Pokemon Go Marketing can be a simple way to increase restaurant customers and revenue, but it does involve an element of luck.  Pokemon Go has created a massive phenomenon and is driving a huge change in people’s habits – for Restaurant owners looking for smart Restaurant Marketing ideas, Pokemon Go marketing could be the perfect opportunity to capitalise on what could be a very lucky opportunity for you.

The big reason that Pokemon Go marketing requires luck is that to be effective with Pokemon Go Restaurant marketing, you need to be near a Pokestop or a Pokemon Gym.  If you aren’t then there is very little that you can do.  Inviting people to play at your business will be very difficult because there will be too few reasons for people to go there.

If you haven’t played Pokemon Go, people download the app on their phone. Pokemon Go uses the GPS on the phone to put players, called trainers, into an augmented reality world. They are able to visit Pokestops to gather Pokemon balls and other items to help them play the game.  Little creatures, called Pokemon, wander around the world.  On the phone trainers see the Pokemon and throw balls at them to capture them.  They can then train them to be more powerful.  Pokemon gyms are fought over by trainers, who each belong to 1 of three teams, blue, yellow and red,  or Mystic, Instinct and Valour respectively.

Tips for better Pokemon Go Marketing

Here are some tips to increase the value that you can get out of Pokemon Go for your Restaurant.

1. Tell people that your Restaurant has Pokestops and a Pokemon Gym.  This is a great opportunity for segmented Facebook marketing for your Restaurant.  You can target people in your area who like Pokemon Go.  Tying this to an offer that is time based can help with yield optimisation.
2. Offer free Wi-Fi and charging stations.  Telling customers that you have free Wi-Fi and more importantly, charging stations can increase the number of customers that will come to your Pokestop / Gym.
3. Get customers to check in.  There is no point getting all of the new customers in unless you are gaining new customers from it, so encourage them to check in at your restaurant.  This helps with social validation, as does likes.
4. Film Pokemon Trainers.  Show everyone that Pokemon trainers are enjoying playing whilst enjoying your food/coffee.  This could work very well with Facebook live.
5. Encourage Pokemon Snapchatting.  This can work well.  Offer a discount or free small item to encourage viral sharing.
6. Reward for photos in your Restaurant.  This goes for customers sharing photos at your restaurant as they battle Pokemon.
7. Use Lures.  Lures increase the number of Pokemons to a Pokestop.  You can buy lures to increase the number of Pokemon at your Pokestop.

The downside of Pokemon Go Restaurant Marketing

The big risk with Pokemon Go Restaurant Marketing is that you will increase dwell time without increase average customer spend.  This can be particularly bad during busy times when you are trying to turn tables rapidly.  The best ways to deal with it is to increase tables if possible, run Pokemon advertising with offers targeting the quieter times of the week and to manage the number of Pokemon trainers that you have sitting at tables.  You may need to try to move then on, especially if customers are queuing up for a table.

You don’t want to run a successful Pokemon Go marketing campaign, you want to run a Pokemon Go campaign for your Restaurant, so it must increase revenue, and whether that is selling food and drinks to Pokemon trainers or creating the impression that your Restaurant is busy with a Pokemon Go Happy Hour offer, you must ensure that you don’t have people taking up a table for 2 hours ordering 1 coffee when you have full meal customers leaving because they can’t get a table.

 

The is a great example of Pokemon Go Restaurant Marketing from Pancake Parlour, using Lure Modules from 4PM to 7PM – driving activity at the quieter times.

 

 

---