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A Pidgey in the office!!!

Local small businesses report tremendous increase in foot traffic on their brick and mortar stores, thanks to Pokemon Go—a free-to-play location-based, augmented reality game that is breaking records in the mobile app arena.

 

Pokemon Go is spreading faster than any app’s proliferation in history. Less than a week after it was launched, the game has already been installed in two times as many devices as Tinder, reached twice the engagement as Snapchat, and toppled Twitters daily active user percentage. This prompted many local marketers to explore the utilization of the app in their aims to advance their business interests and increase the visits in their stores. As it turns out, the gaming app has actually exceeded expectations to the point that more and more local businesses are now using it and the number continues to skyrocket overtime.

 

But how does a location-based game produce such wonders?

 

The game basically tells people to “go out there and get a taste of adventures” encouraging people to go around and explore their area. With people going out of the four corners of their rooms, local businesses gain the leverage of potentially being seen and visited. Some areas are also identified as PokeStops or Gym where many “Pokemon trainers” frequent, benefitting whatever business is in the area.

 

While there is no Niantic map on where these PokeStops and Gyms are located, marketers can use the online map of portals created over the last three years for the game “Ingress”. It can be seen here.

 

Another way for businesses to use Pokemon Go is by using “lures”. Lures are one of the in-app purchases of the game that increases the rate of Pokemon Generation in the area around the PokeStop where they are placed for half an hour. On paper, it may not sound much, but finding Pokemons is really hard and people will do everything just to get the chance to find that special one.

 

Many business who have used lures positively reported a tremendous increase in visits at their stores during the minutes they set the lures until it ran out. Buying lures may cost you, but doing the math will tell you just how cost-beneficial it can be.

 

Today, more and more businesses are using these lures to increase profits and the possibilities are endless with Pokemon Go. So take a chance, catch your customers while they try to “catch ‘em all!”

 

Do you think Pokemon Go would work for your business?