21 Pokemon Go Marketing Tricks!

Hi Pokemon GO players,

Trick #1: Think Through Your Strategy. – Pokemon Go is a great advertisement tool for businesses, but you must know how to leverage it. If you don’t think it through then you will simply incur more costs without any return on investment. Take your time, ask the hard questions. Get convinced.

Trick #2: No Man Is An Island. – You can of course come up with a great idea that becomes an instant hit. Still, sound off your ideas with others. Google them to see what other marketers are up to. Look around, ask around. Find out how others are going about marketing using Pokemon Go. Inquire about their experiences; apply them to your actions.

Trick #3: Action. – After you have done all your research, don’t let analysis paralysis get you. Action your strategy. They say the richest place in the world is not Fort Knox or Birmingham Palace, with the gold and riches of world powers, but the common village cemetery. So many poems that were never recited, so many projects that were never commissioned, so many books that were never written. Act. Now.

Trick #4: Simple is Elegance is Genius. – The simpler the strategy, the better. You might be tempted to start with the most complex and intimidating initiatives, but their return on investment is usually very difficult to correlate with the investment. If your strategy involves several initiatives, by all means begin with the simplest initiatives—putting up a simple sign inviting Pokemon Go players in. Some businesses aren’t so welcoming.

Trick #5: One Initiative at a Time. – One of the greatest frustrations of all marketing initiatives is reporting on return on investment. The trick is simple: Do one project at a time. You might be spending money on an “initiative A” that isn’t effective, but because other initiatives B, C and D are effective, you’ll never know you’re losing money on A that could be spent well on the others.

Coming up Trick 6 -10... stay tuned!

 

Introduction - So what exactly is Pokémon Go?

Pokémon Go centres on catching the popular pocket monsters by walking around the real world. In addition to randomly encountering Pokémon, many real world sites of interest have been made into either PokéStops or Gyms (leveraging Niantic’s GPS technology). At PokéStops, the player can get items for free by spinning a disc with a picture on it representative of that stop; at Gyms, players use their Pokémon to battle others, and whoever wins leaves their Pokémon at the Gym to collect a bonus of in-game currency.

PokeWorld Terminology for the Entrepreneur.

1.   Eggs: The closest animals Pokémon can be compared to are dinosaurs. No, seriously, eggs hatch into Pokémon. You will have to incubate them by walking, which is why there are so many players on the streets. All Pokémon have their own unique incubation cycle before they hatch. Typically the longer you have to walk for an egg to hatch, the rarer the Pokémon you’ll hatch. Yes, the game rewards you for being patient. Those you get without much effort are great, but you’ll need to invest a lot more in them to make them useful. So if you have to walk 2 km while your friend has to walk for 10 km, don’t laugh at her. Hers will probably be much more difficult to come by. Remember to place eggs into Incubators, because they don’t hatch on their own. You start the game with one Incubator which has unlimited uses, but you may want to purchase more to make your egg-hatching efforts as efficient as possible.

2.   PokéStops: This is where you get eggs and important items, like Poké Balls, from. It’s also a hotspot for wild Pokémon. If your business is a PokéStop you must be a very lucky person. It doesn’t happen to everyone. Players are always searching for eggs and items so being a PokéStop on your local area map could be your ticket to recognition and making some solid dough! You’ll have to invest in the PokéStop though, for it to be attractive (to wild Pokémon!). More about that later.

3.   Pokémon: Pokémon are the “pocket monsters” everyone is hunting. They hatch from eggs and can be found randomly in the wild. Catching them requires Poké Balls, and you can attract more of them with Incense (they like nice smells, remember that when you take off your shoes after walking all over in summer looking for them,) or with Lure Modules. The Lure Module attracts more than one Pokémon, and can only be used by attaching it to a PokéStop.

4.   Incense: You guessed it. Used to attract Pokémon to you.  Incense lasts for 30 minutes, but unlike Lure Modules, only work for the person who activated it.

5.   Lure Module: This is a major attraction for multiple Pokémon, but is limited to PokéStops. You buy Lure Modules and attach them to PokéStops to attract Pokémon. Lure Modules have the best return on investment for a business that is lucky enough to be marked as a PokéStop, as we will see later. They are by far the most valuable investment in Pokémon Go for you as a business, and the general rule with Lure Modules is: the more the merrier.

6.   Gym: This is where battles take place. The Colosseum of Pokémon Go, this is the ultimate test of a player, attracting everyone like a magnet. If your business is a Gym you must have bribed the Pokémon gods because this doesn't happen to mere mortals. With the craze that we’re witnessing for Pokémon Go, it’s almost equivalent to winning the lottery.

7.   PokéCoins: The currency of the game, you can use it to buy Lure Modules for your business.

There are many other terminologies but we’re focusing on only the most relevant and productive ones here for you. Because of the importance of the Gym and PokéStop we'll spend a little more time on them. But before we do, notice a pattern:

If you are a PokéStop then you have the option of investing in cost effective Lure Modules. If you are a Gym you don’t have to invest specifically in Pokémon Go. Everything has been done for you. All you have to do is invest in marketing your newly-earned badge to increase engagement with your clients, which you should also do if you are a PokéStop. If your business isn’t a PokéStop or Gym, there are other things you can do to get on the Pokémon Go train, which we’ll discuss later, until Niantic introduces the option to become a PokéStop or Gym through Sponsorship.

What is a Pokémon Go Gym?

Gyms are where the real Pokémon battles take place. All Gyms are controlled by a team and are represented on the map by the color that represents the team. When a player reaches Trainer Level 5 in Pokémon Go, they will select one of the following teams: Team Instinct (yellow), Team Mystic (blue) and Team Valor (red). The team a trainer picks define what Gyms the trainer will fight against, and the Gyms the trainer can ally with to strengthen up.

If a trainer finds an uninhabited Gym on the local map, which is colored silver, the trainer can claim it for their team in Pokémon Go. Once taken, the trainer, or someone from their team, can place a Pokémon to defend the Gym. The more Prestige a Gym has, the higher the Gym’s level and the more Pokémon it can store.

A trainer can increase the Prestige of their team's Gyms by training. To increase Prestige, a trainer must defeat at least one of the Pokémon currently defending the Gym and are only allowed to use one of his or her own Pokémon. If they defeat all of the Pokémon, then they'll get bonus experience and Prestige. If multiple trainers battle at the Gym, all trainers will receive XP, which goes toward raising trainer level.

Click to enlarge Image

For each Pokémon the trainer places inside a Gym the trainer receives 10 PokéCoins and 500 Stardust, collected from the Shop every 21 hours. A trainer can place only one Pokémon in each Gym, so taking over and defending multiple Gyms is paramount!

Trainers tap their phones to unleash their Pokémon’s attack while in battle. The more damage the Pokémon inflicts, the more energy it stores for a more powerful special attack. To unleash the special attack, tap and hold until the small blue bar below the HP (health point) bar fills up, then release. Trainers can bring up to six Pokémon when battling a rival Gym, and can repeatedly challenge them as often as they’d like until that Gym’s Prestige reaches zero.

Prestige is valued by the battles the Gym has. The more victories the Gym receives, the more Prestige it has; likewise, if the Gym loses a battle, its Prestige is lowered. Once the Prestige is at 0, the team loses control of the Gym, which color turns to silver and can be taken by anyone. The Prestige alters the Gym's level, which modifies how many Pokémon can be stored in the Gym. The maximum number of Pokémon to be stored in the Gym equals the Gym's level.

You will notice that the Gym is deliberately designed to bring together as many players as possible to one physical location:

1.   An individual can take a Gym with patience and time, but it will be nearly impossible if multiple rival team members are present. Also, an individual will not be able to hold it effectively, because each player can only leave a single Pokémon to defend each gym.

2.   Because each player can only leave one Pokémon at each gym, the team must interact and cooperate with each other to build the strongest Pokémon team.

3.   Prestige is associated with the Gym, but notice that the same “Prestige” is associated with the toughest players.

4.   There's nothing that brings people together better than competitive sports, which fighting in the Gym is all about. Taking control of a Gym is like winning a tournament.

5.   If multiple trainers battle at the Gym, all trainers will receive XP.

It appears that Niantic was thinking about the opportunities for businesses when it created Gyms. Think of what you can do with all the people who will congregate at your shop if it is close to a Gym, if not the Gym itself.

What is a PokéStop?

A PokéStop is a place shown on the local area map where players can visit to stock up on essentials, such as Poké Balls, Potions, Razz Berries, and Pokémon Eggs. Usually such locations are significant landmarks like monuments, churches, town halls, pizzerias, coffee shops, pubs, etc. Visiting a PokéStop also awards the player with 50 Experience Points (XP).

Items and XP can only be collected from an individual PokéStop once about every 5 minutes. A trainer can also place a Lure Module at the PokéStop to gather wild Pokémon for 30 minutes, which by extension attracts other trainers.

The beauty of the PokéStop to your business is that you can purchase Lure Modules if your business is a PokéStop. This makes your shop attractive for players looking for Pokémon.