Using Pokemon Go In your Business

Let’s get one thing straight, I don’t fully understand Pokemon Go. What I do understand is that there are players of all ages and demographics traversing their towns searching for Pokemon. In my mind this must generate an opportunity for businesses driven by footfall.

Pokemon Go encourages players to get out and about to find Pokemon. Finding these things is actually a little harder than you may realise and can take some effort.

The game features ‘Poke Stops’ where the creatures can often be found and ‘Poke Gyms’ where players can battle each other for greater rewards. To help you find and attract Pokemon to your area you can lay down ‘lures’, effectively a purchased add-on to encourage the creatures to flock to your area. This is where it gets interesting for businesses.

Lure Your Customers

Laying down a ‘lure’ means more Pokemon, which means more players coming to your location. Getting the idea?

There are plenty of articles on-line about how to use ‘lures’, a good reddit thread exists which talks about what various business owners have done. Purchasing ‘lures’ doesn’t look that expensive if you want to give it a go, one article quoted;

$100 nets you 14,500 Pokecoins and an eight-pack of Lures costing 680 Pokecoins:

14,500 Pokecoins / 680 = 21 eight-packs of lures
(21 x 8) = 84 hours
$100/84 hours = $1.19 per hour

Yes it’s dollars but you can see how the cost works.

Combine this with social media or a local campaign and you could start to see how you could drive customers to your premises. For a quick promotion then it could be something that makes you different, after all marketing is about showing how you are different, at least that’s what someone told me.

Niantic, the company behind the game are looking for ways to further monetise the popularity. This means ads and the opportunity to sponsor locations. I don’t fully understand everything here (I can cope with an xbox, ZX82 or C64) but as things develop there will be ways for local companies to gain exposure.

It’s All A Fad

Probably. But then again is there a marketing channel that is 100% evergreen? I don’t think so. These fads come and go, the savvy business is the one that moves with the times and we all known that the SME is the best at doing that.

Let me take you a step further. Imagine you own a fashion retailer or trendy food outlet. Change the A-Board outside to promote Pokemon, create a little local buzz on social media and see what happens. If a spend of $100 generates 10 or 15 people through the door is it money well spent? Often the best opportunity with things like this is where it is unexpected from that business sector.

If you are thinking that the Pokemon Go player is not your demographic, I am not so sure. I could name you a Marketing Expert, Programmer, HR Director, Plumber and a Builder that are all playing, it is not just kids, oh no…

If you want to know more then please check out some of the articles on-line. If you have any comments about the post then please add them above.

By Dave Farmer

For any queries non Pokemon, especially around financing your business then please do get in touch.

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