Pokemon Go Is a Digital Marketing Must

Pokemon Go presents a huge opportunity for digital marketers like us at Stand and Stretch. Everyone — from fully-grown adults like our fearless leader, Lucas Shaffer, to his six-year-old son — found themselves swept up in the craze.

The mobile app hit the market July 6th and the world lost its mind. Harnessing some combination of technology, nostalgia, and fantasy, the augmented reality game quickly set all sorts of app records.

It reached a higher peak of daily users than any mobile game before it. It recorded the most first-week downloads in Apple App Store history. It forced the National Holocaust Museum to tell people to get off their phones. Okay, so that last one has probably happened before, but not because people were running through the halls in pursuit of a Squirtle.

The pervasiveness of Pokemon Go is undeniable

You can find huddled masses moving quickly around public spaces, all in search of the elusive, ephemeral monsters. Communities have posted safety warnings reminding people not to walk into oncoming traffic. Perhaps this app has ruined a few dinners, but as a marketer, you can’t see this as anything but a valuable tool.

Restaurants and coffee shops started to capitalize on Pokemon Go’s popularity almost instantly. With around 21 million daily active users, it’s easy to see why. Pictures of signs offering wifi and a ticket discount to players popped up all over the Internet. However, Pokemon Go has much more versatility than a window shopping incentive.

Pokestops are areas within the game that allow users to pick up Pokeballs, which they then use to catch monsters. Users can purchase “lures” in-app that prompt Pokemon to appear around specific Pokestops for 30-minute intervals. That means you can make the area around your business (if you’re next to a Pokestop) a Pokemon hot spot.

Lures are an inexpensive marketing tool

In-app purchases are made using Pokecoins. In terms of U.S. currency, $1 equals 100 Pokecoins, and 100 Pokecoins can buy you one lure. So, for just a dollar, you can drop a digital beacon that attracts customers into the area who may have never even heard of your store. Anyone actively using the app can see Pokemon in their area as they appear, so the potential reach for this tool is incredible. At that price point, it’s hard to imagine a better ROI for your advertising dollar.

Of course, that begs the question: how do I get my business to become a Pokestop? At the moment, the Pokestops are being generated by Niantic Labs, the Pokemon Go developer. In the future, businesses will be able to purchase Pokestops to increase traffic and make lures even more effective.

It’s incredibly rare that a massive channel for communication with customers opens up over night. Pokemon Go has handed businesses a target audience that they can reach cheaply and easily. These are the chances that you have to seize if you consider yourself a forward-thinking marketer. A phenomenon like Pokemon Go is an opportunity.
At Stand and Stretch, these are the moments we strive to create. Our team members are constantly on the lookout for innovative ways to give your business an edge. Contact us and learn about the strategies and progressive tools we use to set you apart from the competition.