app downloads and Twitter in active daily users.

Dive Insight:

Given its almost instant rise in popularity, Pokemon Go’s high profile presence on Facebook and Instagram comes as little surprise. But while the game was ever-present on social media, it also had a huge impact in the offline world — bringing about new marketing opportunities for retailers as Pokemon Go users wandered around looking for Pokemon. 

Pokemon Go shows how augmented reality can help bridge the gap between the online and offline worlds for brand marketers. McDonald’s became the first corporate sponsor for PokeStops in Japan when the game launched, and GameStop sales doubled at U.S. locations that served as PokeStops. Other businesses purchased “lures” within the app in order to draw Pokemon and the players seeking to find those Pokemon to their locations.

For marketers, the success of Pokemon Go showcases how augmented reality can be effectively used for mobile marketing. While the game is seen as fairly rudimentary from a technology perspective, it shows where augmented reality might be headed. The wild success of the game should make augmented reality an easier sell in the boardroom for marketers looking to try out the cutting edge technology. When leadership asks what augmented reality might do for brand or even look like, marketers can now point to Pokemon Go.