What is Pokemon Go and Can I Make Money Off It

Ron Ruggless posted a great article in NRN this week about how you can pay money to purchase 30-minute Lure Models and install them by a PokeStop location, which could be close to your restaurants, this will entice Pokemon Go players to come to your area. If you are interested in learning how to purchase and run those Lure Models, click here.

First, off let us answer this question; what the hell is Pokemon Go?  Pokemon Go is a very creative game that uses GPS and your phone’s camera to play.  You go and walk around the world and play the game.  Because the game knows where you are, they put Pokemon for you to catch in your local area.  The reason you care about Pokemon Go is that it had over 15 million downloads in the first week and counting, it is an app phenomenon.

Watch the Pokemon Go Demo Video

The reason you especially care as a restaurant owner is that they have put a lot of these PokeStop’s close to restaurants, and you can pay to have the game bring more players into your area for short periods of time.

The question I’m posing is should you try to capitalize off of PokemonGo?  Things to consider:

1. Does it make sense for your restaurant?
   1. I don’t think this makes sense for every concept.  Obviously, if you are the Capital Grill or some other high-end restaurant, I don’t know that a van full of 3rd graders and their mom is your target customer.
   2. I think this could be perfect for quick serve restaurants and fast food.
   3. There are a ton of millennials playing the game as well, so consider trying to reach them.
2. Are you close to a PokeStop?
   1. One way to find out is to play the game or find someone on your team that plays the game and ask them to figure it out.
3. Are you set-up to handle a bunch of new customers that may not want to stop for a long time to dine?
   1. Grab and go or quick serve restaurants have an advantage.
   2. Any restaurant can make an impromptu beverage or grab and go station to handle these types of customers, get creative.
4. If you are close to a PokeStop; who is primarily playing the game in your area?
   1. I live in the suburbs, and most of the people playing in my area are kids, we have seen several vans full of kids with their phones playing.  From what I’ve read in cities it is older kids and adults playing.
   2. It might just take a person to stand outside and watch the people playing; you should be able to tell easily because they will be looking at their phones and going to the same spot in your parking lot or near your location.
5. Do you have to pay to capture Pokemon Go players?
   1. If you have a popular PokeStop close to your restaurant, you may be able to catch Pokemon Go players with a banner or by handing out coupons and not need to pay money to lure them to the area through the game.

Only you can decide if capturing Pokemon Go players are possible or worth your time.  This game is exploding right now but it could be a fad, or we could all be talking about how we are still playing it five years from now.  This has to be decided on a restaurant by restaurant basis. I can tell you that you need to strike today if you are going to try to capture these guys, so don’t make your marketing plans super elaborate.  Just execute and see what happens.

Also, if you do start capturing a lot of business from these players then please comment because I and the rest of the readers would love to hear about it.

If you want to learn how to pay to lure Pokemon Go players to your area, check out Ron’s article.