When life gives you Pokeballs

Hi all!

I'm Q, a software developer who's into blockchain technology and security in general. I'm also a PoGo player. I haven't formally introduced myself yet, but I'll get to that soon! 

Now that PokemonGo has been officially released in the larger part of Europe and Canada, I wanted to take the time to curate some of the better marketing strategies I've seen from a business perspective regarding pokemongo. 

For the people who don't play pokemon go, or haven't been following the news:

PokemonGo is a mobile game developed by Niantic, based on data from an older app called Ingress. For the sake of brevity, it's basically an app which motivates you to get out of your house and explore the world, visiting landmarks and (in the near future) trade your accomplishments with other people. 

From a marketing perspective

At this point, there no official way to be in some sort of "ad network" in the actual game, although it's expected this feature will be added in the future. However, unless you're a big company (think mcDonalds), there won't be an opportunity in the short term, however, clever minds have been getting into the multi-million business trying to attract the massive amount of people that play pokemongo. I'll go over a few examples. If you're a small company relying on local customers, this information might be valuable for you.

Use the competitiveness of players to your advantage

People are competitive. This competitive behaviour is a lot stronger when it comes to online games. PokemonGo is not different. The game allows you to join a team. We've seen some clever local businesses using these teams to their advantage, handing out discounts or even free items. 

Use the gameplay to your advantage

If you know a bit of the gameplay, you know that it's important to explore the world. Doing this by foot or bike is an option, but what if you wanted to go to your local city and have no car? A lot of people rely on public traffic, but alternatives can offered by companies or people, like uber or lift. You can leverage the fact someone is playing PokemonGo and the fact they want to travel. 

Example: give discounts to PokemonGo players as an Uber/Lift Driver.

Use in-game specific items to your advantage

There are some items in-game which attract more pokemon, and thus more people in-game. If your local business is near a PokeStop (you'll have to check this yourself in game), one can attach a lure module, which will attract more pokemon. People in the area will be able to see that this lure-module is active, and in my own experience, I've seen people swarm these PokeStops. Either you can buy your own Lure-Modules, and keep these activated during business hours, or you can hand out discounts or other things to people who activate these modules themselves.

Use a combination of other social media to get in on the hype

Examples:

Happy Hunting and good luck promoting your own local businesses!