Whether you are intrigued annoyed or love this Pokemon Go game, you can take advantage of it for your retail business. It might just be a fad, but all the more reason to capitalise on this Pokemon Go craze sooner rather than later. If you are wondering if the game, now being called “the biggest mobile game of all time” has enough users to help your business, then you can go by TechCrunch’s numbers  earlier this week that show that Pokemon Go topped Twitter’s number of daily users and beat Facebook on engagement time. Just yesterday, 14 July, 2016 Pokemon Go was officially launched in the UK. That doesn’t mean that people weren’t playing already. Pokemon Go hasn’t officially set up sponsorships or sponsored locations, although that is in the works. You can still take advantage of increasing foot traffic now and for free just by playing the game yourself. Read on for details on how to set up your retail locations as a Pokestop with a lure.

 

Set Up Your Location as a Pokestop with a Lure for Free or Little Expense

 

By free, we mean that there is no out of pocket expense to set this up, but it will involve some time playing Pokemon Go. Don’t worry, it’s fun! Pokemon Go is an augmented reality (AR) game where players can see their surroundings on their smartphones and as players move around, Pokemon spring up within the app, that they can then capture for points and to increase levels.  Here are some tips on playing. It is a crazy phenomenon and, no doubt, you have already seen stories and seen people wandering around playing. Last night, on the way home from dinner, we passed by a small playground park near our house that is closed and not even lit up at night. We saw there was a Pokemon right outside the park, and pulled over to capture it. (Don’t worry, the driver wasn’t using the phone whilst driving.) We saw at least 15 more people walking or riding past, all with their phones and two other cars pulled up while we were parked there. There is never anyone at this park at night and here were all these people just in the span of the 5 minutes we were there!
Once you reach a level in the game, you can set up lures. You can also purchase lures, like this New York pizza place did for just $10.  A lure brings more Pokemon to a Pokestop over the next 30 minutes. So, if you are a restaurant or coffee shop, you can set up a lure during breakfast, lunch, or dinner time so that passing players can take advantage of being in the right place at the right time and come in to buy some food. Other businesses can just benefit from finally being recognised, as is the case with a barber shop in this article. Further capitalise on the traffic you draw to or near your business by offering specials for Pokemon Go players. Of course, you will hear about people being so involved in their phones, they won’t notice, but that is where your clever marketing can come in and make them notice. Here are a few more examples of how businesses have been using Pokemon Go to help bring in foot traffic, boost business and increase sales.