Episode 97: What the RV Industry Can Learn from Pokémon GO

In this Episode of the podcast we talk about thePokémon GO phenomenon and what the RV industry can learn from it about community, getting people outdoors and creating relationships built around shared experiences. Less than a month after its release, the game has surpassed Twitter and Facebook in daily usage. Visit any park or outdoor space and you'll see people of all ages engaging with the game and each other. Jennifer and I talk about it this week in the podcast, noting the good things we have seen as we've been traveling this week. Plus we have lots of listener tips and suggestions, questions and answers and a terrific off-the-beaten-path report. Click the player to Listen Now or scroll down through the show note details and resources and click the player below to start listening. When you see a time code hyperlink, you can click it to jump directly to that segment of the podcast. [spp-player] Lessons from Pokémon GO [spp-timestamp time="2;18"] You have surely seen the phenomenon by now. People of all ages and sexes shambling along, staring intently at their phones, stopping intermittently to excitedly swipe, or tap, or just shout excitedly at their screens before moving on. No matter how strange, self-absorbed, or entirely out of place these people may seem, they all have one thing in common: They’re catching Pokémon. Pokémon GO attracts more than 21 million daily active users in the United States, making it the biggest mobile game in US history. To play, users must physically navigate through 3D space in order to find and capture virtual monsters hidden in the real world, but seen through an augmented reality layer displayed on their smartphone’s screen. We are not gamers. But over the past week, Jennifer and I have been delighted to see so many people - particularly families - outside, interacting with each other, smiling, laughing, relating and having fun. And that is good, very good. For Pokémon Go has a noticeable social effect on its players —one which has seen people from across any number of demographic lines come together to share in the real thrill of the game’s virtual hunt. We downloaded the game. And the other night, walking along a beachfront park in Fort Walton Beach, FL, I stopped one of the three dozen players we saw wandering the park with us and asked him to show me how it works. He was a young kid, maybe 16 or 17. He was delighted to explain how to play. A few minutes later, I stopped a family: A Mom, Dad and two of their early teenaged kids. "We've never done anything like this," said the Dad. "We're having a ball. We haven't spent this must time together in a long time." Across social media, players have begun chiming in with their own stories of bonding with strangers while walking outside and playing the game. What’s more, not only is the game bringing together strangers who might otherwise never have met—it isalso be good for their health. Since its release, users have been posting screenshots of their step-counting apps to document how the game has upped their physical activity. So what does this have to do with RVing? Shared experiences. Community. The Outdoors. The very thing that appeals to so many about RVing. People are starved for those things. The RV lifestyle meets those needs much more than a smartphone video game. So, like we try to do with our Roadtreking Blog and Podcast, the industry needs to focus on the lifestyle, the experience, the community benefits of RVing. The biggest lesson to learn is this: If you have a great product, you can use it to unite people rather than divide them into categories of demographic data points. This part of the podcast brought to you by RadPower Bikes , an electric bike manufacturer offering direct to consumer pricing on powerful premium electric bikes. Our Whereabouts We're on Okaloosa Island in Fort Walton Beach, FL. As we were recording this episode, Bo, our Norwegian Elkhound, decided he needed some attention. So he jumped up and started niping at Jennifer. I took the photo of him above. Like a little kid, he wanted in on whatever we were doing! JENNIFER'S TIP OF THE WEEK – Cooking in Your RV [spp-timestamp time="9:40"] If you love to cook, you can still prepare fabulous meals in your RV kitchen. Just use a few common sense RV cooking tips to create wonderful meals the entire family will love. Plan Ahead. This is one of the most important elements of RV cooking. You can make sauces, stews, soups, and other side dishes ahead and freeze them, then you just need to warm them up for dinner. Make mixes ahead of time. If you're going to make bread, measure out all the dry ingredients into a plastic bag, and then simply add the wet ingredients when you're ready to bake. The same goes for pancakes, waffles, breading mixes, and other types of flours and mixes. Measure them out ahead of time, then you only have to mix and cook in the kitchen, and you don't have to carry around all the different ingredients, taking up space in you