Pokemon GO

Has anyone thought of any ways to incorporate the Pokémon Go craze with your marketing to increase foot traffic?

Hi, MV! Check out this thread, there's a ton of great ideas: "Question for Millennials: Can Communities Somehow Leverage Pokemon Go?"

I think that using Pokemon Go is a great marketing strategy! I know that you can request for a location to be a stop. I've noticed that a lot of churches around St. Louis are "Pokestops". Depending on the clientele that you are trying to attract, it might be a great idea.

Our community sits between four Pokestops and a Pokegym, so we see a LOT of foot traffic in the neighborhood. Given our trend of high-occupancy (thank you, Seattle demand market!) I'm not looking to capture that traffic immediately.

However, I am looking to involve the (many) residents that play with contests.

First is a simple social media "show off." We ask the residents to share a screenshot of the best Pokemon they've caught in the neighborhood with a hashtag that allows us to search for the entries across platforms. Not much in the way of prizes for this one, since it's mostly bragging rights (and free advertising for me!)

The second is a bit more complicated:

Before PokemonGo, Niantic created another Augmented Reality game called Ingress. Certain events in game revolved around control of certain areas for a series of measurements. The team that controlled the area for the most measurements won.

I want to take that approach to our local PokeGym. Have the residents form teams (or play independently, if they are so inclined) and set up predetermined measurements at which point the team in control of the gym wins a point. The team with the most points at the end of the event wins the big prize, while the remaining teams win smaller prizes.

I haven't decided on prizes yet, but some thoughts are Anker portable battery packs, gift cards, or Pokemon merchandise. Maybe a few of the PokemonGo Plus wristbands ( www.pokemongo.com/en-us/pokemon-go-plus/ ).

Here's a blog I wrote .. some ideas.

blog.bfr.com/pokemon-go-how-to-drive-traffic-to-your-community/