Pokémon Go is Cooler Than Your Company

July 14, 2016, marks the day Pokémon Go is released in the United Kingdom. #PokemonGOuk is one of the top trends on Twitter and the augmentation reality game is well on its way to taking over another nation. It’s clear the United States has already been taken by storm and is on the verge of unconditional surrender. This is a ruthless force which shows no intention of slowing down. I always thought Google would be the next entity to achieve world domination, but clearly, I was wrong. Pokémon Go is the future. Prepare yourself.Image of Pokemon Go

The Power of Pokémon Go

Alright, so I’ve had a little too much coffee and got a bit carried away. But the fact remains: right now, Pokémon Go is way more interesting than your business. Unfortunately, there is very little you can do to change that. But maybe if you had some virtual Pokémon hiding in your shop, you would be part of the craze. Believe it or not, companies are leveraging in-game purchases to attract Pokémon Go players. You might not have a super cool app, but if you have a few Pikachu around, maybe you can get some players to take a “peek at chu” company (sorry, bad pun).

3 Real Life Examples of Pokémon Go Leading to Profit

Here are some real life examples of companies using the new app to boost business.

L’inizio’s Pizza Bar: according to a recent article, L’inizio’s Pizza Bar in Queens spent a measly $10 on Lure Modules (a rather sinister term) and saw their food and drink sales spike by over 30% compared to a typical weekend. I’m no math whiz, but I went to business school for just long enough to know that even a temporary 30% sales spike is an insane return on $10.

Huge Coffee Shop in Atlanta: this coffee shop is lucky enough to be positioned between two Pokestops (places where gamers can collect in-game items). Fortunately, this perfect positioning wasn’t wasted by the coffee shop. They’ve brilliantly been running promotions such as giving a free appetizer to anyone who can prove they caught a Pokémon in the shop. In a sneaky good move, they added several phone chargers to the shop since the game drains phone batteries quickly. I just wish they had created a Pokémon themed coffee to totally capitalize this crazy trend.

High-End Chinese Restaurant: a high-end Chinese restaurant in Sydney, Australia, “Tanghui” announced in a Facebook post that they would activate a Lure Model at their front door during lunch and dinner hours. No results have been reported yet, but I would be kind of shocked if that place isn’t buzzing.

The Lesson to Learn

You may have noticed that all three examples are of food establishments. Certainly, restaurants, coffee shops, cafes, convenience stores, shopping malls, and other retailers and any other business which can handle high volume. The real lesson here isn’t so much how to monetize the Pokémon Go craze for your business. If you can, that’s great, go for it. However, eventually the excitement will die down and it will be the next thing. The real lesson here is to stay aware of what people are doing and talking about and when it fits your business, don’t be afraid to branch out and take advantage of it.

If you need help looking for creative ideas to spruce up your marketing and advertising, contact us at Vision Advertising and we would love to have that conversation with you!

Now I’m going to return to figuring out which technology company is actually going to take over the universe…

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About the author : Alex Geyer

Alex wears many hats, and not just because he’s bald. A writer by his background, Alex writes “social media content” for Vision – anything from social media statuses to blogs to whitepapers and beyond. In addition, he builds and maintains all search engine advertising for Vision’s clients, along with social media advertising for others. In his free time, he starts and stops writing novels, compiles tabletop roleplaying system conversions, and cooks a mean Chicken and Dumplings avec Peas. A videogame enthusiast, he is also developing his first video game with the startup game studio, Pretty Weird. He is terrible with plants*.