Is Pokemon Go Google's new weapon in the Anti-Obesity war?

What is Pokémon Go? Really, you don't know?

Pokémon Go is a free smartphone app that was developed by Niantic Inc., a San Francisco software development company that started life as an internal startup at Google. Since July 6th 2016, it's been downloaded by millions of folks all over the US, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand with launches in new countries happening weekly.

In Pokémon Go, you take on the role of a Pokémon trainer in the search for 700+ Pokemons (fictional characters created in a mid-1990s Nintendo game for GameBoy) to train to battle each other for sport. The augmented reality game uses your phone’s GPS location to place your character and other game elements in a map of of your current location. By changing your location (through walking, running or.....ahem....driving), you can virtually "catch" wild Pokémons that are near you, train them to make them more powerful, and later battle your Pokémons to take control of local gyms.

To be successful in the PokémonGo game, you have to get up and move around. Love it or hate it, it has encouraged in just a few short weeks many former couch potato youngsters and adults to go outside, walk, use orienteering skills and have a lot of fun with friends, neighbours and strangers.

What's Pokémon Go got to do with the Anti-Smoking fight? 

For many years, despite endless public health campaigns, the incidence of smoking stayed around the 20% level among adults. Smoking prevalence only moved off this stubborn 20% level when electronic cigarettes became available in local stores. They are certainly not perfect devices but present a real alternative for folks looking for a safer daily fix and/or to help them quit. (They've even won the "endorsement" of ASH and other anti-tobacco industry advocates).

Time will tell but, in my view, this game will be seen in years to come as the "tipping point" in the anti-Obesity fight just like e-cigarettes have been in the anti-Smoking battle.

Gamification of health is here to stay and will finally make a real difference

I was an early adopter of Fitbit, a wireless-enabled activity tracker. I got bored of it however last year and stopped using it. Although I enjoyed immensely the ability to measure the number of steps walked, heart rate, quality of sleep, steps climbed, and other personal metrics (and compare them with friends & loved ones), this device always felt like "an appendix". The addition of augmented and virtual reality features to these wearable technology devices will no doubt help to drive the continued expansion of the market - forecast to be $40 billion by 2020 according to CCS Insight - but I personally do not see these iterations as bold enough to lure me back to wearing one.

Why is Pokémon Go getting under my skin?

The reasons why I think Fitbit hasn't got under my skin in the same way as Pokémon Go has are two-fold, namely (a) most folks instinctively value fun and social entertainment over rational competitive data measurement and (b) more folks can be nudged into making healthier lifestyle choices through positive campaigns (versus through typically negative "shaming" messaging).

An example in relation to point (a) is the well-meaning Change4Life £5 million sugar tracking app "Sugar Smart" launched by Public Health England to allow parents to monitor the sugar intake of their children and help families make better choices when buying food & drink.

It's absolutely shameful that in the UK today, most 4-to-10-year-olds consume 22 kg of sugar a year - the weight of an average five-year-old. However, I am not convinced the Sugar Smart app in its current form will significantly curb calorie intake particularly among the fifth of 4- and 5-year-olds (and a third of 10- and 11-year-olds) who are overweight or obese. Whilst I deeply appreciate the efforts made by the Change4Life team to utilise contemporary technology etc., the current version of the app feels more "stick vs carrot" and simply not entertaining enough to be used regularly by mums or kids. In my view, the Change4Life folks should already be talking to - definitely more carrot vs stick - Pokémon Go to explore how they can adapt their valuable information database. (I have some ideas!)

In relation to point (b), I absolutely agree with Professor Graham MacGregor, Chairman of Action on Sugar, an important health lobby, when he says "Obesity will bankrupt the NHS unless something radical is done". One such radical initiative in the UK is the upcoming sugar tax which has been shown to, at minimum, force food & drink companies to offer healthier stuff. Other as radical initiatives are in development but caution is needed when deciding which ones to implement, particularly "public health sponsored" campaigns. It's long been proven that campaigns that stigmatise obese people by using shaming and/or blaming messages are not particularly effective at motivating people to lose weight and stay healthy. US First Lady Michelle Obama's fabulous Let's Move campaign is probably one of only a handful of public health programmes that have resulted in positive attitude shifts regarding diet & exercise. I consider Pokémon Go to be - whether intended or not - a natural extension of Mrs. Obama's mission to raise a healthier generation of kids (in the US). Platforms like this must inform campaign planners.

Well done, Niantic Inc. folks! You have created in Pokémon Go - among other things - a potential tipping point in the anti-obesity fight. Google Ventures (GV), the venture capital arm of Alphabet Inc. (parent company of Google), has certainly spotted the opportunity to gamify health & positive lifestyle nudges. Psst! Please could you nudge the team to accept my request for Tg green tea to be a PokeStop? Streets in Hertfordshire look a bit bare.

Photo credits: Change for Life & Sugar Smart images downloaded from NHS's Change4Life website.