OK, so I caved in, says Miki Weiser-Padova of Cellwize. I don’t normally follow all the latest hits for teenagers.
Being a responsible adult, I try not to teach my son to self-indulge with every craving and follow the crowd. But like many parents, when my son was spending hour after hour in front of the computer playing a game with swords, blood, chatting away with kids thousands of miles away, I thought maybe it’s time he tries something that will get him outside.
He might benefit from interacting with trees, rocks, and other people he can actually see. Maybe he will even walk a kilometer, or two, and when going slow that gets boring he might even begin to jog, and feel the joy of moving his body swiftly through the cool morning air.
So, I encouraged him to try Pokemon Go. He will get a little bit of navigation expertise, some exercise, without swear words or excessive violence, what could go wrong?
But then he came home with complaints, right when he was getting close to Pickachu, he disconnected. While all the other kids were gobbling up monsters he was waiting for his map to load.
I will do anything for my kid, so I gave him my old phone that had more memory and was a real work horse thinking that would solve the problem. But it didn’t.
I tried to explain that with all the unexpected traffic, servers need to handle more data than expected, give it time, and they will add capacity and it should get better, but kids aren’t famous for waiting.
Then he complained that maybe it’s our mobile operator.
As the marketing director for a network optimisation company I did my homework when choosing a phone for him, since I knew that just the bare-bones wouldn’t do – no, he had to have a device that was durable, with a fast processor, at least 3G RAM, LTE bands and of course a long battery life, HD resolution and lightweight frame.
But it didn’t occur to me, that I should pick my mobile operator based on the performance of Pokemon Go or any other game, and how much can I let my kids manipulate me?
We are in a generation of two working parents, and we work hard to provide so we can offer the best for our children. And I researched thoroughly to find the best value for his data package – I really didn’t want to start the negotiations all over again with another mobile operator.
So, I asked him to check with his friends and see which operator they have and how the game performs for them.
Now, Pokemon Go was teaching my child another lesson, how to survey, and compare to reach a buying decision. But then it occurred to me, that again our children are leading the way and deciding what is acceptable for them. Maybe Pokemon Go, like Netflix will rank mobile operators based on how quickly kids can gobble up monsters, and then parents will be forced to churn based on tantrums of a teenager.
Mobile operators, beware! Maybe Pokemon Go has created a real monster and he’s after you.
The author of this blog is Miki Weiser-Padova, director of Marketing at Cellwize
About the Author :
Having grown up in seven different countries, communications has always been a passion for Miki. Since moving to Israel in 2000, Miki has spear-headed the marketing strategies for several B2B Telecom organisations developing the corporate brand, product marketing and digital communications. As the director of Marketing at Cellwize, Miki focuses the corporate brand and marketing development through traditional and digital channels to increase global thought leadership and brand eminence to help drive business results. Miki holds a B.Sc from Towson University.
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