A new breed of moneymaker,
Companies use AR game to lure new customers
COLLINS, COLO. When FORT you’ve got to catch ’em all, sometimes you’ve got to get creative.
In the past few days, players of Pokémon Go, the smartphone game that combines gaming and geocaching, have been flocking to Andrew Victora’s Tadpole Pedicabs taking game-specific tours that have lasted up to 90 minutes. So Victora has been catching customers as they stare at their screens in the great outdoors.
“People have been directing our drivers into high density areas where ‘PokéStops’ (designated real-world spots where players can acquire virtual items for the game) are,” Victora said. “The good part is we’re moving fast enough where we can get to destinations and slow enough where they can grab Pokémon on the side of the road.”
The good news for those who aren’t playing: Workers employed in the four-cab business that Victora owns with Kevin Kruglet are doing the driving, so players have time to hunt down whatever pops up in their tracking menu without endangering the people around them.
The drivers of Joyride Nashville, a golf-cart shuttle service in Tennessee’s capital city, noticed over the weekend that younger riders were asking to be taken to landmarks all over the city while playing Pokémon Go. This week, the company launched an official private Pokémon Go tour.
“We released the official tour on Monday and booked seven tours in 24 hours,” said Grant Rosenblatt, chief operating officer of Joyride Nashville. “We have mainly a lot of adults and tourists downtown, but this is a great way to get families involved with our services.”
Elsewhere, some companies and attractions have discovered that they are near one or more PokéStops and see it as a opportunity to lure in customers.
Or they make an in-game purchase of a Lure Module, which attracts Pokémon to their favorite PokéStops for a half hour, and spread the word on social media.
“Caught 3 Pokemon just this morning at Tanger Outlets Westgate!” Jessica Reeves, Tanger Outlets’ regional marketing director, posted on Facebook about the Phoenix outlet center. “We’re dropping a Lure Module today at noon in front of Nike Factory Store. First 20 to snap a picture of a Pokemon at Tanger Outlets Westgate and show it to us at Shopper Services will receive a $10 gift card. #gottacatchemall #pokemongo“
In Rochester, N.Y., a restaurant called Hot Rositas Grill wasn’t offering discounts but was hinting at the chance to catch a Pikachu, one of the best known of the Pokémon species, perhaps through a Lure Module.
“We heard you may be able to find a #pikachu by the truck today,” Hot Rositas tweeted.
Pokémon Go developer Niantic hasn’t set up a way for a business to buy a permanent PokéStop or gym, a place where players can compete against each other, according to Forbes magazine.
But because such a spot could become a potential revenue stream for the Google spin-off that has venture-capital backing, don’t rule it out in the future.
At Angel Mounds State Historic site in Evansville, Ind., site manager Mike Linderman was thrilled to find that Pokémon Go players were so dedicated that they were willing to pay as much as $7 — student admission is $3 — to comb the 500 acres where real Mississippian Indians once lived to search for augmented-reality Pokémon.
Officials at Cheekwood Botanical Garden in Nashville found that they have at least a dozen Pokémon hubs on their grounds and are offering $2 off an admission price that can be as high as $16 for anyone with the app.
“We thought this would be a great way to get a new audience to come visit,” one that’s not necessarily heavily into blooming plants and stately trees, Marketing Director Mary Brenna Corr said.
Back at Tadpole Pedicabs, Victora is running a $20-an-hour special — a steal compared with the usual $35 — and as his drivers get more riders, they learn where more elusive Pokémon are hiding.
“People have been coming in because of Pokémon Go because they can sit down and have a beer while they play,” bartender Matt Lettre of Jed’s Sports Bar and Grill in Nashville said. “And because there’s Pokémons all over Jed’s.”
“This is a great way to get families involved with our services.” Grant Rosenblatt, CEO of Joyride Nashville