Pokémon Go ads to lure players into stores
THE developer behind Pokémon Go, the smash-hit mobile game that has taken the US and Australia by storm and sent Nintendo shares soaring 50%, is planning to let companies advertise on its virtual map.
John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, which developed Pokémon Go in partnership with the Japanese games group, said “sponsored locations” would provide extra revenue on top of in-app purchases of virtual items.
Players of Pokémon Go chase the cartoon creatures at “pokestops” on a customised version of Google Maps, finding real-world locations using their smartphones.
Since the game’s launch in the US and Australia a week ago, speculation has surged over the game’s future power as a cash cow to retailers and other cravers of footfall.
“There are several ways that we see the potential for significant monetisation of Pokémon Go by Nintendo, and one of them is certainly the potential for paid advertising or paid deals that encourage players to come to a particular building or store. It is a huge opportunity,” said Atul Goyal, an analyst at Jefferies.
Niantic’s previous game, Ingress, involved a similar network of virtual “portals” corresponding to on-street locations, where companies paid for in-game promotions in the hope of attracting customers to their stores.
In an interview, Hanke hinted that similar advertisements would soon be coming to Pokémon Go. Alongside in-app payments, “there is a second component to our business model at Niantic, which is this concept of sponsored locations”, Hanke said, where companies “pay us to be locations within the virtual game board — the premise being that it is an inducement that drives foot traffic”.
Advertisers were charged on a “cost per visit” basis, similar to the “cost per click” used in Google’s search advertising, he said.
While he would not comment on any such sponsorship deals for Pokémon Go, Hanke said: “There will be things that we say about that in the future.”
Some US retailers have found that a chance positioning of a “pokestop” on their premises has driven a rush of footfall, with some insisting that Pokémon “hunters” buy something before they can play the game in their stores. — ©