How Marketers Can Use Pokémon Go
Have Fun With Your Customers!
Today’s all-star businesses and marketers win by bringing their customers things they already crave. Pokemon Go has just given you another way to do that if you’re not so blind to see it.
Less than a week after launch, this augmented reality mobile exploration game has been installed on twice as many phones as Tinder, it has double the engagement of Snapchat, and it is eclipsing Twitter in its percentage of daily active users.
Read Walter Chen’s entire analysis, “Pokemon Go Is Driving Insane Amounts of Sales at Small, Local Businesses” to have your mind absolutely blown.
I was playing around with the app over my morning coffee at Johnson Public House when I realized they had a huge opportunity to bring more foot traffic into their business. Let me explain…
The objective of Pokémon Go is for players to capture as many Pokémon characters as possible in this virtual world. That is why users play the game. Keep that in mind when brainstorming ways to appeal to their desires.
Now… stick with me here… in the world of Pokémon Go, you find these place-markers called Poké Stops. These are virtual markers placed into real locations using Google Maps. If your storefront had the good fortune to have a Poké Stop near it (like Johnson Public House does), for a very low cost, you can purchase what are called Lures. This is Pokémon bait that you put into the Poké Stop that makes it more likely for Pokémon to appear over the next 30 minutes.
Any Pokémon Go player in the area will be able to see on their map when you have installed a Lure into your Poké Stop. If they have time, they will want to come to the Poké Stop for the 30 minute window when Pokémon might show up so they can capture them.
They will be incentivized by the objective of the game to physically move to the Poké Stop (i.e. your storefront).
Given the small cost of buying the Lures…
… versus the potential ROI…
I own a pizzeria that’s a pokestop and I literally did this all day. I had a ton of kids and adults (mostly adults) come in for a slice of pizza and a drink until the lure ran out. I’ve been doing it in hour intervals and posting about it on FB. — https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/comments/4s6vld/119hr_for_nonstop_lure_modules_for_small/
… this should be a no-brainer for folks like Johnson Public House and others. If those active lures around the Capital Square are to be believed, it looks like many businesses are already taking full advantage and reaping the rewards!
