Pokemon Go can draw prospective students

[JohnASE]

You've all probably heard of Pokemon Go. If not, it's a hugely popular new game. I won't get into details here, but people wander around the real world while playing. Today, one of my Facebook friends said that he signed up two new students who came across his dojo while playing the game.

I did a little research on the game's marketing potential and thought I'd share. I spent very little time on this, so you might want to look deeper.

If you're lucky, you have a Poke-spot near you. If you drop a lure there, people will come looking for Pokemon or other prizes. They'll come anyway, but the lure makes the spot more appealing. You can earn lures in-game, but you can also purchase them relatively cheaply. I think I saw $1 per lure stated somewhere. All this will do is draw traffic into your area, but I assume more traffic generally means more students.

It looks like as of now, you can't create a new Poke-spot nor a Pokemon Gym. Maybe they'll offer that in a future update.

If you're interested in learning more, I came across this article that I thought was pretty good. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2016/07/13/6-ways-to-use-pokemon-go-in-your-local-marketing-campaign/2/#da7c09b395c3 The article mentions also using the social aspects of the game or free charging stations to get people in the door.

This phenomenon is too new for much good info, but it might be a fun way to do marketing.

[Lupin1]

You can only drop a lure from the Pokestop, so you may have to walk over there to drop it, but you can leave once you do.

If you are planning on doing this, make your user name has your dojo name in it, so people can see that it was you who dropped the lure. They'll be grateful.

Also, if you can put up some signs around the Pokestop area. You could even make it cute and Pokemon related ("Gotta catch em all" with a picture of all your belt colors? A "which team are you?" faceoff where people can mark their team and see who gets the most?)

I may or may not be way too into this game. I created an account last Friday solely to use it to promote my place of work. Now I'm zoning in on level 16 and I've taken three gyms.

It's a lot of fun.

Edited July 15, 2016 by Lupin1

[DWx]

It just launched in the UK today. It would be a great marketing scheme (and money making scheme for Nintendo) if businesses could pay to have a pokestop or gym assigned to their location. My local church community hall is actually my local pokestop, saw quite a few kids gathering there earlier.

[JR 137]

Not to be "that guy," but wasn't there a situation somewhere in the South where people were being lured somewhere through this game and then robbed?

[bushido_man96]

Not to be "that guy," but wasn't there a situation somewhere in the South where people were being lured somewhere through this game and then robbed?

I have heard that things like that are happening. It won't likely be the norm, but with the amount of people playing, especially kids, what for predators to exploit it.

There's been a lot of foot traffic in our area with this game, especially at our courthouse. There is a spot out there, and its drawing lots of people. I'm not sure if this would be a concept I would use to try to draw people in or not, but thanks for sharing the info here.

[DWx]

Not to be "that guy," but wasn't there a situation somewhere in the South where people were being lured somewhere through this game and then robbed?

People will always try to take advantage. Common sense should still apply with this game, not go to rough areas, be mindful your phone is on display, etc.

[DWx]

Saw the following regarding Pokemon Go and the future of these types of apps for fitness. Interesting read:

https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2016/07/19/health-matters-dynamic-digitals-getting-active-with-mobile-games/