Sometimes as a digital marketer, an opportunity comes about that is simply too good to miss. That’s how we felt last month as the Pokémon Go craze took over the country.
For perhaps the first time, augmented reality (AR) had mass appeal as Bulbasaurs, Squirtles and Pikachus suddenly made their way into the nation’s vocabulary. The game itself was simple, you just needed to pick up items and scan your surroundings for a chance to ‘catch them all’. Within 24 hours of launch our social feeds began filling up with stories of catches, tips and images of Pokémon in the most unlikely of places.
We knew our client Mecca Bingo’s 18-35 demographic, that they were keen to grow, would have an appetite for catching Japanese pocket monsters.
Our concept was simple. We simply invited Mecca customers to go Pokémon hunting at Mecca Bingo halls and then share screengrabs of their haul to be in with the chance to win prizes. The campaign was a huge success because we followed the five golden rules of first mover advantages…
Is there an audience and objectives fit?
Don’t just jump on the wagon, we had other clients for whom the concept wouldn’t work. Mecca has a gaming-loving audience and moreover it fit with its objectives of warming the brand to a younger audience b) encouraging footfall into clubs and c) cementing Mecca’s position as one of the market leaders in gaming.
It needs to work logistically
The best first-mover campaigns are unobtrusive. We knew that people were playing Pokémon Go. We also know that they’re visiting Mecca Bingo clubs. The campaign simply found a way to put the two together and capitalise on what was already happening and ensure that Mecca was a central part of the conversation. There were no costs other than for developing the concept and the social content and advertising to support it.
Keep it simple
The demands of the digital age mean that people have ever diminishing attention spans. Complicated, convoluted mechanisms don’t work. To get involved with the #MeccaPokémon campaign, all people needed was a smartphone and a social media account.
Consider what it says about your brand
There’s no point trying to piggyback on an existing trend if it a) doesn’t speak to your core demographic or b) could backfire by sending out the wrong messages about your brand.
Part of our marketing remit for Mecca is showing the public that bingo is a young, fun game that people from all walks of life enjoy. It helped Mecca Bingo’s younger and also male demographic engage more actively on social.
Give people a reason to talk about you
The campaign appealed to two main groups of people. Pokémon Go fans and Mecca fans. It worked so well because both groups loved telling each other about the campaign, with Mecca fans trying to tempt their Pokémon Go loving friends into visiting their local clubs with them, and Pokémon Go fanatics telling their Bingo fan friends that if they try to catch ‘em all next time they’re down at the club, they could pick up a few prizes too.
Because of this, the campaign got much higher results than we could ever have imagined. We hoped to garner around 800 Facebook engagements over the week. We actually achieved some 12,378 Facebook engagements – an impressive 15,400% higher than anticipated. In total more than half a million people were reached and the campaign posts were the best-performing of any in the last quarter, whether paid for or organic.
Make it fun
People love going out. They love taking funny photos and sharing them on social media. And they love doing these things even more if it means they’re in with a chance to win prizes. The #MeccaPokémon campaign worked because above all, it was current and fun. We even came up with a Pokémon name-generator for Mecca players which used their first name and month of birth to come up with their own Pokémon character name e.g. Jigglychan.
By Aalia Walker, Business Director and Partner at SMACK
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